Month: February 2024

I Made a Terrible Mess (And Also Finished My Beads)

Hello! It’s been a while!

While I was gone I embarked on a perilous mission to create homemade ceramics paint and constructed 9 whole red clay beads! Just in case you forgot, this month’s bead quest was inspired by ceramics from ancient Mexico. I took a leap of faith creating the slip paint for this project as well as making my very first pendants, and one of those was much messier than the other.

paint-making materials
a sliver of the true mud hurricane
milo’s white slip paint + pendants!

I cannot emphasize enough that my kitchen looked like it had been overrun by 7,000 muddy pigs. It was worth every second because I was ultimately successful but I would need a significant monetary incentive to try straining mud through a pasta colander again.

If you, dear reader, want to try making slip paint too, it’s actually incredibly easy! The method I used involved drying out a large helping of clay chunks of your desired color (the clay I used turns white when fired, but you can also add dyes if you need a different color). I then submerged the chunks in water and stopped pouring when the waterline was about an inch above the clay pile. After waiting for the water to start soaking into the clay, I started churning this stuff like butter. This part is by far the most taxing, and you will probably have to adjust how much water is in it a couple times while mixing to make sure the mud is actually liquid. Then, unfortunately, you have to pour the mixture through a strainer and into your desired container to make sure it’s smooth. This is not as physically draining as the mixing process, but I did feel despair surround my soul when I had to stick my entire hand into the goop.

After running the paint gauntlet, you can just use the mixture like any normal paint; just paint it onto your piece BEFORE bisque firing and send it in that kiln! Important to note that any streaks or lumps in the paint job won’t smooth out like glazes do when it’s fired, so paint carefully.

All in all I am absolutely thrilled with how these turned out, and I’m so pleased that my ridiculous plan to DIY slip paint actually worked! The white accents stand out exactly how I wanted.

See you soon for next month’s project!

Bead Plans Complete

Alright everyone, here’s the plan for the upcoming week: by following my illustration (shown above), I will shape the beads, dry the beads, and paint the beads before firing them. The good news is that I only have to fire these beads once since the slip paint I’m going to be using doesn’t need a second firing. The bad news is that slip paint needs to be painted onto leather-hard clay, so I’ll have to tread a very delicate line between too-wet and too-dry beads when I paint them.

I chose the owl and fish pendants because they were too charming not to include in my final product, even if they do end up looking a little wonky because of how detailed they are. I’m not willing to tango with red slip paint, so I’ll be using white slip paint to embellish the pendants as well as to add decorative Moche patterns to my spherical beads. I’ll check back in next week with a progress update, see you then!

Moche Ceramics in Ancient Peru

This February, we’re going back in time–even further than last month! The Moche people thrived between the 1st and 8th centuries CE in the expansive river valleys of coastal Peru, and they made some very impressive pottery. For my research, I primarily consulted Hélène Bernier’s “Personal Adornments at Moche, North Coast of Peru” (2010) to gather some references and descriptions of what ceramics these ancient Peruvians made and how they were used. I hope Bernier is out there somewhere, living her best life, because this paper was fantastic and exactly what I was looking for. 

In her archeological research, she uncovered a wealth of ceramic artifacts (400+ beads alone!) that suggest ceramics were a major part of daily Moche life. Clay beads, vessels, sculptures, and charms were found in elite and non-elite homes alike; ceramics were for everyone! Bernier’s team even uncovered a ceramic workshop, dedicated entirely to ceramics production by hand and using molds. 

Owl Pendants <3

She also analyzed the collection of pendants found at the site and noticed some trends: ceramic pendants tended to feature human figures, religious scenes, seeds, deities, animals, and crops. My personal favorite pendant type was the owls (shown above).

I also had the pleasure of reading Joanne Pillsbury’s essay on Moche ceramics for The Met, which revealed that the Moche used colored slip to paint designs on their clay– not glazes. In hindsight, this is probably what the Purépecha people used as well, but alas. Slip, which is essentially just clay and water blended together, can be colored and painted on to leather-hard (not wet, not dry) clay to create a more opaque and matte effect. I’ve never tried this technique before and I imagine it won’t be easy, but I’m excited to see how it will turn out. 

As always, if you want to read any of the papers I referenced for yourself, check out the bibliography page. See you when I draft up my plans for this month’s string of beads!