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.

Maiolica 5

Maiolica: Now with Grotesques.

Grotesques are the misshapen animals and people that are painted on later period maiolica. Sometimes they are combinations of animals and people, sometimes a large platter is covered with a multitude of these guys. The lanky lion and prancing antelope are my first attempts. I previously didn't have a positive attitude towards grotesques, mostly because of those in sculpture and household furnishings. But I quite liked these and will be doing more.

Maiolica/Majolica, IV

 These pictures show the difference between first painting the maiolica ware, and then what it looks like after They have been fired.

Before firing, but with the glazes applied

After firing, the colors just pop!

Detail of the rim of the plate.

A soup or salad bowl before firing

The same bowl after firing

Bowl detail, the little creatures are called "Grotesques"

Maiolica-Majolica 3

Now I reached a time that I was not pleased with the way the maiolica was working for me. Painting the maiolica glazes on the maiolica base reminded me way too much of trying to paint on top of powdered chalk. I tried a few different base glazes, some of which were very difficult to work with.

In order to practice, I made many small apothecary jars like the designs of apothecary jars in historic maiolica. They hold about 2 tablespoons of spices or other things and proved very popular. The tops are rounds of linen that have been soaked in bees wax. Rather amazingly practical and useful.

These jars were made for a friend according to his directions. The designs came out very well, but the glazes were pitted. I discovered that to rectify this problem I needed to bisque fire the pottery at a much higher temperature to combat outgassing in the clay, and that has worked. Lesson learned.

This is an example of some of the other problems I had with trying to "paint on chalk". 

Maiolica-Majolica 2

The next step in maiolica I took was when I started painting the cave animals inspired by the Lascaux caves in France on my pottery. I wanted a solid background and wanted a slightly watercolor effect on the glaze painting. Maiolica gives a great surface for watercolor-like effects. Thus I worked on these pots.