A while back a client asked me if I could try reworking a great big Cybis thoroughbred porcelain named 'Nashua'.  Now he wasn't an undecorated white bisque but an already colored piece epoxied to a huge base.  On the base he measures about 13 or 14 inches tall and with his original wooden plinth beneath it (now missing) he would have topped 16 inches tall.  Anyway, this client owns more than one of this sculpture and choose to send me the flawed one to custom glaze.

Here he is in his original bay color and on his original rectangular base sitting down in the bottom of my big kiln.  Nashua was sculpted by J N Slick and supposedly released in a 500 piece porcelain edition in 1971, priced at $2000.  According to the Cybis Archive the edition was aborted and only 100 were produced even though higher numbered pieces exist.

Nashua was sent to me because he had a rough finish that captured dust and his owner was not able to get or keep him clean.  I offered to fire him clean in my kiln at a fairly low temperature to burn off the accumulated dust.  To our surprise it turns out that he was fixed to his original base with some kind of epoxy which also burned away in my kiln.  Once off of his base I saw that his feet were wonky and he did not stand flat and his legs were subtly bent.  He also leaned precariously without his base to keep him straight upright.  My client asked me if I might be willing to reglaze him to another color and sculpt him a new base that wasn't so big and clunky.  I said I could try, but reglazing a piece can be tricky.  One never knows if my glazing will be compatible with the co-efficiency of the original porcelain, even though I do my glaze firings at much lower than the original bisque firing.  I also do not know if he was clear glazed before coloring or if it was applied directly to the raw bisque - probably the latter.

Here is the Nashua removed from his base.  He had a metal halter ring made of brass that I removed before firing that I will replace once he's finished.  Now he's all clean and pretty but he won't stand on his own and firing him clean will do nothing to keep him from turning back to a muddy grey over time.  Not unless his owner closes him up into a case to keep dust off or have him reglazed smoother. 

As he couldn't stand without the base, we sadly can't have him free standing without one.  I had to add balls of sticky putty under both of his hooves on one side to keep him from falling over.  I might have removed material from two hooves and added more to the other two but it was just too much difference and his hooves would have been too obviously strange sizes, alas.

This boy had some notable seam lines, rough finish in places, and a pretty drab mane and tail with rough patches.  Her other Cybis 'Nashua' she kept is a much nicer copy.  I proposed slightly resculpting his mane and tail, removing those seam lines, and adding a bit more expression to his eyes.  She said go for it!

Here our boy is getting his new base sculpted in non-hardening oil clay.  Once I had it roughed out how I wanted it, I then made a plaster mold.  The plaster mold, once cured, was then used to slip case Nashua a new base.  His new base then could be fired and glazed right a long with him in the kiln.  Shrinkage could be compensated for after the initil bisque fire.  Here's a shot of the freshly made plaster mold.  This could be done as a one or two piece mold depending on  how I wanted it to cast.

To demonstrate the size of this piece, here I have Nashua standing next to a more 'traditional' scale ceramic.  The other horse is a English fine bone china 'Precosia' produced by Horsing Around of England and sculpted by Brigitte Eberl of Germay.  She was in progress getting made into a boy with a new mane and tail just like the Nashua!  You can see on him the freshly added clayed up mane and tail.  Resculpting work is a lot more complicated than just adding wet clay, which will shrink, crack, and flake off.  So I have been working for about 20 years now to perfect this technique using a custom 'bisque mender'.  As far as I know I'm the only person in the world who does it.  Yet pieces I did back in the early 2000's are still doing great more than twenty years later! 

Note that I am adding specialty chemicals to the original porcelain that has been gouged and roughed up to receive the earthenware bisque mender and clay.  Once dried, one has to painstakingly fill in cracks several times before and after firing to make certain the material will hold & grip firmly.  I can't add back high fired materials like porcelain because that must be fired up to a high enough temperature to vitrify, which means I would have to prop pieces all over again so they don't become jelly like and sag.  I could try to do so but I do not know what this porcelain claybody is composed of so replicate it for the silt supports. Using a lower fired ceramic media in the range of the custom glazing works so much better as long as the co-efficiency (expansion and contraction rates with temperature changes) are close enough in the temp ranges we are working with here.

Once I get the mane, tail and base dried, then I use opaque white under glaze to 'white' out the bay body.  This helps me see rough patches, divots, or cracks I have missed and need to work on before he's fired again.  Seams still showing through under his jaw or along his belly, further detailing to do in cleaning up his new mane, smoothing roughness over his body, etc.  Then he'll be ready for me to begin custom glazing to his new color!  The white layer will likely sink into the original bay coat and mostly be lost but I won't know until I fire him.   There is always the risk that this particular porcelain that Cybis used may not be a good fit with my cone 06 glazes, but I am keeping some leaded clear glaze on hand in case there is a co-efficiency issue.  I do not want to risk crazing or dunting when he is completed.

Now he's ready to go back into my kiln to bisque fire at cone 04 to set up his greenware clay parts and first under glaze layer.  The underglaze layers and clear glaze over it later will help a lot to smooth out his rough texture.   Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Nashua custom glazing adventure!  After he is fired and passes close inspection, Nashua will be ready to start masking white markings and layering up under glaze colors for his new coat color!  I do enjoy an unusual custom order request.

Turns out that the 'whiting' out effect didn't actually work over the kind of coloring he already had but it still served it's purpose to help me see rough areas that still needed smoothing.  It was merely absorbed into the original color so I had to work with that.  After speaking with my client she changed her mind and was willing to accept a dark dappled bay instead of a lighter golden bay.  Whew!  There are limits of what I can do when attempting to reglaze an already glazed ceramic.

It took me quite a while and a LOT of firings using both china paints & enamels but eventually he was completed to this lovely dark dappled bay!  After all firing in the kiln was completed I added the brass ring back to his halter.  His owner is thrilled with him!  It was very challenging work!  I hope you enjoyed this blog post and apologies it took me so long to add the conclusion.  Enjoy and be inspired to try your own thing - don't be afraid!