The Flight of the Valkyries

Week 6

I'm considering the use of feather design elements to portray the Valkyries so I have looked at the potential to fuse these so I am conducting a test of the principle and not the materials.  In this instance I am using some saved offcuts of white Bullseye and cranberry pink powder.

I cut some thin strips of white to form the quill and shaft of the feathers and placed these into the kiln on thin fire paper; this protects the kiln shelf and also acts as a release between the glass and ceramic shelf.

I thin cut a stiff paper stencil of the feather's vanes, adding some gaps and shape for realism.  I placed the stencil over each of the shafts and sieved the powder into a thick layer and then carefully removed the stencil and avoided spillage or corruption of the shape.  It is handy to keep a fine paint brush handy to tidy up and extra powder.

The feathers were fired at as a high temperature tack fuse to ensure the powder became glassy and not granular in its texture.  There was an unexpected result as the powder started to draw away and separate from the shafts, otherwise the results were promising.

I also want to consider smaller feathers, more like little winglets, that I could use to finish off the tips that I am developing as part of my bowl design.  The test is a simple exploration of size, colour saturation and the kiln firing process influence on the shape.  I cut little triangles and covered them in a mid blue powder.  I left them as single layer  glass so they would round out when fired.

I will now have to see where my final design goes and how this test will influence the outcome.