Jazz Band — Jazz Sax

Frame is placed on the back of 48×48 inch board to reinforce it.

Cutting and sanding boards. Five boards were made for the five pieces planned for the Jazz Band: Mr. Jazz Trumpet, Mr. Jazz Trombone, Mr. Jazz Bass, Mr. Jazz Drummer, Mr Jazz Sax.

Paper image to determine placement.

Paper plates are used to determine where the clay pieces will be placed.

Holes in the feet will later have wires put through them and then holes will be drilled in the board so the wires can be used to secure the clay piece to the board.

Formed clay drying before being put in the kiln for the first firing (bisque firing).

Loading the kiln for the bisque firing. It will go to about 1400 degrees F.

Image of Mr. Jazz Sax in the process of being painted onto the board.

New feet are needed because the some of the pieces cracked during bisque firing and broke apart, so the broken pieces need feet of their own so they can later be attached to the board.

A black glaze is brushed onto each piece and a second glaze, a gray glaze, is brushed over the black glaze. This will leave the black image and will make the background glaze gray. The gray glaze is brushed over the edges of the paper image and onto the clay.

If you look closely at the large partial circle on the left below you can see that only part of the circle is painted with the gray glaze which looks slightly brown in this image. The black glaze that is under the gray glaze has not yet been fully covered and appears a light gray in the top portion of the partial circle.

Closeup of the two different glazes. They look similar when not fired but change dramatically when fired. Glaze is the consistency of thin paint and is absorbed by the bisque fired clay so it dries on the clay almost immediately.

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Glaze has been applied to all the pieces. They will be fired to about 2200 degrees F.

The fired pieces are now ready to be mounted onto the image.

The image, ready for clay to be mounted onto it. June Rosenberry, pictured here, is about 5 feet tall. The board is 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide.

Unmounted and mounted clay pieces.

Clay pieces mounted.

Holes have been drilled into the board where the wires on the clay feet will go through. Blue masking tape here shows where the edges of the triangular piece are located.

Mounted triangular shaped clay piece.

Side view of clay pieces, showing the wires that go through the clay feet and through the board.

On the back you can see the wires that hold the clay pieces in place.

The finished piece. Mr. Jazz Sax. Wall hanging in Ceramic Relief.