In the Studio: Production of Backsplash

Christine here is a process report:  Your backsplash is etched!

The drawing was made to size of fresh rolled out clay. 

 Below is a bag of Coarse Red Clay which I am cutting to place on the slab roller.  

I used 60# of clay for all.

Above are the colors I selected thinking about your backsplash, from my shelves of commercial glazes.  

Below are the tiny #0 and #1 brushes that I will glaze with.  Three coats of each color.

 Below is my studio in my pole barn.

 And so you know what I look like ( taken a couple of years ago)

 Here is one of the three big tiles getting clay just rolled out through the slab roller.

Below the clay and canvas are prepared to be flipped upside down in order to get it on a board and move it to the drying boards.

 But first I smooth the bumpy canvas marks off the clay.

 Below is measuring and cutting one of the three large tiles and removing excess.

 Looked out the window and thought I saw a cat, butA scruffy fox was there.

Below are the edge / frame pieces.  The side ones are a hair smaller length than the top and bottom.

Below the tiles are under drying boards and weight to keep them as flat as possible.  They will be weighted for a week before glazing can start.  Glazing is the longest part of the process, tedious, slow, applying glaze between the etch lines, it takes weeks.

Below after 24 hours, and before they get too dry, the template drawings are laid carefully in place on the three large tiles.  I used that pen to press each line of the drawings onto each tiles in exactly the right place.

 Below, all the lines have to be etched, I used a bamboo skewer.

It gets pretty crumbly and must be cleaned up and all the lines carefully cleaned out. The next photos is taken from the top and looking down.

 Kind of a cool step, maybe my favorite, most exciting part of the process.
Now everything is cleaned up and back under weight for at least a few days before I can proceed. Everything will shrink about ten percent as it dries.  So far so good, things look great.
That is where we are in the process now.  Hope these pictures give you an idea of how it is going.
I will post more photos in a week or so.

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Working hard at glazing.  This is as of yesterday but I worked today also.

Here is my kiln.  I will not fire until 3 weeks after rolling out.

It has been ten days so far.

Three large tiles before installation: