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Bleuette Part 6 – Setting Eyes and Assembly
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We started this week with the heads ready for eye setting, teeth setting and the eyelashes get applied. |
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The putty has to dry before you can attach the head to a body. The eyes must be dry before setting the eyelashes. |
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Time to assemble the little dolls. Always line the joints with leather or moleskin so the porcelain does not squeak when you move the legs/arms. |
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This was the last week of making this batch. The kids are happy to be here and mama is glad to go on vacation! |
Continue reading Bleuette Part 6 – Setting Eyes and Assembly
Bleuette Part 5 – Making a Porcelain Doll
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This week started with High Firing the clay into porcelain. You should always use witness cones to make sure your kiln is firing properly. It will go to some 2800 degrees, and take 12 hours or more to complete. You must wait for the kiln to cool down completely before opening or you will get thermal shock and your pieces will crack up. Make sure your sensing rod is covered with enough high fire wash as to not get your cone stuck in the mechanism. This can lead to a mess, always know how long your kiln takes to fire, just in case you have to shut it off. You can always re fire, but once it is over fired it is ruined, you cannot fix that. Always be home when you do fire. |
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Then we sand the porcelain smooth. So your paint glides on. |
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China painting is done in steps. It will take a total of 4 or 5 firings to complete the heads. There are several methods to painting, everyone has what works for them. |
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I have studied with Jean Nordquist, Kristin (Wheeler)Thor, and Karin Buttigieg to name a few, they each have their own style and technique. Each one has imparted ways of china painting that has helped make me a better painter; along with practice, that is all it takes. Kristin was told by Mildred Seeley to “make them pretty”.
Jean Nordquist believes in painting the overall wash last, not first like others teach. This is helpful at times, and Karin taught architecture, structure, and balance. They all taught shading and spacing. How to build color to bring life to the doll. This is what it takes to make a beautiful piece of art, you are not just “painting a doll”. |
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After each firing you do another part of the face and pieces you are doing with them, after 4 or 5 firings the pieces will be done and you can now use them, get them assembled, set the eyes, and then dress the dolls. |
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Next time I will show the assembly of the little doll, and the teeth and eyes for Rosette will be in and she will have a body and hair. That is the day she will have her birthday, and we will have a party! Until then have a wonderful summer, Fran. |
Bleuette Part 3 – Cleaning the Greenware
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This week we start the cleaning process, these are all the pieces I poured and soft fired.
One of the main reason to soft fire greenware is that the particles are heavier and will not be as irritating to your lungs. Also when the greenware is not soft fired it is very easily scratched. When it is soft fired it does not scratch as easily. |
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Use a mask, this is a clay and the particles will stay in your lungs until you die, so do not breathe in the dust! Do not drink anything the dust gets into. Keep your water in a sealed glass, an adult sippy cup! |
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These are the tools to clean up the greenware. Always use a new blade for each piece, your cleaning will be easier on your hands and it will clean up faster with less damage to the piece. |
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There are several ways to clean: dry, wet or a combo of both. I do a combo, cutting eyes is great wet, but they cut like butter so if you have a heavy hand your gonna mess it up. Always know your own strength and how hard you really do press down. On the seams wet is good, but if you work up a paste and do not wash it off, you will not know this until it is dry. So always wait until the greenware is dry and reinspect it before high firing. |
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You must finish the eye cuts, clean off the seams, open the mouth and fit for teeth. Also clean the teeth to fit the head it is going into. Fire both in the same high fire (but not in the head).
Always have the eyes that you are going to use in her, so your eye sockets are cleaned to that pair of eyes, that way they fit when the high fire is completed. The head will shrink about 20% after the high fire and if your eye cuts are off, they will be more off and sometimes nothing can be done and you have to throw it away. |
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Always take your time in cleaning. It is a long slow process but very important. If you do not have the eyes cut properly you will struggle to get your lashes on. If your eye is opened too much your eyebrows will be off and not on the brow bone area, or placed just a tad to high and she has that surprised look like she stuck her finger in an electric socket! |
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Use a magnifier at all times to make sure you have a clean surface no pin holes or scratches.
That is all for this week. So until next week have a great one! |
Bleuette Part 2 – Soft Firing the Greenware
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Week 2. Now comes the slow and painless part, soft firing. After pouring for about 7 days the greenware will air dry for a few days, we are very wet here, rain daily, so it has to air dry a few extra days the basement is at 75% humidity. That is down 10 points since I stopped pouring molds, but still wet, we want 40. |
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This is the 1st batch to get soft fired to a cone 018 in the kiln. Depending on how much you pour daily, is how many soft firings you will have. You can pour more then the kiln I own can hold, so I try to keep it to a load a day for both. I have two doll kilns and 1 studio size. I cannot fill the studio one by myself so I have one doll kiln set to high fire and the other to china paint 018 firing, this cuts down on maintenance and keeps both working a few times longer before maintenance is required. |
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This is the kiln loaded up. |
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This is the kiln firing. You could fire twice a day if you got an early start, but it is hard on the kiln and better to fire only once a day. That is how I was taught. |
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This is where to put the molds after they dry for a few days. When things are this wet you need to let them sit for a few days, then when they are dry store them in a dry place with pour side down. My room has several spaces to hold all the ones I have acquired all these years. you need to leave some space for air to circulate, I like a 1/2″. |
This is all that will get done for this week, on these dolls. I will be making shoes and boots for Bleuette, and nursing my bronchitics!
Next week I will start to clean greenware for the high firing process of turning clay into porcelain!
Continue reading Bleuette Part 2 – Soft Firing the Greenware
Bleuette part 1-pouring the molds
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From the very beginning, conception as I call it, you mix the porcelain slip, then strain it, so no particles get into it, and ruin your doll’s face. |
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Then you pour the slip into the molds and wait about 3 minutes, then drain the mold, and let it set up for an hour or so. |
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Then you open the mold and cut the eyes out, if you want earrings now is when you make the little holes in the ears. You also open the back of the head, and any other openings you may want. |
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Then the pieces have to sit out in the open air for 3 or 5 days depending on the weather, if it is raining daily it takes longer for the porcelain to dry. |
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After it is dry you need to soft fire it in the kiln. This is a china firing of 018, so the piece is a little sturdier to clean.
You can only pour molds once a day. I need 6 heads, so If all goes right and the end of a week I will have what I need. |
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But as we all know, not all things go as planned, as you can see I dropped a piece, the mold took out a piece when I opened it to soon, and the last mistake was a bad emptying and the head pulled away from the mold before it set up enough to be fully molded. That means if I still need 6 I have to pour an extra day for the mistakes. |
For this week this is all that will get done.
So for this week that is it, I will be cleaning the green ware next week and will post photo’s of that process.