Maine College of Art Ceramic Majors will exhibit their work in the Free Street Gallery from December 2 through December 11. An opening reception is planned for Thursday, December 1 from 5pm to 7pm. This is an annual exhibition offering the public a chance to view the work of students who will graduate in May 2011 with a BFA in Ceramics.
Featured at right: Mug by Ekka Naigle
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MECA ceramics professors Lucy Breslin and Mark Johnson will be featured guest artists for a summer session at the Watershed Center for The Ceramic Arts in North Edgecomb, Maine. Watershed features an internationally known summer residency program that attracts artists interested in using clay as their primary material.
The center brings together a diverse group of artists to live and work in a supportive, creative environment.
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Valladolid City Council promotes and sponsors the seventeenth edition of Ceramics Competition Valladolid City. IV International Meeting, the deadline for submission of documentation for entries is October 31.
The jury, composed of three personalities from the worlds of art and ceramics, which will be announced after making public his decision, make a selection of participants, which should send the parts during the month of November. The prize, worth 5,000 euros, together with the Special Jury Mentions, will fail during the month of December. Subsequently, an exhibition at the Municipal Exhibition Hall Revilla, to make known to the public and the media the result.
To get the complete rules, contact the organization:
VALLADOLID CERAMIC TILE ASSOCIATION
PO Box, 359
47080 Valladolid
Tel: 627 959 558
e-mail: asociacion@acevaceramica.com
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For nine months, from October 2011 to June 2012, Yukiko Murata teach a course devoted to deepen their knowledge and use of porcelain will be structured on a thematic session per month.
On Thursday September 22 at 10:00 am and 20:00 pm, there will be an ongoing presentation of Yukiko Murata and Cortiella Rosa, professor and coordinator respectively. The nine thematic sessions have the following contents: Read More…
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On Friday, September 23, opens at the Corporation Cultural Las Condes, northeast of Santiago de Chile, the sixteenth edition of the Ceramic Tiles, which presents the work of dozens of Chilean ceramics.
The Association of stoneware and the Corporation Cultural de las Condes organize this stoneware Fair to be held in the front yard of the corporation in two dates, the first will be on 23, 24 and 25 September and the second during December. This fair has been held since 1996 and brings together various potters and workshops, Chile and other countries.
16 ª Feria del Gres Chileno
Lal Counts 2011
Chile
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The pottery museum Paco Tito, Ubeda, offers this course of traditional pottery and modeling, which will be out for nine months, the classes will be in the afternoon, two days a week, with a call for only eight seats. Read More…
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Materials :
The main raw material is clay that is achieved in some quarries close to the communities of potters, there are several different types and compositions that will indicate the quality of products, the most common is the red clay that is found in Most of Peru. In cities, the artisans buy clay intermediaries by bringing truckloads of nearby quarries or clay made that offer specialized companies.
To the best qualities of clay is combined with other materials and especially with calcareous sand (silica), the chamotte (remains of the pottery, etc.). In some places using other aggregates such as the Shapiro adding the ash made from bark of a tree called “apacharama” to give greater strength to the clay against the cochura.
Production Process :
The production process of different types of ceramic products and different styles, differs slightly from one another. Try to describe each step indicating the differences between the two styles.
Selection: The clay material is selected separating impurities visible crumbles into small pieces. Sometimes it makes a grinding mill and make it easy for its dissolution.
Preparation of clay: The clay is dissolved in water and added some components, as is the case, then beat the mixture to homogenize.
The diluted pulp is passed through a fine sieve to remove pellets and impurities.
Pulp drying liquid is placed in dryers to remove water by evaporation at room temperature and get the dough to form. The drying beds are red brick that goes into the ground. The paste is kept covered with polythene bags, in some places it is left to mature for several days before use.
The extruded paste is obtained through various methods to remove air bubbles, in some cases it is kneaded by hand or rollers and others were compressed into a pasta extruder being used.
Molding: modeling has different variants depending on location, tradition, technology, etc..
Shaped or sausage rolls (Columbus): The classical and most primitive form of shaping the articles of pottery, is to make rolls of clay with a suitable thickness which will form the basis of the vessel and then grows edges, this is done with the fingers to give an optimal thickness of the vessel according to the size of it.
Palette: A technique used in some regions, especially in northern Peru. Is to shape the vessel being beaten with a paddle. Is the initial coils of clay, then maintained as a stand liza stones on the inside is being beaten with a wooden paddle from the outside, until the desired shape.
Modeling Hand: Generally used by expert craftsmen to make unique and artistic products. The form is used solely by hand ESTEC and carving knives.
Casting: A technique used to make utilitarian items of uniform and smooth finish or decorative items repetitive. The plaster mold is made by the same artisans. There are variations according to the consistency of clay.
The first is the technique of pressing, dry pasta is used clay is filled all the folds on both sides of the mold and then pressed the two sides together, then the mold is removed to make it dry.
The second is the technique of casting or “collage”, it is used in pasta liquid clay, in this case first unite and push the two sides of the mold, then filled a hole at the top the pasta liquid, is calculated thickness acquired and empties the remaining pasta. Let it dry and then removed from the mold.
