Grandma's room requires a lot of ceramic pieces, so I'm getting to work. Of course, I apply for the call for tenders first, do the interviews and other formalities, and secure a place in the exhibition. The ideas for designing ceramics are slowly becoming a reality. The chair uses a wooden base. I arrange with a joiner to make me a chair made of wood that can withstand the elements. In short, it will be able to stand outside, but it won't be picked up so quickly. It can be used as a bench in the garden or on the veranda. While I am waiting for the chair, I am working on other pieces.

I turn the lower part of the table on a red clay spindle and cover it with white liquid clay. When this one is still soft, I draw the letters to get a pattern. I dry and burn. I add round glass. The table is ready.

I make a mirror. I roll out the gray stone and imprint my mother's crocheted tablecloth into it. I get an interesting relief, which I emphasize at the edges with glaze. When it is burned, I stick a custom-cut mirror on it.

Grandma's room is being built.

I decide that the dishes that will be on the table will be something special. I choose black stone. This material differs from clay in that it needs higher firing temperatures for its strength. But it is so much better then. I also choose a beautiful turquoise glaze and decide to gild the details in my characteristic pattern. I turn the dishes on the spindle and process them. The process requires three spirits, biscuit, at 980 ° C, glaze firing at 1220 ° C and gold firing at 800 ° C. The result is wonderful, a cup with a saucer, a bowl, a saucer, containers of milk and sugar, everything worked out.

I add an extravagant table lamp made of black clay. Perforated ball, below the base in which the electrical wiring is hidden. It will stand somewhere next door, on a simple bench made for me by a carpenter, along with a chair and a window frame.

 

Wood and clay working together

Well, then come the pieces where wood and clay work together. In the sections where you can see out of the window, I make ceramic tiles on which the landscape is sculpted. It's as if you can see out of your grandmother's room. 

The combination of wood and clay was most successful in the chair. The wood base is great, it's solid. I'm going to attach insulating material to the seat so that I can attach the tiles. On this base I start to apply rolled clay, cutting it into squares, making creases on the sides, in short, giving the surface the impression of a quilt. On the sides, I add a border made with the prints from the plaster model I made earlier using the crochet template. The blanket will be crocheted around the edge, as our grandmothers did. Everything has to be oversized because the clay shrinks as it dries and burns. I catch the irregularities with grout. I mark each tile, as well as spot and mark on the plan. I scratch the substrate and randomly draw different patterns. I leave some of them plain. I burn and paint the tiles as colourfully as possible, as if each is made of a different fabric. I assemble the tiles as planned, glue them to the substrate with tile glue and fill the spaces between them with paste. This is how the chair seat blanket was made. The ambience with the ceramic pieces is complete.

 Pottery art clay design by Polona Zajc

Pottery art clay design by Polona Zajc is going to be part of the ART EXPO 2019 exhibition. September is here, the ceramic pieces are being transported to the exhibition centre. On the two walls and in the space between them, the Grandma's Room ambience is being created. I buy a tepee, which connects the contents. The opening is here, the installation attracts visitors. It's fun to get involved with clay moulding. Satisfied, maybe again.