Steam punk is great! I’ve made some artefacts in my own way. Those who like this style in design they enjoy the buys below a lot. Others not. There is still space for new details and approaches. In both – glazing and mechanical elements. The best would be to experiment with glazing in wood firing kiln and get closer to what Tim See is doing. I hope to come to this point in some time. There are also a lot of examples with excelente mechanical details. But my concern is – the effort needed to make them and than serious doubt how fragile are they in use (if it can be used at all).
In fact the above pieces were not the first approach to make steam punk from me. I did in very beginning of my pottery journey with different clay and glaze. Not all successful, mainly due to its heavy weight. But still ok.
Definitely I will continue, but with a longer break. It is not something that I want to make in series. Every piece is different by definition. I have some nice ideas to include gear wheels etc, but need a bit more preparations and tooling. That is not immediate.
And finally also the double wall shaving scuttle. There is double bottom and the aside containers for hot water.
I love the simplicity of SHINOBU HASHIMOTO ceramic. It is humble and reflect the Japanese pursue for perfection in whatever they do. People tend to mix Chinees, Japanese and Korean styles while they are so much different.
The shaving set is not the only piece that I made. Below you can see also soup vase. There will be also coffee cups and others. What I miss is the wood firing kiln and production of genui glazes like shino.
I named it Whaler 87. Whaler because its “drop-like” shape and curve lines resemble a cartoon whale. It is for men, not for fish, so rather Whaler. 87 is not to celebrate my age, but rather to demonstrate its changing size, starting 7 at the heel and ending in 8 inches at the nose.
Design
Let’s try with my own design. Just for fun and for addressing my personal needs and lessons learned from the past.
Profile = 1/4
When it comes to the blade profile I enjoy both full hollows (as in Filarmonica 14) and quarter hollows (as in Reynolds). However, the appreciation for full hollow comes for smaller blades, while 1/4 seems to be very concrete and appropriate for larger razors and work the best for hard whiskers.
Size = 7/8 up to 8/8
Size is always a balance between look and weight. How it happens that Spanish use mainly 8/8 while German 5/8? I appreciate all sizes but my preference targets 7/8.
Steel = whatever but with a bit of history
There are endless and hot discussions on types of steel used for razors. Real combinations are multiplied by various ways of naming the same. Most of the voices are not based on deep understanding and practice but just guesses and wishes. I leave the selection to the maker. This is his job to balance: hardness, sharpness/keenest, ability for tampering, corrosion, polishing etc.
For me, it would be perfect to get a piece of steel with some history, not just commercial product. Something like old sword or file, or …old vehicle cardan shaft etc.
Shape = smiling profile & whale’s shape
There is no mystery in the shape of my design. It derives from Reynolds, W&B, Erik Anton, Wostenholm and others. Wide smile is the primary condition for my good shave. I tend loosing ability to shave with straight straight-razor. This is why I love Saito ones. Subsequently, I wanted to experiment and exaggerate a bit in the overall shape to resemble the whale. It translates into round endings (very safe contrary to many other modern designs) with heavy size nose. Nature is always the best source of inspiration. Beautiful animal!
Finish = back&white classic
I will also try to keep the shades patter of many whales – black on the top and light below the “water line”. All these mirror finishing comes a bit boring after bit of time. I look for a kind of rustic, if not rudimental, finish (black coating, rough edges). The scales should remain in the contract to the blade – preferably white with dark inclusion and definitely made of natural material.
Here is the theoretical design for of the blade. Paper takes all. No doubts that its execution by the actual maker will bring some important changes. Will see soon, hopefully. This is a kind of artisan product, so bringing here personal flavours is over sticking to the raw design. The finishing of the blade, scales and pins can be done in thousands of ways and materials. I start with my own idea for finishing as presented below.
The description of the first model. Scales out of moose horn (should be whale’s bone), black pins, rough top of the blade, 1/4 hollow.
Hard mockups is the way to test the shape and sizes early. Based on that I made many changes.
Progress log
24 March 2021
30 March 2021
scratching the glass
31 March 2021
moose’s horn
black washers
Almost ready
10 of March 2021 – adjusting logo for etching
16 April 2021 – pre premier FB life by Przemek
Pre premier life in FB group (autor Przemysław M)
25-28 April 2021 – etching the logo by Rafał
11-12 May 2021 – logo is now finished, a great job by Rafał Lewandowski
Finally I join the Amaco family. First firing – immediate satisfaction. It does not mean that Amaco solves all headaches. However, it is great for brushing and when fiddle repetitive results do not matter so much. WT , TC and JG are great as well but more quantity is needed for deeding. Amaco also mixes nicely. See my attempts below.
From left (the finished mugs picture):
1) Oatmeal over iron Lustre (poured over) with a plum on the rim 2) oatmeal over jasper (poured over) with a plum on the rim 3) oatmeal over blue rutile (poured over) with a plum on the neck All brushed layers made twice.
I also tried reglazing. Mugs first glased with TC Seledon Grun over sodium silicat cracked surface. Than applied A Averturine.
Amaco velvet undergalzes are suburp. These are 3 layers of yellow, orange and red sanded to reveal the texture underneath and fired at 1220C.
Mam parę hobbistycznie wytworzonych produktów ceramicznych do oddania na cele charytatywne. Jeśli ktoś chce, to proszę o wpłatę wartości przedmiotu wg uznania na rzecz organizacji pożytku publicznego, najlepiej OPP Możesz. Warunkiem jest by była to organizacja formalnie zarejestrowana i pomagająca chorym dzieciom. Do mnie proszę wysłać potwierdzenie wpłaty i blankiet inpost na gabaryt B. Nie sprzedaje. Nie udzielam gwarancji. Nie podaję ceny. Jeżeli, ktoś chce kupić miskę za określonę cenę z gwarancją to polecam np. pracownię Mruki, albo RekoGary (oba sklepy podają wyszukiwarki), albo innego ceramika.
Zdjęcia pokazują rzeczywiste wyroby z ich wadami. Światło na zdjęciach trochę zbyt ciepłe więc nieco przekłamuje. Więcej wyjaśnień było w filmie o miskach.
This time I’ve experience surprise with transparent glaze which turns into violet. The milky violet comes on left side in the flower-pot and its basis plates while glossy violet can be seen in the middle – the tankard and bowl. The same bowl can be observed in the below picture as well. Well saturated and very consistent. I suppose it the terracotta clay which pigmented the glaze. This is CJ 0497 glaze on SiO2 PF clay.
Another attempt to get crocodile glaze
Unfortunately another failure. The underglaze and glaze were laid thick on one side. Uneven shrinking caused cracking.
Spring comes with flowers
As usually the May firing is focused on flowers, flower pots, bird houses, vases. It happened that it nicely fitted to bouquet of roses given to my wife.
Once the set is fully made, there is no reason not to use it in real. See below.
My recent finish of mora-like knife based on blank from Cichy Metal Art. I was not convinced by Mora design, such ordinary and usual. at the end, my sons who bushcraft a lot convinced me. Thanks to that I discovered that this design, although not very posh, yet humble and practical. Extremely hard (68HRC) and very handy for every day use. The handle has been made from materials available at hand. So it ended in reuse of stabilized wood scales for razors and mosaic pin that I already had. The copper parts have been selected in opposition to the usual selection of thin brass bolsters. The leather sheath to large extend has been done by my son. Just to add, we do not have any professional tools at our disposal but I enjoy the end results. As you can see it is in real use, not cleaned just for photo session, this is how the knife shall be treated!
This is my fist attempt to use decals. I rather prefer rustic style in pottery and very utilitarian. I try to keep distance from any mass production products, Even the traditional pottery pieces (whether from porcelain or white clay) ornamented with very effective decals make me the feeling of low quality. Which is wrong! I know, some well known companies in England as well as in Poland (Cmielow for example) mastered the process of highest quality porcelain production with beautiful golden or colorful decals. All that is laid manually and fired at temperatures far higher than what we can achieve in home kilns. My surprise was that different cones are needed for gold and other colors. That means that the 3rd firing has to again split into cone019 and cone 017, so ineffective loads. However the end effect pays off. I very pleased to present the below pictures. Don’t be mislead, this is just one black set shot with different razors (still wonder which shall form the actual set). All decal come from Sanbao,clay is self wedged from various remainings, glaze comes from Wojtaszek (black, pigeon and wrzos plus some wood ash).
Some mugs are made from self composed clay in transparent and angobe.
Some others are cracked with sodium siliacate and then decorated with oxides (iron or cupper) and then glazed in transparent.
And regular mugs with mixed glazes.
Lathering sets and bowls
Sets of lathering bowls of different type plus brush handles or mugs.
Double-wall lathering set
Cofee cups
Trials for beads
Trial to achieve the crocodile skin effect with angobe. Failded. The bowl cracked and the angobe has been overfired. However the handle and the bottle are fully ok.
John’s Beads and John’s Beads 2, both failed to achieve the expected effects of drops or crockodile skin.
