bisque firing, glazing, firing again

Its the school holidays, and the best time for accessing kilns which might be busy during the school term. All of the artwork for the Deer Park History Mural has been bisque fired and then glazed, and now needs to be fired again. This week a kiln at the Sunbury Boilerhouse Community Arts Centre is busy firing the work and two kilns at The Huntclub Community Arts Centre are firing too.

Here are some photos of the process

Over 600 people have been involved in making this mural so far and each of their first names has been written onto a handmade clay tile, so that it can be incorporated into the mural.

Old plastic crates are the best thing for storing and carrying the ceramics in. It is very heavy. The artwork is layered between sheets of crumpled newspaper and bubblewrap. Each crate has about 10 kgs worth in it. Here are two crates full of artwork which has been glazed and it ready to be taken to a kiln.

More names!

Here the names are being glazed and also some of the artwork. The glaze is a bit like powdered glass and it makes the artwork look white, till it goes into the kiln.  When the kiln reaches the temperature of 1080 centrigrade, the glaze will be clear and the fabulous painted designs can be seen.

Here is my big bucket of glaze . .  almost empty.

Here I was this morning, painting the last of the names onto the little handmade tiles.

 Deer Park History Mural

This year a ceramic  mural is being made at the Ballarat Rd Shopping Strip in Deer Park.  
Brimbank Council, Deer Park Pharmacy and Gallery Sunshine Everywhere are joining forces to get this community made mural happening. Three local schools have been involved in making artworks for the mural; Deer park north, Deer park West, and St Peter Chanel. 
The project has also involved community participation from local community members with workshops held at the Huntclub Community Arts Centre and the opportunity to work on the installation process.
The Mural will be officially opened in December 2014