Beautiful Steel Patina - aka rust!

Two questions I am asked frequently about my Tile Plaques are "What is the backing made of?" and "How did I get that beautiful patina?"

Well, the backing is a mild steel that I've salvaged in sheet form from a local scrap yard. I haul it home in the trunk of my car to store until I need it. (Side-note: I haven't figured out how I'll do this with a car seat now in the car? This just adds to the growing list of why I officially want a mini van now. There. I said it. My secret is out.)Anyway, this ladies and gentlemen is my "Steel Storage Area" otherwise known as the pile of sheet metal stacked up on cinder blocks outside my studio. The cinder blocks just help with drainage and keep it a bit dryer. You cant even see them in the photos.Yep, that beautiful patina I'm always asked about is All Natural! I just leave the metal outside to rust.Then when I need them, I haul the sheets inside, cut them with a plasma cutter...
And then coat the front and back each with 2 coats of satin polyurethane. Done!
Any questions? Holler at me. Or if you know of any other fun metal patinas, I'd love to hear about them.

Oh yeah, and I just listed 6 new Tile Plaques on Etsy this morning! Three of which incorporate slumped glass which I don't do too often these days.

Cheers!
Meagan

Etsy - 25% off for Spring

Well, my Etsy shop is on "vacation mode" no longer. After 6 months of maternity leave, I finally got around to adding 20 tile plaques last week. So, to celebrate Spring and this re-opening, I am offering 25% off your purchase now through April 30. Just use Coupon Code: SPRING2011

Enjoy!
Meagan

Finding Unexpected Advice

I have to admit I've been a bit frantic lately. With our first Baby due in about 5 weeks, the list of To Do's seems to be getting longer, rather than shorter. Overall, I feel I've managed to stay relatively calm and low stress.

But I found a nice, unexpected bit of advice in the Ethan Allen catalog that showed up in our mail last week... Granted, they are referring to furnishing a living room, but I instantly saw how this could apply to my life.

See, I'm planning to take a 6-month maternity leave. To do this, I'm trying to make sure the galleries I work with are well stocked and ready for the holidays and beyond. This means that I'm trying to make 6-months of work in about 8 weeks. (And finish all the projects my husband and I had started around the house, and put together a nursery.)

250 tile plaques in various stages.
I've been cutting, burning, and polyurethane-ing like crazy!

But, then"Relax. You don't have to do it all at once." Though I understand that life as I know it it about to change forever, I do not have to get everything done before Baby's born. Things will be crazy and new, but we will find our way, settle into a routine, and I will get back into the studio.

making progress...

So for me, unfortunately, posting to this blog is one of the first things to go when the list gets too long. I realize I still haven't written what I wanted to about my July residency in Montana or my more recent classes at Arrowmont and Penland (which were both great by the way!) Or a post on how I made the slab-built tumblers. Or talked about the Fall Open House at CURVE studios & garden in Asheville this weekend. But I'm doing what I can.

So, with that, I'm off to the studio. With the majority of the backings complete, it's time to switch over to making the tiles.

Cheers! And thanks for listening!

Meagan

New Plaques and Improvements

So, I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I was able to finish a record 60 plaques in just 8 studio days! And though this was definitely a rush job, the quality of the tiles was in no way compromised.

Actually, the opposite is true. I believe the plaques are getting better with each firing. I have a lot fewer “duds” – tiles that just don’t work for one reason or another. Warping seems to be under control. The patterns and line-work are stronger. And most glaze problems have been resolved.

For me, these tiles are a way to experiment with pattern, texture, and color. Because of this, even the “duds” are important. By studying them, I’m able to evaluate what works and what doesn’t; learn from my mistakes. I’m happy the success rate it up!

I’ve been making these plaques for 4 years now. People often ask how long I will continue to make new ones. And the answer is the same for all my work. I will continue to make them as long as I feel challenged creatively and I see room for growth and improvement. When I get bored or dread the process, it’s time to move on to something new.

Happy Creating!
Meagan

And We're Off!

The new Tile Plaques are on their way to CURVE studios & garden in Asheville, NC. (Finished 60 in just 8 days! That's a record for sure!)
And I'm on my way to The Clay Studio of Missoula for a one-month residency!

Wish us luck!

Meagan

Kickin' It!

Been getting kicked from all directions lately! Some exciting. Some stressful.

Felt the baby kick for the first time last week. And let me just say, that might just be one of the coolest feelings ever! Baby decided to get my attention for the first time while I was in line at the bank irritated with the teller. Guess he/she is already teaching me about patience.

Secondly, my studio work load has been kicking my butt! After the Studio Stroll in Asheville, NC earlier this month, I was almost sold out of Tile Plaques at CURVE studios & garden! I hadn’t planned on doing another set of firings before leaving for Montana, and the thought of squeezing this in on top of everything else definitely elevated my stress level.

(Cut, burn and polyurethane wood backings... check!)

So, I finally sat down and took control of my to-do list! Feeling overwhelmed with everything that needed to be done before I leave on Saturday, I divided my list up into daily tasks. This has made managing my time much more productive! Now I know I’ve got time set aside to finish the work in the studio, pack and relax with my hubby before flying out west.

