NOIR

 

Sèvres factory tour

Accompanied with the gorgeous museum with the squeakiest floors, the complex offers factory tours as well. I had the opportunity to visit, since any excuse is a good one to visit Paris. 

The tour was in French, but by understanding ceramics and the history of French porcelain development, I could follow the tour guide. I remember before my exchange year in Columbus Ohio, I could get very tired by listening to spoken English. Now I listen to a lot of French music and it has gotten me used to the fluency. I don't speak French fluently.

So, before kaolin was discovered, the factory used soft paste porcelain. The plasticity of the imitation was a factor. Now the factory uses the development of quartz, feldspar and kaolin - porcelain.

They cast their cups with a turning motion, and since the clay has a memory, must the handle be placed so that it will turn in its place in the kiln.

Everything is made by hand and every single production phase has their own mastering professional. Even the potpourri boat is still in production and the decoration, empty spaces, are cut by hand. The Madame Pompadour flowers, which she had by bouquets, are also done by hand, petal by petal.

I got to touch a Sèvres cast cup handle! At Wedgwoods I was so Finnish that I didn't dare to ask!

At the gilding polishers' workshop I got to learn that Sèvres gold has so many carats that it needs to be polished. It is not like my Parisian gold that has approximately 24 carats, but if I heard right, it has over a hundred carats.

Unfortunately I'm so spoiled by my Wedgwood factory tour that seeing only two workshops was a petite disappointment. But a factory needs to have trade secrets, after all.

I can't believe it's chromium!

The material research I have done this time is all about chromium. I wanted to try the chromium pink glaze "Strawberries and Cream" from glazy.org. But, in order to achieve more variety, I wanted to test it excessively: 

Farest on the left should have been applied thicker since it's still very chromium green, but already shows some speckled pink. The twist in this glaze is that I did it without kaolin. 

Mid left turned out to be to matte, too dry glaze for pottery works, but is a lovely light lilac. What surprised me was the fact that it was made without whiting.

Mid right is loveliest satin matte in lilac and it was created without quartz. 

Farest on the right is my own creation since I thought that "tit." on my material library standed for tin. Nevertheless it's the base glaze with everything and 4% titanium added. It truly is my favourite, if too thin, it's a chromium khaki, but if applied heavily it just the most amazing boiling dark lilac. 

My chromium pink is a lilac. 

Ornamo Design Christmas in Porvoo

Warmly welcome to shop for yourself or to the Santa's gift basket! The opening hours for Porvoo are 10am to 4pm! Please attend also to our Facebook happening! 

www.pieceofdab.com

Update soon!

I have also started to work with my fifth solo exhibition. I don't know when it will be ready. It will be my most ambitious show this far, and I need to work hard. Background work is very important, too.

Stoke-on-Trent: Wedgwood's

We continued our trip by taxi since a very friendly barkeeper gave us the tip. The museum collection is free but you need to pay for a factory tour. Don’t worry, it’s worth a trip and the effort!

I have never seen this much of a body of work by Wedgwood before. I have seen some of his jasper ware in Vaasa, London and at Paris marche du puches, but at Wedgwood’s, there is the whole body of work! The exhibition starts with red ware, the local clay jasper trials, and the cream ware.

The exhibited archive shows the evolution of Wedgwood’s ware and shows a bit of his laboratory work as well. The amount of the tests is remarkable!

The exhibition continues with black basalt teapots together with the Portland vase, which is still in production. At the museum there are the bubbly basalts and the crackled white jasper to bring hope for the ceramicists fighting with material aspects of their works. (My current state is that weight by liter is a hoax!)

I wrote about the Portland vase for our Swedish class back in Winter, but I’ll spare you and give a short version in English: 

The original was a Roman tomb found made out of glass and is now in The British Museum. A minor drunken accident occurred and it was joined back together from pieces twice since it got broken. The latest conservation was made in the 1980's and is still exhibited. When the regency period was the style of fashion, Wedgwood saw that the neoclassicism style vases was an opportunity to show off his jasper innovation. 

At the factory tour I got to know that the Portland vase is hand thrown and decorated afterwards with delicate hand molded and joined jasper details. I got to see the many factory machines such as the glaze dryer flames and press mold machine. So many parts are still made by and such as gilding and teapot glazing, and I got to meet the people who work there. Friendly chaps and talented ladies!

Make sure to visit the tearoom for a cheap glass of French wine and see what is the year’s jasper product! There is so much more I’d like to tell you about my visit in “Stoked”-on-Trent, but I’ll see all of you booking your flights and trains already!

Stoke-on-Trent: Gladstone Pottery Museum

We took a plane to London and a train to Stoke-on-Trent. Museums are closed on Tuesdays. 

