Tips & Techniques: Cold Finishing
Learn more about cold finishing and get a close look at a cold finished piece, Cat Times, made by Clay Art Center student Ruth Weyland.
Want a specific finish for a clay sculpture that you can’t seem to achieve with traditional glazes? Consider using any of a wide variety of other materials and cold finish your piece. Cold finishing can take many different forms, but the essential component is that cold finished pieces are only fired once, and do not always have traditional glaze as part of their decoration. These pieces are often sculptural rather than functional, due to the non-food-safe nature of cold finishing mediums. Both bisqued and fully vitrified pieces can be cold finished, depending on the final effect the artist intends.
While many ceramicists immediately think of and often work with acrylic or oil paint when it comes time to cold finish, there are many different materials that can be used solo or in combination to finish a piece without further firing. Sumi and India ink can be brushed onto pieces, ink-based pens can be used to draw, metallic waxes can give sheen, and colored pencils can be layered on dry, matte surfaces. Looking to add more bling? Thin gold or metal leaf can be adhered to pieces for shiny highlights. Some artists even use shoe polish to achieve their effect. Varnish and sealants can seal and preserve other finishes, particularly for pieces that will be living outdoors. Strong epoxies can also be used to attach other objects, ceramic or otherwise. The possibilities are endless, and many cold finish pieces are the result of significant experimentation and combination.
In fact, we have some cold finishers right here in our Clay Art Center Community. Ruth Weyland created Cat Times, a memory piece dedicated to her beloved cat Emma. The cold finished piece is made from stoneware clay that Ruth covered with black acrylic paint and then rubbed with colored patinas. The resulting sculpture is brought to life by its soft, yet precise colors, which are carefully defined by the finely carved lines filled with the black acrylic paint.
