WMAA 3 - Kelsie Rudolph

Hello again! For my last post I'd like to go into detail on the construction of a massive table that we made during my last week of work in South Korea. It took 4 and a half days to construct and was a much more detailed process of making than the large chair we had built a few weeks previous. The table was built upside down on large wooden panels that were supported by 2x4's underneath, lifted up off the ground by cinder blocks, and covered with canvas. To begin we cover the canvas in the large slabs, trimming each edge at an angle, scoring, slipping and attaching each seam together. Once the whole board was covered by these attached slabs and the seams and surface are smoothed, we flipped the entire thing over using another supported wooden panel and ratchet straps, followed by smoothing the surface and seams of this side.
 A template for the exact form and size of half of the table is drawn out on a piece of plastic like cloth and placed over the large slab, traced, and cut out. A rim is attached around the edge of the piece. This edge is taller than the final thickness the table will be. Then the bones are put in place to give the large flat table its support and interior structure. It's important that these interior slabs are thinner than any slab on the exterior surfaces for consistency in drying. If they are as thick or thicker than the exterior slabs the piece could bloat or crack due to un even drying / shrinkage. After every bone is in place, we reinforce every single seam with a small coil to give extra support and to prevent cracking. The slab around the edge gets an extra thick coil, after the initial thin coil, as that edge will be trimmed and curved eventually. Here you can see that the bones have been seamed together. Every single bone also gets a whole in it as to let air pass through the entire piece during drying and firing. Now the extra height of that slab on the edge comes into play as it gets rounded over and is supported by the bones in the interior structure.This thin pink and blue foam piece with four wholes in it is a template used to keep the edges exactly the same where the two sides of the table will come together. Each piece will get the four wholes as well, where bolts will hold the two together.
 The next step is to start covering the piece in the large slabs. This involved trimming the edges where the slabs meet the piece, slipping, scoring and seaming each and every seam on the interior. To do this we cut a whole into each square space so we were able to reach inside and coil the new top slabs to the bones.
Here you can see that we had two of these going at once. These will be connected once finished.
 Once the slabs have firmed up a bit more, the circles that we cut out get turned into...smaller circles. Which would eventually be filled with smaller bits of wet clay later on. Here you can see the legs starting to take shape. There was on leg in the center of the table on the piece in the foreground on these images. This will just give the middle more support once it is complete. The rectangular sections left open on the flat edges of each piece are there so that they can get into the piece from underneath on either side to screw in the bolts to hold them together. The indented section will also be filled with epoxy for extra support. The bricks are used to keep pressure on the edges so the piece stays flat.The final tiny holes that need some filling...And here are a few images of the completed piece!


Each piece will fit just right in the kiln. They will fire it to cone 10 to begin with. Then they are able to flip the pieces over, attach them temporarily, and grind the top flat. They will then retire the piece upright to a low temperature. He uses a type of glue to get the glaze to hold to the surface since its already pretty much vitrified. They also use a lot of heat between each coat of glaze to make sure each layer is fully dry, otherwise some crazing and cracking may occur. There is also a lot of frit in the glaze to keep the melting point low. This table will be white and headed to New York some day! If they send me some finished images I'll be sure to tag on an extra post for whoever out there is looking...

This table was by far the highlight of my time in South Korea working with Hun Chung. The precision and planning that he has developed is astounding. Looking forward to developing this kind of technical skill in my own work.

I hope this post makes sense! I know it's difficult to understand all upside down...
Thanks again to Northern Clay Center for making this experience possible!
Kelsie