I absolutely LOVE texture in clay! I love seeing a glaze come to life and do all it was designed to do as it flows over the hills and valleys of the texture pattern. I have been doing pottery for about 25 years now. I fell in love with it when I returned to college at the age of 35. I took my first ceramic class and was hooked, line , sinker and all. Or should I say clay, wheel and kiln ;).
I have been around the mill a time or two with what direction I wanted my work to go in, all the while increasing in knowledge and skill. At first as I transitioned from drawing and painting I was more interested in creating a smooth surface that I could do elaborate underglaze paintings on. I also went through a phase where I put so much detail in the pieces that I was at loss as to how to glaze them! As I became more professional in my clay endeavors, I developed my own technique where I used porcelain like clay and carved patterns into them. I would paint black velvet underglaze everywhere and finish with cold paints and rub on metallics. Overall this process was stunning but tedious. Limited production was my best option.( you can google my name , Charlene Randolph and some samples will pop up).
Two years ago, after I sold my brick and mortar store and I could concentrate more on new ideas, I started to delve into texture.I think that every time I went into Clayworks Supplies ( Baltimore www.clayworkssupplies.com) I bought some sort of texture tool. I especially favored the texture matts sold by The Texture Queen. I have bakery rollers with designs, MKM tools, faux foliage from Michaels, lace, stamps I made myself, stamps from Michaels, and don't tell on me but I even used some "Stampin Up" stamps for professional use. LOL!
Somewhere over the past 10 years I have wanted to turn my own designs into unmounted rubber texture matts. How do you stand out in a crowd? I wanted to leave my mark literally, on my work and on the world artistically. I have understood I was gifted to be an artist and there was never a doubt about it. It was only a matter of how to do my life's passion and still eat. ;) I also wanted to be able to produce a consistent pattern and style in various sizes and I used my editing program to make variations
of the same image.
I have an art background and I certainly know how to draw. I asked other ceramicists, I did online searches. I found plenty of places who would reproduce my own patterns, but their prices were either insane or their sizes were too small. I thought about asking the Texture Queen, but I felt it may appear tacky so for whatever reason I did not.
Then, EUREKA! Pay dirt! Gold! I found readystamps.com. Low and behold, who's work is featured on the home page? Well, The Texture Queen's of course. Life is funny.
What I love about this place, besides the extremely affordable price ( $45 per image a few years ago, not sure right now), is that they employ special needs adults. You can fill up a 9"x7" image with one design or several smaller ones.They also send you all the parts that went into making your rubber matt when they send the matt. You can reorder your custom design any time by sending back the mold.
I know that there are many places out there, this is just my story and my Happy New Year to all my mud slinging fam. Be blessed in 2019! Until next time.....
Char
Please excuse the fact that I don't have the same pieces in every photo.