Testing plant imprints
For some time, I’ve been creating tiles and pots which involve imprinting clay with actual plants. In particular, I’m taken with the formation of ferns as they offer intricate patters whilst being robust enough to stand up to the force of impressing them into the clay surface.
Imprinting the plants into clay do not pose a problem, however at the glazing stage, finding the proper finish to do the pattern justice is challenging.
I’ve found that using a traditional glaze mutes the delicate fern imprint. To combat this, I’ve been working with oxide washes which have worked really nicely to highlight the relief of the plant imprints.
Interested to see whether this will bleed through glaze, I have prepared a collection of these circular discs, all washed with red iron oxide then covered in a thin layer of glaze.
I really like the raw finish of the simple oxide, so if the glazes work, it will be a bonus. Otherwise, I’ll enjoy working with the rich browns of red iron oxide as we see in this photo.
