Porcelain Grace - Meryl Ruth

BRIGHTEN YOUR SMILE

Brighten Your Smile is a ceramic teapot in the form of a toothpaste tube affixed to a toothpaste box.

This ceramic teapot is another in the Tubular Tea Series, of which Squeeze Me, Teas Me was the prototype.
The base is constructed by slab building method.
The rolled out clay slabs are dried, brushed with white underglaze, and photo silk-screened multiple times.
The teapot body and lid are slip cast. The handle is made of extruded clay.
The piece differs in significant ways from the original work in this series. The base is designed to stand in a vertical position. The handle is intended to represent extruded toothpaste. The coloration mimicks the swirl of toothpaste.
Construction sequence:
- Underglazes and silk-screen images applied.
- Bisque fired to cone 06.
- Underglaze added and clear glaze applied.
- Refired to cone 5/6.
- Multiple layers of China paints added.
- Repeated firings after each China paint layer to cone 015.
Date: 2010.
Size: 7.5" x 6.0" x 2.5".
Exhibited at Show of Hands Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.
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ENLARGED VIEWS

Enlarged view.

Enlarged view.

Enlarged view.

Enlarged view.

Enlarged view.

CREATIVE PROCESS

Initial silk-screened images of toothpaste boxes on clay slabs.

Photo silk-screening produces decorative clay slabs for use in slab building. Flat slabs are silk-screened multiple times in different directions with different amounts of ink to yield images of depth and variation.
The images are similar to those used for Squeeze Me, Teas Me, but used over and over again to produce a much more complex result. After the silk-screening is done, the templates are cut from the slab to build the toothpaste base in the form of a crushed toothpaste box.

Slabs assembled to form the toothpaste box base of the teapot.

The teapot base is built vertically in the shape of an upright ceramic toothpaste box from the preformed clay slabs that had first been photo silk-screened with several relevant images of a toothpaste box.

Toothpaste tube teapot body is created by slip casting.

The teapot body is separately constructed by slip casting to resemble a toothpaste tube.
The handle is of extruded clay fashioned to represent toothpaste extruding from the squeezed tube.

Toothpaste tube teapot body is underglazed and kiln fired.

China paints are applied to enhance coloration of toothpaste box base.

Layers of China paints are used to decorate the base of this work.
Multiple reirings are done to cone 015 to vitrify the paint layers and fuse them with the ceramic surface as each is completed.

Mulitple layers of China paints are applied, after each of which refirings are done.

After successful firing, bright coloration is applied to the toothpaste tube teapot body, lid and handle.
The piece is refired multiple times to cone 015 after each layer of China paint is applied to achieve the bright patterning.

The toothpaste tube and toothpaste box base are assembled to complete the work.

The piece is assembled by permanently affixing the base to the teapot body and thus complete the work.

DETAILED VIEWS *

A collage of detailed views.