In 2001 I had a helper, Kevin, by name. I decided to make a very large platter and I asked Kevin to make some slabs. He made the slabs on a bed sheet and we draped the sheet with the slabs on it over an igloo-shaped dog house. We let the slabs dry and with him on one side of the bed sheet and me on the other, we lifted the semi-dry slabs straight up.
They fell apart.
We lowered the pieces to the ground and I noticed that they were mostly pretty big. I thought we could make something of them. So we bisque fired them.
My husband, who was a contractor, said he could make a 48×48 inch board on which to mount them. Which he did. He also rounded the edges with a router.
I painted the board and painted a silhouette of a trumpet player on the board. I figured out where to glaze the slabs so that they would reflect the image of the trumpet player. I made little cubes of clay and skewered a hole through each cube. These cubes later became feet on the slabs so the slabs could be mounted onto the board.
The final result was the original trumpet player. I later named the technique Ceramic Relief.
To see more about how Mr. Jazz Sax was made click here.
.
To go back to the first page click here.