BACK TO ARCHIVE   CELEBRATION IN STYLE   Page 3   Casting slip is made by adding defloculents to a clay and water mix. This keeps the particles of clay in suspension using the minimum of added water. Whilst the defloculents are essential for the clay's performance, their disadvantage is that they wear away the surface of the plaster, making the mould larger. Consequently, to keep the quality high we find that we can only use each mould a maximum of 20 times to avoid the differences in sizes and lid fits and to keep the detail crisp. A great deal of our time is spent mould making. The slip is poured into the mould which, being porous, absorbs the water, leaving a clay skin or uniform thickness inside the mould. When the right thickness has been achieved the excess is poured away and the cast left to dry. As it dries it shrinks, coming away from the mould, and handles can be modelled and attached at this stage. The dry pot is then fettled, seam lines removed, edges and rims softened ready to be biscuit fired. Work in progress - silk screen printing by Karen. She says: 'Each stage is a delicate job and a potential disaster.' After glazing the pot is fired again and ready to be decorated. Most of our decoration is silk screen printed and transferred onto the pot. We make the prints ourselves. First I make a pattern fit for each piece. As the prints are flat and two dimensional and most of the pots are complex curves these have to be carefully calculated and drawn to fit the finished piece. The prints also stretch slightly on application so this has to be accommodated too. Using these as guides, black and white artwork of the pattern is drawn and made into a film positive. From this we make a silk screen and, using a hand frame, print the pattern using ceramic pigments onto special water-slide paper, A cover coat is printed over the pattern which holds the design together when the print is immersed in water and the pattern slid off and onto the pot. During the firing the cover coat burns away leaving the coloured enamels permanently fired onto the glaze. We print, apply and fire each colour separately as the registration is so minute. The edges and rims are hand painted using 22K gold and fired separately. Each piece of our dinner services goes into the kiln and is fired five or six times, so the disaster potential is enormous and the process lengthy.   Fingers crossed as Peter packs an enamel kiln     :: 1 :: 2 :: 3         HOME :: FINE CHINA :: GALLERY PRICE LIST :: ORDER :: EVENTS :: PROJECTS LINKS :: ARCHIVE         STOKESAY WARE 37 Sandbrook Road, Stoke Newington London N16 0SH, UK Telephone 020 7254 5242 International +44 20 7254 5242 email peter@stokesayware.com         Content, design & graphics copyright © Karen Griffiths 2000