DECORATING DRAGONS (2) Painting pottery.
ca: DECORACIÓ DRACS (2) Pintant cerànica.
es: DECORACIÓN DRAGONES (2) Pintando cerámica.
The dragon: is made out of white clay, slip molded and fired at 980º C then decorated with colors. The painters first put the shades in gray round the texture of the skin, the light green on the feet and nose, then yellow and orange. The last colors to be painted are the spots of black, red, green and blue and afterwards it is signed underneath, between the claws. It is designed so that the bottom part, where the firm’s trademark is, is slightly raised so it is not touched when being cleaned.
To vitrify the colors each piece has to be covered with a transparent glaze, which is prepared in a large bowl; the dragon is placed the right way up on your opened hand and submerged into the glaze completely covering it. You take out your hand and move the dragon onto the electric glaze cleaner, which turns and cleans the glaze off the underneath part of the dragon’s feet.
The kiln is gradually filled up and then fired up to 980º C. There are twenty illustrations that are in the order of working, the last two are the signature on the underneath part and a close-up of the finished dragon.
Photos were taken in the workshop of Sot and is the work of Jordi Salvador: www.ceramicasot.com
This subject has two sections, this and: Casting – Dragons – Stage (1) Pottery.
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