(Organize to-do list.... check!)

I’ve got around 60 glazed tiles cooling in the kiln right now. The metal and wood backings are finished and the tiles should be cool enough to unload this afternoon. I’m right on schedule! Whew! It’s amazing what can be accomplished with the pressure from a deadline.

(Cut and polyurethane metal. Attach to wood backings... check!)

Ok, I’m off to yoga (ahhh!) and to run some errands while the kiln is hot.

Cheers!

Meagan

Glass - Kiln Casting and Slumping

Finished up these tile plaques this week. This series of 6" x 6" x 1" plaques incorporates kiln cast glass and slumping, so I thought I'd share a couple pictures of the glass process today.

Finished Wall Plaques

Unfired glass stacked into steel molds. The molds are lined with fiber paper so the castings wont stick. Yes, I use the same L&L ceramics kiln to fire both ceramics and fused glass, and it works beautifully! I do have separate sets of selves, and 2 different types of kiln wash (aka shelf primer) though.

Kiln castings after being fired to 17250F. Interested in my glass firing schedule?

Check it out here.
In my kiln, this firing is set to Program #5. The kiln castings after the glass has been taken out of the mold and cleaned up a bit. Each "brick" is between 1/2" to 1" thick. Slicing the cast "bricks" with a table top tile saw.
(My least favorite part of the process. So loud and messy!)But it's worth it! The colors and patterns of the glass castings are revealed after they are sliced open. They've always reminded me of geodes. Once I have the slices, they 're cut down to size with a hand held glass cutter/scoring tool. The windows are also coated with the same primer/kiln wash that is on the shelves. This allows the glass to slump through the clay opening with minimal stress and cracking on the glass.

The pre-fired, glazed tiles are loaded into the kiln upside down, with the glass covering the window opening. They are then fired to 1300oF.
This is Glass Firing Program #2 .

After firing, the kiln wash/shelf primer is cleaned off with a damp sponge and the glass is glued back in with 100% silicone adhesive.

Here's a tile without the steel backing.

Well, there's a very quick runthough of what I've been up to this week in the studio. If you have any questions about any part of this process, please just let me know. I'm happy to share info!

Cheers!

Meagan

For those of you that like to plan way in advance...
Save the Date - August 22 - 28, 2010
All Fired Up! Experiments with Glass and Clay.
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN.

Tile Plaque Variation and Process

Finished up some plaques with my newer tile style yesterday. Thought I would post a few quick pics of the process.

Sketching ideas - thinking about design, layout and composition, line, texture, mood

Tiles drying and waiting to be bisque fired.

The backs of the bisque fired tiles with glass inserts.

These clay tiles were rolled out about 3/8" thick so that I could carve a place to inset the glass for slumping. Here the glass has been fused, slumped, ground down to sit flush with the back of the tiles, and then attached with 100% silicone adhesive. (sorry, I forgot to take pictures of all of those in between steps.)

Side few of tiles showing added dimension with the slumped glass.

Finished group of Tile Plaques

The glass I used for these pieces was created the same way as my line of fused glass pendants. I hope to eventually write a post detailing that process and technique. Until then, you can see pictures here.

Thanks for finding a moment in your busy day to check in on what's been going on here.

Best,
Meagan
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Just Unloaded

I just unloaded these tiles and minis from the kiln. I spent most of the week quietly glazing, and wondering if I now had too many new glaze colors, textures, etc. It definitely too me much, much longer to brush on all the different choices.
But, at the same time I was feeling like I had option overload, I still felt like there were a few holes in my new color palette. I decided to just wait and see if the results were worth the time. And I must say, when I opened the kiln this morning, I was very happy! Here are some of the minis I finished up this week. They've started to remind me more of circus tints with the bright colors, rather than the sea urchins that originally inspired them. But I'm just going to go with it for now.
This is how the tiles will be finished and displayed. The tiles are 2" square, and this Tile Plaque is 4"x 6" and be hung horizontal or vertical. Look for it in my new Etsy Shop soon!
Well, gotta go for now.

Happy Friday!
Meagan

New Tile Style

In addition to making more tiles for my current Tile Plaque series, I started making a few new ones like this... It's a bit of a new style of design/carving for me. They are still 4" square and will be mounted on steel/wood but these will have glass fused and slumped into the tiny windows. Stay tuned for more postings and photos of the progress.

Thanks for stopping in for a quick update,
Meagan
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Back to work in 2009!

Happy 2009 to everyone out there reading! I hope your holidays were spent enjoying good food and the company of friends and family. After a whirlwind holiday tour that included stops in New Orleans, Raleigh, Asheville, and Atlanta, it's great to be back home!
And back in the studio!! On Monday, I started rolling out 1/4" slabs for more Tile Plaques, and have been cranking away. These pieces are also great studio "warm up" exercises. The design imagery can be as quick or involved as I like, and I often think of them as tiny sketches in clay. They will also be an excellent way for me to begin incorporating my new glazes.

