Still raining

The weather has been rainy in Aizpute but I got some pictures now and things are moving along.
They still have to wait for better weather to fill up the seams between the tiles.

Here is a picture taken from Aizpute´s art school window, you can see the surrounding environment.

Thanks to Signe Pucena for the photos!

First panel up

Finally on Sunday evening the last glazing firing was set going and the first and smallest panel is up! Unfortunately it has been just raining ever since so we shall see when all of the work is done.

I unloaded the last firing on Tuesday morning and got back to home on Wednesday.
It was an intense working period towards the end so I haven´t been posting much to the blog.
Earlier I wrote that I was missing some kiln shelves. Luckily a SERDE contact, someone from Riga was kind to borrow some so that the kiln loading became much more efficient and I was able to fire everything in time.


Here the tiles of the last panel lay on the barn floor waiting. Unfortunately I didn´t get to see all the panels up on the wall but that just means I have to come back soon. I will post the pictures of the finished work soon as I get them.

The fourth and largest panel turned upside down so I can mark the tiles for the workmen.

The third panel almost done.

There was a small opening ceremony on Saturday as a part of the ĀBOĻOŠANA festivities.

It has been quite a project. I knew that when I started but I was also optimistic that it could be done. And done it got! Small set backs with the firing didn´t slow the process too much down. This is the biggest piece what I have done so far.

It would have not been possible without the support of Arts Promotion center Finland, the wonderful people of SERDE, without the help Aizputes town, my two sponsors and of course my amazing assistants Ance and Tija Ausmane. Thank you! This residency center is something special and I can really recommend experience here as a resident artist.

...

31.8.  46

1.9.   62

3.9. last bisque

4.9.   76

6.9.   81

A diagram will follow later on.

Tighten up

Light colors, glossy surfaces. In some parts you can see the color of the clay body. 

Yesterday there was finally results from the first glaze firing, another was set going. The colors are good, just what I was looking for. It will take time to get used to this glossy surface and how will it affect on the forms. I saw the town architect of Aizpute today and she liked them as well.
Tomorrow the last bisque will be fired and from that on it will be just glazing.

It is two weeks left of the residency and so far 803 tiles have been made with 15 different types,
108 of them are now glazed. There are four panels to cover, all together 16 meters. The height of the panels varies from 70 cm to 150 cm. Here is a sketch from an early stage so you can see the idea. Well at least those parts that are not made with pencil.

Today I gathered all the fired ones together, just to balance the amounts between the panels.
I haven´t counted how many of which kind have been done. In the end I don´t think that´s really  important. Now I will start to put them together as panels to their formation. There is still one bisque (about 150 tiles) not included, but the total 803 has around 40-50 tiles of extra, and I still don´t know how they glazing will go so it´s good to keep things flexible. The final panel is possible to make when everything is fired and all the pieces are there to be played around.

There is a problem with firing; not enough kiln shelves. I am doing what I can with the material available here but it is going to get tight will I make it in time. There is only one company in Latvia who deliver ceramic supplies and apparently they don´t keep much stock and ordering abroad takes time what I don´t have. I have managed to put 62 glazed ones in a firing. We´ll see the later on the week if it´s possible to loan some shelves from somewhere.

Glazing

Finally onwards with glazing; I just started to glaze with small amounts. The colors will get more perspective though quantity, after more tiles are fired. 

The first set of glazed items waiting for the kiln.

Here is a link to Kursas Laiks´s (the newspaper who was here on Wednesday) article about the project:

http://rekurzeme.diena.lv/vietejas-zinas/aizputes-novada/foto-serde-gatavo-flizes-aizputes-pilsetas-centra-laukumam-60645?cp=1

Fixed wall!

There is only one bisque firing left, but what I am really glad about is that the wall got fixed
and evened out so the tiles can be fastened later on. Without this workmanship it would have been quite impossible, so I want to thank my sponsors A-J Energobūve SIA and TAPS SIA, two local companies from Aizpute that have fixed the wall and will put the tiles up to the wall. Their support is highly appreciated!

Before the wall surfaces were quite uneven; there were depth differences up to three-four centimeters because the concrete had been casted less precisely. Also the cracks in the wall got fixed too.

Yesterday there was a reporter making a surprise visit from a newspaper from Liepaja area, it should be out tomorrow on Friday. Let´s see if I can scan the article here somehow.

803

Today the was finally the last day of the actual making of the tiles, 803 hand made! At least.
Some of the tiles got broken on the way, but that is always inevitable. It took two and half weeks and three persons and it has been intensive and long days.

Krish and Anette came to try out tile making.

There was small step back with the glaze tests. Since Serde has only one kiln,  Aizpute´s Art School was kind enough to let me to fire the test tiles in theirs. Unfortunately with this 53 year old soviet miraclec the firing process is very difficult to control, so the results were more or less boiled. I wasn´t pleased with the colors anyway so I think I need to come up with some new ideas.
The glaze base i going to be this glossy white low fire glaze where I will mix in some pigments.
I´m not so huge fan of this earthy red-brown color of the clay.

Tomorrow I will go hiking with some others for three days, we will walk from Liethuania to Latvia around 70 km, so there will be a small vacation from the project. I can really feel it in my hands that they need some rest.

First Bisque!

Of course the round top loader isn´t optimal for firing square tiles but so what.

Yes, finally today the first tiles were bisque fired.

The drying process takes much more time than I would have thought, they need to be absolutely dry.

They dry without plastics in this old barn where the air is a bit humid and temperature low so they are left there for several days and in the final step they stay in a dryer over night.

While this has been waiting to happen we have made and finished up tiles, a lot. I have been too busy to write anything here, and anyways it´s about repeating the same phases over and over again.

All I can say is all the tiles will be done by the end of the week. Amazing. Still a lot of finishing work left to do, which takes as much time as the making of them.

I try soon to post here the final plan so you can all see how it will be, and there´s a revelation coming up, wait and see.

So tomorrow finally the glazing test are next on the line. I´m so well in the schedule that it almost makes me nervous.

The first set of fired tiles.. aren´t they beautiful?

More work

Cut tiles waiting for final treatment

Yesterday it was a new record on the amount of made tiles, 99! Today wasn´t that bad either.
I couldn´t have better assistants, it would not be possible to have everything going so well and with such a speed without them. Big up to Ance and Tiia!

After the tiles have dried to skin dry, they need to be cut. Of course before the bisque they need a sponge treatment as well.

Tiles drying. Some of them are turned around so the drying keeps even, to prevent bending.

I´m not so used to work with earthenware and this clay doesn´t even have any shamot in it.
The tiles need to be apparently very dry before firing, so it might take until weekend before we get the first firing going. We´ll see.

Tile after tile

It is going to be mostly tile pressing for a while now.
Today Ance´s sister Tiia joined to help and three of us made over 90 tiles today!
Amazing speed, it is very physical work. Soon are the first ones ready for bisque firing.