Turning: This is the most widely used technique for circular items such as dishes, pots, vases, cups, mugs, etc.. Using a tool called a lathe, which is a metal disk rotating at a certain speed, the craft will give way to exploiting this article focuses on the disc requires quite proficient in their fingers to calculate the thickness and shape of the article .
Other techniques such as those used in Rachi (Cuzco) where craftsmen shape the dishes based on another dish, there are other more rudimentary and more tech, but are less used.
The preliminary finish finished pieces but not dry or medium dry (a “leather”) is to finish a preliminary passing a sponge, refining the defective parts, remove the mold in some cases are holes, doors, decorations or carving decorative figures, etc. in the case of articles with facts about the parts are returned.
Drying the shaped pieces are dried in the atmosphere, in the shade, about 3 to 4 days depending on the humidity and the size of the piece. The workshops newer dryers are used based on hot air.
The polished pieces were dried lijan for a fine finish and close the pores. This process is not mandatory in all cases.
Cochura: The process of cooking is also called cochura which gives the degree of technical ceramics, such as terracotta, pottery and ceramic itself, according to the temperature reached in the burning and the oven used.
There are basically three types of ovens: wood-fired oven, gas ovens and electric ovens.
Wood stove: These ovens made of adobe (earth blocks) or brick in cylindrical or square, has a door at the bottom for feeding firewood. The pieces are placed inside the oven using dry media such as rods, corrugated iron, then turn the wood into the lower leg and pokes the temperature, the burning time is approximately 2 hours and reached temperatures up to 850-900 degrees. Items that are burned are basically decorative.
Oven gas ovens are made of refractory materials (bricks and asbestos loose) inside which there are gas burners. In these furnaces that reach temperatures up to 900-1000 degrees is even higher. Burning decorative and utilitarian.
Oven: kilns are more sophisticated and is used for items such as high temperature ceramic tableware and other glass in these furnaces can reach 1100 to 1180 degrees of temperature.
In some places, such as the Shipibo in the Amazon jungle, the objects are burned with fuel to the environment, do not use any type of furnace, in this case the temperatures reached are low compared with those achieved in the furnaces camera.
In all cases there is a pre-heating stage and then burned itself. In the gas and electric furnaces are used pyrometers or thermostat devices to find the end of cooking, which is indicated by the temperature reached.
The product obtained is the “cake”, which is the piece but not burned decorating.
Items requiring a second glazes burning in an oven after being decorated and glazed.
Scenery: The decor also has different variations depending on the type of product.
Painting cold: The items are hand decorated with figures of various reasons. As for the pigments are the natural, which are usually land and stone powder of different colors, or artificial or synthetic.
Andalusia paint oven: mineral pigments are used to withstand high temperatures and make your final color after the second burn, the final color depends on the time and the temperature reached.
Texture: The textures are available in different forms, some wrapped with a piece of jute when fresh, the passing over a brush, or inject a strong flow of fine sand, depending on their skill, the artisan can achieve results implausible. The texture is always fresh and before the first burn.
Sizes: In this case the motives or figures are carved into the object when it is half dry (state leather) using punches or burins.
Smoking: In the same furnace is passed a stream of black smoke, which is achieved by burning green leaves of plants like mango, paper or rags, black smoke is impregnated on the surface of the ceramic giving an artistic aspect.
Finishing: Describe some techniques used by artisans to give the final finish to their work.
Bruno: The pieces, usually painted with natural pigments and minerals, smoked, and some other types of decoration are polished using abrasives, used in many pieces of polished stone with which they rub the surface to achieve a natural glow .
Waxing: This event is passed a special layer of wax on the object and rubbed with a cloth for a glossy finish.
Coating: The coating used to waterproof and make transparent the object brightness, the Shipibo use a plant called sealing varnish.
Enamel: For items of high temperature is passed from one layer of enamel vitrificador a second and then burned in an oven with a glaze finish. When using white enamel decoration is made on the enamel, transparent enamel is used if it is already decorated on the article.
Waterproofing: In the case of vases and pots of impermeability is achieved by pursuing any waterproofing resin or enamel vitrificador, in the latter case you have to do a second burn.
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Ranji Vaidyanathan
Director, New Product Development Center(NPDC) at Oklahoma State University
Currently working at
Herrington Professor in Advanced Materials, Director, New Product Development Center at
Helmerich Research Center, Oklahoma State University
Past
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BAE Systems and the Office of Naval Research have jointly developed a new type of artificial bone capable of supporting new bone growth and simultaneously porous enough to be absorbed by the body.
In current orthopedic implant materials, the affected bone is in danger of becoming too weak before substantial mass loss of the implant. With use of current materials such as copolymerized polylactic and polyglycolic acids (PLA/PGA) as bone fillers, patients may find bones are too weak to carry any
load long before significant amounts of bone have grown to replace the eroded prosthesis .
The ceramic coated biocompatible plastic would be broken down over the next 18 months by the body after bone cells had filled the pores in the ceramic. All that would remain of the implant would be some of the original polymer core encased in sturdy bone tissue.
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