Here are a few 4" earthenware tiles I unloaded just before we left town. All of the glazes I used are from my recent testing extravaganza, and I am very excited about the possibilities. Thank you to everyone out there reading and following along in my studio adventures.
Hope you're enjoying day 7 of the New Year! Personally, I love January! The holiday stress is behind me. And the new year is full of inspiration, hope, determination, and optimism.

Cheers to a happy and healthful 2009!
Meagan
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Clay Line Drawings

I've been working on Custom Tile Plaques orders so that they can be shipped to their new homes in time for the holidays.

Today, I thought I'd share a little of the process of creating these tiles. Though I make a fair amount of custom orders, I avoid using molds because I still want the individual handmade look to be present in each one. Instead, I have a set of paper patterns that I use as guidelines.

First, plastic wrap it laid over these patterns and traced using a permanent marker. The plastic wrap is then positioned on top of the soft clay. It helps to brush a small amount of water on the clay so the plastic wrap will stick. Using a rubber stylus, I then press down and re-trace the sharpie line until it has created a nice impression in the clay. The plastic wrap is pealed back to reveal a nice, clean line in the clay. I'll then leave the tiles flat until they are at the leather hard stage before smoothing the edges . I've also done this technique with kids, and it worked great! Just have them create a line drawing on a piece of paper, trace it onto plastic, and then trace it again onto the clay! It always seems to be a crowd pleaser.

On a personal note... This weekend my husband was able to get into the dark room (AKA our bathroom) and print some pictures from our trip out to California earlier this fall. Yay! Here they are hanging to dry in our kitchen. Thanks for taking the time to stop in. I'll be back later in the week.

Best,
Meagan

Making Progress - Steel and Glass

Yesterday was another day for multi-tasking and making lots of progress. I even finished planting some of the shrubs we purchased over the weekend from a fabulous local nursery we just found.

In the studio-
Boxed up some work that will need to get shipped out today. Yay!
Cut the steel for my tile plaques (using a small Hobart plasma cutter) Then coated them all with polyurethane. Today, they should be ready to glue to the wood backings that I prepared last week.

And I was also able to continue work on my fused glass pendants. This will be the 2nd of 3 firings. For this stage, each pendant slice gets cleaned with rubbing alcohol, and then fired with a piece of dichroic glass to give it a little pizazz.

Dichroic glass (as defined by Wikipedia) is glass containing multiple micro-layers of metal oxides which give the glass dichroic optical properties. Dichroic glass was originally developed by NASA and its contractors for use in satellite optics and spacesuit visors. It's pretty cool stuff. It reflects one color, and transmits another. Very glittery! But I think too much dichroic glass can get a bit glitzy and flashy for my taste, so I use it very intentionally.

I should also mention that I fire all my glass and clay in the same L&L ceramics kiln. "They" will tell you you cant do this, but I've had very few problems and great results. There are differences in the two types of kilns, but I've been able to work out programs that allow me to do both. This is just one of the topics I'll be covering in my workshop Glass Fusing 101 at Arrowmont later this month.









Well, I'm off to work for today. I need to work on a new artist statement and updated bio. I keep putting it off. Why are artist statements so hard to write!?!?! Any tips for making it less painful?

Thanks for checking in,
Meagan
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Muti-Tasking

My new camera was delivered this week! Whoohoo! And as excited as I was to finally get it, I did feel a little guilty opening the new box and taking everything out it its protective plastic. But its great to be able to take pictures again! Thanks to everyone who gave advice on what to look for in a camera. I ended up deciding on a Cannon PowerShot SX110IS. It will take me a while before I've figured out how to really use it.

While my glaze kiln was cooling, I was able to multi-task and get a lot of other things accomplished. I finally got around working on my glass pendants again. It was time to take the cast glass bricks over to the tile saw and slice away. Here's a before shot of the castings. They're each about 4" square and 1/2 " to 1" thick.Slicing these is absolutely my least favorite step in the process! It's loud! (even w/ earplugs) It's messy! (it's a wet tile saw, so water splashes and sprays everywhere. And along with the water comes tiny shards of glass that are being chipped away by the blade.) So it's also kinda dangerous! (Despite my best efforts, I end up having glass pieces everywhere! The floor, the counter tops, my arms, etc.) I kept thinking about how when your arms are clay-messy you can just wipe it off, but glass-messy requires a bit more finesse so as not to cut yourself during both the process and the clean-up.
But here are the slices I ended up with. This is what makes all that "torture" worth it. It's likes slicing open geodes. The colors and patterns inside are beautiful! These will get fired two more times before they're ready to become pendants.
With that step of the glass pendants accomplished, I moved on to working on the wood backings for my tile plaques. I like to try and have the wood/steel ready when the tiles come out of the kiln. For the wood, I use a plunge router to create the key hole to hang them from.
They're then burnt with a small propane torch, cut with a miter saw, and the edges are burnt as well.
Then, I apply 2 coats of satin polyurethane to protect the wood and seal the finish. Now they're ready to be glued to the back of the steel.
I'm taking 1/2 a day off tomorrow, so it might be Monday before I get around to cutting the steel. But I hope to set up my tripod so I can share some pictures with the plasma cutter.

Have a great weekend!

Meagan
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