Christmas Star - The story of ceramics ornament inspired by origami

November 06, 2024
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When presented with the idea of Zermatt Keramik for Christmas ornaments I pursue many roads in my head to take this challenge. As many know I am in many ways inspired by the Asian tradition of ceramics, mainly for the reason of a longest tradition of high-fired ceramics, for the dedication to ceramics the masters of the past had, and for the extraordinary techniques, they passed on to us. In the same way, I am fond of saying: “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” (Quote by Gustav Mahler).

Make your own Christmas Star HERE

In the end, I set out to make Christmas ornaments inspired by Origami. As this art has its recreational version, I felt it can be moved further to be expressed in different materials. Taking into account Its delicate beauty and its tradition I chose the most suitable ceramic material - porcelain. Not only for its strong tradition and ties to Asian ceramics culture but also its ability to best reflect the delicacy of the origami itself. Porcelain is one of the trickiest materials in ceramics there is. It is rightly surrounded by different myths. Not because the myths would have any merit, but because it is just very hard material to work with, It is unforgiving, so inevitably the myths follow. From the start, having the idea I had to reach out to find someone to help, the new technologies are tricky for me. I reach out to my former student. Now M.A. Sebastian Vlasák not only helped with what I asked for but as the all planning and executing took its course, he become necessary and a great help in the process. Yes, while working on this project, I found myself a new colleague.

We started on 17.11.2022 already equipped with Sebastian’s 3D drawings derivated from my ideas. We find a company (relyefpotterytools) to 3D print those models - there was luck in the process as 3D printing has also its limitations and so all ornaments had to be printed in 2 parts, which also made it perfect for mold making. Sebastian took on the task of molds making while I was already pursuing the casting of other ornaments we chose - two bells, birds, and harts. Once the molds have been dried, we had to figure out how to cast them - some we chose to cast full - they were so thin, there was no reason to try to pour the molds out. For others, we had to keep a precise schedule and perfect introduction to casting porcelain slips. Technically it has been done with a ketchup bottle with a thin straw attached. Casting this way ensured the mold would be filed in time, otherwise, the slip would not reach some parts of the molds in time, as the slip would dry on the walls and the mold would be cast partially.

It has been days and days of perfectly controlled casting, and we felt the first problem has been overcome. After each ornament was cast we immediately added the ceramics knot for hanging, which was cast separately and kept in a plastic box to prevent drying. We dry all ornaments on foam pads, trying not to move them at all - only to the kiln. We agreed there is no chance to clean them now, we had to bisque fire them before any cleaning took place, that was how fragile they felt. After bisque firing cleaning could begin. It took 3 people and many days to sand all of them. Sitting by the table, wearing a mask, and spending about 10- 15minutes on each ornament. At this stage, they truly felt like a paper. While working on cleaning we have done the first firing tests. Already the first test canceled the possibility to use Kanthal wire to fire them, it would slump too much. Also, we realized our bells are warping more than expected. Solutions had to be found.

For ornaments, there was one that made glazing more difficult but also allowed the possibility of using crystalline glaze. We use special tripods. Glaze the top of the ornament in Crystalline glaze and the bottom in thin white glaze. Then we use a sponge to lightly wipe off the middle of the ornament where it would sit on the tripod. No need to say that sitting a 10-17cm ornament on a 2,5cm tripod made loading the kiln a meditating task. To solve the warping of the bells, we cast domes in two sizes, one for small bells and one for larger bells. The domes were dipped in water and then sprinkled with Alumina Hydrate, so the bells would not stick to the dome in the firing (the bells were not glazed inside) I used the crystalline glaze dedicated on glaze.org to M. Abbiati's Gus base (Argentina). I mix variation with Copper Carbonate (for 2kg of base 5,2g) and Cobalt (for 2kg of base less than 1g) MaterialAmount Potash Feldspar 39.00 Zinc Oxide 25.00 Whiting 16.00 Silica 14.00 Ball Clay 6.00 All ornaments were fired up to 1216°C with a cooling cycle of 3 hours from 900-840°C.

The forming of crystals and final temperature greatly depend on the clay one uses this glaze on. For some clays you might need to fire to a higher temperature, for some this temperature will already cause it to run excessively without forming many crystals. By the end of November, all 300 Christmas ornaments were fired, and bells assembled and now we are offering you this one-of-a-kind limited edition of Christmas ornaments.