We took one stop by train to Longton to see the Gladstone kiln pipes and the Pottery Museum. It is the place where the Great Pottery Throwdown is filmed, but I personally wanted to learn from Stoke’s pottery industry. People were enormously friendly in Longton and warmly welcomed us Finns in their town. 

I can only imagine the time when in the 19th and 20th century women, men and children were employed to work in the pottery factories, at variable wages. The town was clouded by ceramic kiln smoke, volatiles and smudge. Nowadays only some of the pipes are still standing, none of them still functioning. 

Dozen

Until the early 1900’s the payment was negotiated by the ware that came ready from the kiln, but later it was counted as dozens as greenware. Dozen in plates was 10, but a dozen cups was 36 pieces. It was definitely considered as a full wareboard and by the time it needed to be made. The “old horse” was to ask for money for an advance and a “bull week” was saving some wareboards for Christmas. 

Payment went by professional standing point. Positions were stable and when learned one almost never left the spot. Mold maker men made the most money (£1,75) and the saucer maker women (85p). Children made 50p and girls even less and they worked as attendants and mold runners. The attendants were paid by the attendees and the mold runners ran the molds to the drying stove. 

The clay

The local Trent area clay fired red so it wasn’t so desirable since the fashion was the Far East white porcelain. So, the factories brought the clay all the way from Cornwall, Devon and Dorset by boats and eventually by train. 

The museum showed all the different working phases of making pottery and the whole system in running a factory. Saggar making, kiln filling, making the slur to clay, jiggering, jolleying, and decorating - to mention a few.

As an exchange

Today at our studio I was making a three part mold for a tea or coffee pitcher lid, since last year I had a measurement fail, and the lid didn't work so well. The tea or coffee pitcher stays the same, but the lid has an improvement. I was recently mentioned on Daily Herald, Boston Herald and Digital Journal that the tea of coffee pitcher is on pre-order. www.pieceofdab.com

This is what was written about me: 

Veera Tamminen’s Signature Porcelain Tea or Coffee Pitchers are Now Available For Pre-Order
The handcrafted ceramics are available for pre-order at Piece of dab.  

Helsinki-based ceramic artist and designer Veera Tamminen announced that her signature porcelain tea or coffee pitchers are now available on a pre-order basis on her online shop, Piece of dab. The products, carefully handcrafted from start to finish, highlight Tamminen’s distinctive delicate figuratif art style and organic crafting silhouette. As with most of her works, the porcelain pitchers are stunning illustrative visions transformed into functional items – combining aesthetics with practicality and utility. Whether in a buzzing art gallery or a cozy kitchen space, Tamminen’s signature porcelain tea or coffee pitcher will fit right in.  

“I make all my products by hand in small batches in my studio,” says Tamminen. “Cast, press mold, and wheel-thrown pieces are decorated with either Mishima technique or custom decals. I start by making my cast slip and my food grade glazes from the raw ingredients.”

Tamminen has a very hands-on approach to her craft. Behind each handmade piece is a series of research and refinement and a passion for creating the unique. She goes beyond the norm, exploring the boundaries of her craft and using ceramics as a multidimensional base for expressing her visions, thoughts, and feelings. Her works convey a strong artistic style and a sensitivity towards subjective moods and states of mind. 

Doing small-scale production by hand enables her to share her craft with a broader audience while keeping true to her vision as an artist. While her porcelain tea or coffee pitchers lean more toward more subtle artistry compared to her other intricate ceramic pieces, it doesn’t detract from the product’s appeal. 

In addition to her online shop, Tamminen is currently focusing on her fifth solo exhibition, following the last one in 2020, “Welcome to the real-life according to somebody else.” The fifth exhibition will showcase her evolution as an artist, designer, and ceramicist, delving into the versatility and complexity of porcelain as an art material. She has written articles regarding this topic (i.e., ceramic art), including the method for infinite sources for glaze colors. 

Explore Veera Tamminen’s collection of handcrafted products here: www.pieceofdab.com

About Veera Tamminen

Veera Tamminen is a ceramic artist, designer, and researcher from Helsinki, Finland. Her works primarily use porcelain as a medium combined with hand-drawn figurative illustrations. Tamminen’s works have been featured in several exhibits in Finland and abroad. To date, she has had four solo exhibitions and is currently preparing for her fifth one. Aside from exhibitions, Tamminen also does small-scale production for her online shop, Piece of dab. 

And why this post is a "As an exchange" is that, at our studio, I met the most amazing Taikasavi who was super happy with her new glaze. I was recommending an USB powered light box where she could take photos of her works. As an exchange she recommended me Clay Share app where she found an online class for the glazes she was so very happy about. As an exchange I recommended a damp box where the hand built or thrown objects stay damp for months. Trick is that you cast plaster on the bottom of a plastic box and keep it wet. Do not try to keep cast objects damp since the objects will melt there. This is how a super work community works.