Ceramic 52 - Nyssa's household plate

 Sketches of wolf anatomy by J.C. Amberlyn

This plate has been on the go since I completed Vandels plate in 2013!. I started the two at the same time but Nyssa hadn't registered her device yet so I didn't want to make the plate until she had. After registration, I'd sort of lost interest in this project because it was at the time consuming central blue bits stage and I'd already done two of these. I have a very short attention span. This plate, in it's half finished form, moved house with me three times before finally ending up in Perth. I decided Nyssa's birthday was the perfect reason to finally complete this thing so I could stop worrying about scratching the underglaze and give my friend something she'll hopefully use at every future event. I like the fact she and Ro have a matching set now.

 Nyssa's banner by Lasy Elizabet Hunter.

Nyssa  device is, quarterly purpure and sable, a wolf statant and a bordure argent. I had a bit of trouble with the device as heraldic wolves tend to be a little too dog like. I was tempted to copy the wolf that Lady Elizabet had used for Nyssa's heraldic banner but I didn't think the outlines would work as well in the size I was working on. I was also worried that the underglaze wouldn't allow me to make the fine shapes I needed to do. After much googling and a number of sketches, I decided to go with a smidge of viking knot work to tie in where her Norse name.

I also received some great advice at the Laurel Prize Tourney this year which was to investigate the skeleton of any animal I plan on drawing to work out the most realistic body shapes. This was specifically for jaw lines so my badgers would stop looking like racoons but the same concept apples to any animal. I purchased Drawing Wildlife by J.C. Amberlyn. It's a great book which shows skulls and skeletons of many creatures as well as fur patterns and postures. It takes you through how to draw particular animals step by step. I found it amazingly useful!

I wanted to honour Nyssa's viking persona and have a wolf that looks more wolfy than the typical heraldic wolf so I did some sketches and practiced and practiced.

Finally, I was able to paint the plate and drop it off at the team at Glaze It for firing. Of the three plates in this series so far, I am most happy with this one! I'm also pleased that Nyssa and Rohan have matching couples plates. I don't often make sets but when I do the satisfaction is -almost- work the tedium.

Project 35 - Aneala cups

Hey there, long time no post!

I've been working on some gifties recently, so haven't been able to post progression pics or really anything until after they've been handed over. So ceramic project number 35: Aneala cups.

HRM Liaden asked me to make some items for the Baron and Baroness of Aneala who are stepping down today (this post is specifically scheduled so as not to ruin the surprise). The Baron and Baroness are Kilic ibn Sungur ibn al-Kazganci al-Turhani   and   Branwen of Werchesvorde. Given they're on the opposite side of the country (it'd take me at least two days to drive there), I don't really know these folk. So I turned to the trusty internets. (turns out they're both Laurels - eep)

First up I googled Branwen of Werchesvorde. From the Lochac Laurels website "Member for roughly 25 years, Current Baroness of the Barony of Aneala. Master Rank in the College of Scribes, holds Scribal classes in corrupting novice scribes. Is married to the wonderful Dede (Master) Kilic who has in turn corrupted her into Middle Eastern culture. Master Rank in the Lochac Cook’s Guild.

Her Excellency Baroness Mistress Branwen is highly active in the scribal arts, and has interests in Middle-Eastern culture and pavilion-making, textiles as in weaving, dyeing and printing, learning embroidery, leatherworking, glass bead making."

Generic middle eastern - perhaps I could make some more of the lovely Iranian things I've been contemplating?

To see if I could get something more specific I googled Kilic and happily I found a bunch of information on his persona. From the Aneala website: "Kilic ibn Sungur ibn al-Kazganci al-Turhani is a Turkic nomad from the Early 13th Century. Kilic was bought from his parents at market in Samarkand and raised as a Ghulam or slave soldier. He served his master well and when his master passed away took service with a number of different rulers, warrior lords and merchants particularly in the unsettled regions of Rum. Like any good nomad he has become a jack of all trades and has tried his hand at various crafts including woodwork, leatherwork, metalwork, armouring, tent making, cooking and hats – definitely likes hats."

And from the Lochal Laurel website " Kilic is a 13th centruy ghulam serving one of the lesser Amirs in the Artuqid empire. He divides his time between the court of one of the beglerbegs and various skirmishes and campaigns. He prefers the latter as he considers the courtly life to be for those who have lost the will to live. At the moment he is looking to acquire some land and settle down, although not too settled. He knows more than is humanly safe about all things Middle Eastern and gets accused of being a walking reference library at least once a week."

I knew Kilic didn't represent any of the ceramic work I'd done so far so I started researching Seljuk and Artuqid. From the very short article on Wikipedia (yes, I know that's not real research), I determined that Kilic would have originated from the Harput branch (later in period. I then started researching 13th century Turkish ceramics with a vengeance and landed on the work originating from Port St Symeon.

Ceramic from Port St Symeon. Victoria and Albert Museum. C.299-1937

This bowl is lovely and is perfect for Kiric's persona there are but two problems. One; I had a rather limited project time, so carving two bowls like this before glazing wouldn't be viable. It'd be totally easy if I made my own bisque, but I don't, yet. Problem two; Alex the Potter already makes this style of ceramic and I don't want to be stepping on his toes. So, that put a stop to items that'd suit Kiric.

