See Belgów the multilayered storage for shaving soap. The idea comes from one of the colleagues from Polish traditional shaving forum. The use case scenario is obvious for those who are in the traditional shaving – we’ve got definitely more that one soap at a time.
I have not seen any similiar thing in the past. So the idea maker is worth encoding into the name of the artifact.
C930 @1250C with WJ11401 glossy black and WT Weiss.
Nowadays we are all surrounded by low cost, poor quality, usual things. I would dare to say, that situation is even worse than a century ago when, on average, people could afford less. Less did not necessarily mean worse.
But to the point…. we tent to think that all ceramics, whether clay or porcelain is delicate and cracks on every occasion. We don’t know that all that reservations are deepened by use of low cost materials and low firing (which is also a cost factor).
Here is a fall test of shaving brash handle to a concrete floor. Some emotions, from horror to joy.
This is my first nerikomi. Costs a lot of efforts but the results pay off. Personally I would prefer to keep it unglazed or satin finish. Here is the version with glossy transparent glaze. There are … if I remember well… 6 colors: red, ochra, blue, violet, black and white of course.
To keep the handle light, there is an empty compartment inside. Fired at 1250C.
Failures are failures. What to say more… important is it to learn from them.
The most recent ones are as follows.
The below nice agateware shaving bell changed its geometry in firing. My hypothesis is thatthe root causes are:
The following one is very similiar. Both pieces do not fit each other anymore. Will have to be used separately.
The box below suffers again from high firing of mixed body with wrong support in the kiln – the lid is badly deformated. After bisque it was a perfect fit.
This nice box cannot be opened. The glaze made both parts sticking each other, hopefully not for ever.
Recently someone said that traditional shaving is extremely inspiring. Yes indeed, it inspires me in a completely different area – pottery.
There are various types of shaving mugs,lathering bowls, scuttles etc. I tried them all except the “Moss” scuttle (mug with double bottom and walls keeping warm water in between). In my perception it is not practical for home use. It would be excellent for barbers who reuse it often in a day. It is also hard for throwing on the pottery wheel – feasible but hard. I suppose that many makers develop them on molds.
Long time ago, someone send me a request to make the below presented, very strange mug for shaving. That was an old porcelain item sourced from ebay.
But the proportions could not work for lathering. Then I forgot all the story. However, I used to watch Simon Leach throwing his mugs and tankards. One day he demonstrated a regular butter bell. Soon, following Simon, I made it formyself, as a first pot from “manual” kicking wheel.
I made a number of shaving mugs and bowls, but was not pleased. Too much space taken on the shelf by all these AS, bowl and shaving cream/soap boxes. Most of all I took them not that practical for myself. I’m not saying that they are wrong in general – for many users they may come perfect. But I kept on seeking something different. Therefore ended in lathering again straight on the face.
The illumination came when driving, on my way to work. Why not to merge the soap box and scuttle with a landing place for the brush? That would save space and create space for making nicely matching set of shaving accessories. Butter bell (called also French butter dish) in not known in my country but still used in US. Let’s put all together.
As always showing it in action says more about how it works than a page of text. See the below video clip.
The above photo shows the result of the first attempt. Not bad? It is worth noticing that the whole idea is that the soap sticks inside the bell, can be put upside down, so the remaining water do not stay inside. The second part of the scuttle is used for lathering. It can be used as a lid for the bell part or other way round. Up to your preferences. On both, bell and scuttle, there is landing space for the brush on the bottom. It is still too shallow and will be improved on future releases. See the below video show.
Next, I made more of them trying to master the shape, usability and look. Here is one of them. Fresh new, but I have used it already and will be using it for daily shaving. Actualy, the brush is in daily use already for months.
Some people say that this is a new idea in traditional shaving. I cannot confirm, but believe or not – I have never seen it before. Potters may want to reproduce it. Yes, for sure. I cannot forbid it. As I followed Simon, others may follow this idea in his/her own pottery studio. However if you enjoy it please mention me…
Almost a year ago a strange idea came to my mind – to make razor scales out of porcelain. I have never seen anything similiar before, whether from porcelain, marble or modified stones. Myself, I really enjoy porcelain look and touch, it smoothness and noble experience.
From very beginning it appeared as almost impossible, but the same time I took as a challenge and driver for experimentation. It is not only about the risk of cracking but most of all shrinking. Shrinking means unpredictability regarding the size and shape. Obviously, in the industrial manufacturing processes (e.g. bathroom tiles) it is properly designed, tested and different technology is used (pressure molds, almost dry body). I’m just an amator and ceramics is my hobby, not even source of additional income.
But some bravery and persistency brings results.
My goal is to make a shaving set, composed of brush, scull, AF bottle and razor. Here is the starting point – the brush which I made earlier this year. In fact this is my first agateware. From very beginning it became may daily shaving tool.
On 21st ofNovember 2018 I rolled and cut out the scales. I decided to assume 0,84 shrinking ratio based on some observations from past. The main uncertainty was about how the shape affects shrinking in different dimentions. For drying process, I put some little weight on it. Later came to conclusions that I was over hesitant, it should have been much heavier load.
At the end of November I fired it to bisque. To my surprise and satisfaction it did not bend. Then much time was spent on shaping it and polishing. The most time consuming, stressfuland really tedious part was to drill the wholes for rivets. Hardness of the material and risk of cracking resulted in 1.5h spent on drilling a single whole. Then polishing and trial to put all together.
Last night and today, I have fired it finally at 1250C (a bit too high). Result is more than satisfying. Colours are now more saturated, white is more opal and a bit transparent. Most of all – the size comes perfect with 1mm precision – at first attempt!
Next steps is assembling it all together and pinning.
PS
About the razor – I take it as experimental item. It was bought this summer on market (Jarmark Dominikanski) for 7EUR. Later a bit refreshed by myself.
Here is the beautiful razor that was renovated by Lewy in the scalesselected bravely by my. There is other post on the razor itself.
Once the razor was done I started looking for its companions – brush and scuttle. That is not easy because the kirinite lava flow material for the scales is semitransparent and opals with grey. Because of transparency in nicely projects 3d effect.
My choice was obviously ceramics. Coloring porcelain body with traces of red colored clay. But red pigment is full o Cd cadmium, which is highly poisonous. I had to wait long for encapsulated pigment from Germany.
In meantime I tried to do so with regular cream clay C930 and glossy black glaze WT11401 with Botz Pro red strip. First attempt – good match. Assess it yourself below.
Interesting thing – the scuttle and brash are not fully fired to stoneware.There was unexpected break in delivery of electricity. I can fire it again, but there is no rush.
Below you can see an attempt to agateware – black with red traces. No glaze. I like the satin end effect.
In fact this is my first approach to agateware. The handle and outside of the mug is not glazed at all while internal part of the mug is in glossy transparent. I use the brush everyday as my primary shaving choice. I like the smooth pearl survace of the handle.
More parts will come. I work on a complete set composed of brush, mug, AS bottle, scull and ….razor with that type of scales.
Porcelain with blue pigment fired at 1265 C