You may be familiar with painting a piece in bisque.
In fact that is the only stage in which you can paint in ceramics.
Lets start at the beginning shall we.
To begin a piece you start with slip.
Its like liquid clay.
The slip is poured into a mold.
A mold is like a "pattern".
The slip forms to the mold and after the slip dries
it takes the solid shape of the mold.
It is then removed from the mold.
This stage is known as leather hard.
The piece continues to dry for several hours to days
depending on the size and shape of the piece.
Now that our piece is complety dry it is in the
greenware stage.
Greenware is very fragile so be careful!
When your looking at a piece in greenware you
see all kinds of seams and imperfections.
Thats perfectly normal.
Now its time to clean your piece.
We have a special tool for that job.
Its called the cleaning tool.
Its a double ended knife, one side is a triangle shape
and the other is rounded.
After the cleaning tood we use a scrubber.
Its the emory board of ceramics.
Final step is to use a damp sponge and
smooth out the edges.
Now its ready for its first firing.
We fire in a kiln.
The piece takes several hours to "cook" in a kiln.
And then several more hours to cool.
And then,
Voila
Bisque
Now you know.
So what are you waiting for?
Go show the world your stuff and paint a piece today!