So I was stuck. Her Majesty originally wanted a matched set for each of the B&B's. Given I'm organising an event and attending badger retreat, I don't have that sort of time. For the Kilic and Branwen I decided to go with the cups that I've been doing lately. They're perfect for tea and while may not match their current feasting kit, will come in handy for longer events. I decided to go with something I know they'd like - their own heraldry. I've documented heraldry on cups for later periods and more western locals. Given that I'm turning away from a 100% period piece, I decided to do a symbolic piece.

I downloaded their heraldry from the Lochac Roll of Arms (Thanks Master William!) and set about making the cups. I wanted the heraldry to take up as much of the space of possible so used the same shield template I had for Aliette's cup. I added some swan supports (for Aneala / Western Australia) and some trailing acanthus leaves. I had considered having the swans wearing baronial coronets around their necks, but thought that wouldn't quite work.

Branwen's heraldry: Per pale azure and gules,a raven within an annulet argent.	Kirik's heraldry: Sable, a sheaf of five swords argent within aorle Or.
Branwen's cup with swan supporters at base. The acanthus are counterchanged so they retain contrast with the body of the shield.

 A slightly blurry image of the two cups.

I'm rather happy with how these cups turned out even if the backs are blank. There will be no mistaking who owns these and even though they aren't middle eastern, I hope their recipients are pleased with them.

Plate 10 - Vandels plate fired!

Figure 1: The center of Vandal's plate with his device, Quarterly sable and purpure, a mascle and a bordure argent. So simple, so effective, so hard to ensure it's symmetrical.

This plate has only been at Glazeit for three weeks waiting for me to collect it but I present plate no. 10, Vandal's household plate in all it's baked glory.

 

Figure 2: The complete, fired plate - finally!

You can see the limbs of the rising sun are not evenly coloured, again. I had thought this problem with my household plate was due to the fact it was my first. I was extra diligent with ensuring this plate had the requisite three even coats but it appears that I didn't succeed. I don't want to put more than three layers on as I suspect that underglaze that is too thick might flake off. I think I'll avoid large single colour areas for now until I have a solution.

Squeezie bottles

Even though I was working with a known design I got the chance to try something new for this plate. Sigel (sp?) of Glazeit introduced me to squeezie bottles of glaze. Like silk paints they have a thin nozzle and allow you to make thin-ish lines and dots. I used them for all the blue background fill sections (Fig 3). You can see the spirals aren't as smooth as they were on my plate as I can only do a single run and my hand isn't that steady in movement and strength of squeeze. I also used the squeeze bottles to do the squids (for want of a better term). The smoothness of the pigment isn't that good when you look at the head of the squid. This method clearly only works for lines and dots.

It is ALOT less time consuming than outlining each spiral three times. Oh, how I wish I knew of thise technique when I did Gab's and Stanzi's plates.Though, I'm happy with the neatness on them, and probably wouldn't have been as happy with the squeeze bottle results. I probably wouldn't have the wrist strength back then either to complete a whole plate.

Figure 3: Close up (slightly blurry, sorry) of the blue background fill.

For the first in this set (and my first ceramic experiment) go here.

1st Plate

 Isn’t it pretty?

Motifs and decoration:

I created this plate partly for the Winterfeast event. The theory was that I’d make one for each of the household with their device in the centre. Unfortunately only Rohan has a registered device and since he lives with me, he can paint his own! I’ll get to the rest, they’re just not at the top of the list currently. The badge for Exortis Solaris (our household) is a eight pointed star with NE, SE, SW and NW points being curved, i.e. a rising sun. Over this is a sword. I used figure 1 as my main inspiration and changed some of the arms of the star to be straight.

Figure 1: Dish, made in Triana, Spain, 1525-1550, tin-glazed earthenware with lustre decoration (V&A)

The back fill is not an exact replication as I’m still developing my skill with the brush. The dots and line work came out well however the floral section isn’t true to form and looks sparse on my plate.

For the inner band I took inspiration from another dish made in Triana (Figure 2). The band on the first plate sort of looks like calligraphy and I’d prefer not to have random things I don’t understand written on my work. Also, I prefer the look of the band on the second plate.

Figure 2: Inner Band decoration from a dish, made in Triana, Spain, 1525-1550, tin-glazed earthenware with lustre decoration

Colours:

Close inspection of my 1^st plate will show some streaky brown below the colours. Most of the 16^th cenurary Spanish plates I’ve examined are in glazed in earth tones. This is probably due to availability. The porcelain is also a creamy colour. two theories for this: darkening and discolouration over time or the original clay wasn’t as white as the items available to me. I suspect it’s a combination of the two. It’s going to be hard to tell until I find a broken or chipped image which’ll reveal the clay underneath. To replicate the tan stain I wiped the plate down with tan glaze (no. 4). It wasn’t very successful as you can see from Figure 3, the back of the plate, the glaze is very streaky. In future I’ll skip this step.

I was trying to get the right blue and yellow tones from the Spanish (?) Tazza previously undocumented. The blue has turned out wonderfully while the yellow remains splodgy. I think this is the result of covering large areas with paint. By the third coat you can’t tell if the brush is transferring glaze or just wetting the existing glaze. All in all, happy with the result and would love to see a full table setting for my household like this.

Figure 3: The back of my plate showing the streaky underglaze.