Maiolica re-creation plate.

My most recent maiolica attempt. It is so recent that it is now in a cooling kiln along with its cousins and I am anxiously waiting for them to cool to see if magic happened. It's very hard to wait, but if I try to speed the cooling up a little the risk is breakage.

I enjoyed doing this plate very much. I used primarily just one overglaze and made washes of it to get the variety of shades of blue. The one exception is a bit of blue-green overglaze on the left of the picture. 

You can see the original which was my inspiration. The original plate was from Deruta, Italy, made sometime between 1520-1525.  I would love to find more examples of blue monocolor plates. There must be some out there.... surely.

The base maiolica glaze is a non-leaded modern glaze I mixed to look as much like the original glaze that I could, only safe from lead fumes and leaching.

Wish me luck.

Maiolica Majolica 7

This time I am posting some of my majolica. The designs from Hispano-Moresque ceramics are often different than those of Italian maiolica. Lots of palmettes and pomegranate shapes, influenced by Middle Eastern pottery designs, but still overglaze on a tin glaze base.

A considerable difference is that so much of majolica was glazed with a beautiful luster and was fired in a rather complicated method of firing. There are very pricy commercial luster glazes available that contain real gold, but it would take quite a bit to cover one ceramic piece and is not at all practical. I will probably do one real gold luster piece someday.

Today I present bowls.

In this bowl, I chose one of the shapes of Hispano-Moresque bowls as well as the design.

The outside of the piece was also majolica glazed with a design from the period.

Same shape of majolica bowl, very different designs. Kind of a compass star design in the center.

Maiolica-Majolica 6

This plate is a very close reproduction of what is referred to as a tri-colored Archaic Maiolica plate. Although the original was larger. This is one of my favorites. A very time-consuming plate to do.

This pitcher is an authentic shape, and the design is also a reproduction. The original was from Orvieto, Italy and was done in the 16th Century. The original now rests in the Louvre. It turned out pretty well.