I have finished my ANU Image and Text on Clay project. YeeHaw! I ended up switching from doing the planned 'fifties housewife feminist barb plates' because I was becoming an angry feminist/mother/wife (I have three sons who could help more). In true 'me' style, I found my way back to an idea that'd been bubbling in the back of my consciousness for a while. I made a series of slab built box forms, to hang on the wall, which are all about birds. I LOVE birds - I get such joy from their presence, beauty and sounds. Several feathered characters visit my garden regularly including a very young Kookaburra who sits on a hanging basket frame, practising it's sounds. At first I was sure I had a magpie lark outside my studio window carolling away but when I peeped out there was young Kooka. Some thuggish magpies sat nearby in a tree, flapping and fluffing up as if to hassle the young fella off their territory, they can be very aggressive when they are minding their own young. I marched out and eyeballed them till they scooted. They were well miffed! I had a 'honeyeater' hiding in the same tree the other afternoon but loudly cackling away like someone singing blithly in the shower. Imagine if Bird Flu annihalated all birds on earth OOH I shudder to think.
So the boxes went into the kiln looking pretty good to me, having spent a couple of hours applying decals and 'playing'. The mantra 'Less is More' failed me, not surprisingly - being a natural embellisher, but I really tried. I hoped to compensate for the fact the earthenware glazes had flaked off almost all the surface, and china paint decals need glaze to adhere and fuse to. With the glaze went the lovely japanese tissue transferred patterns I'd used to cover the surface. Wince! 
One of the tissue transfers was a white raised surface, like thick slip but in a printed pattern which looked COOL under glaze. I also got my ingredients mixed up (all black powders look the same) and made onglaze decals from stain instead of china paint, that explains the bitty reticulated appearance above right, not entirely horrible actually! I cursed loudly, then, got on with it. I'd say the flaking was caused by the layer of commercial white engobe I'd slathered on the paperclay boxes to whiten the background for my decals and allow my coloured earthenware glazes to show better.
