Gold Crowns and Stars
The next step for my group of “Voynich nymph” porcelain sculptures, after going through a high-temperature glaze firing, was to add gold luster to the crowns/headwear and the stars. (Since gold luster can only withstand a comparatively lower-temperature firing, it is done as a last step with an additional kiln firing, after the porcelain has previously been high fired.)
This is what the gold luster looks like when painting; it is red before turning gold in the kiln firing… a bit of alchemical magic:
The design of the gold crowns merges with the yellow hair in a design that is intentionally a bit undefined as to where the headwear separates from the hair. This is because I wanted to reflect the style of the original manuscript drawings, in which it is sometimes unclear what kind of headwear the nymphs are wearing, and how this might look in three dimensions. Instead of converting these features into a realistic style, I would rather try to capture the character of the original drawings, and in sculpting these figures, I have been finding a style that maintains this strange balance.
Another very unique feature of the Voynich Manuscript is the “strings” or “tethers” on which the nymphs hold stars. To recreate this I used a piece of wire that connects the stars to the nymphs’ hands and emphasizes the illusion that the stars are floating in midair.
Voynich Nymph 1:
Voynich Nymph 2:
Voynich Nymph 3:
What about Voynich Nymph 4? Well, I’m sorry to say that she had a less fortunate fate than the others…
This is what it looked like when I opened the kiln after the gold luster firing:
Believe it or not, I was so happy with how the gold luster had turned out that it took me a minute to notice that the lower half of the porcelain panel attached to this figure had cracked clean apart during the firing! Now, in order to explain how much of a freakishly rare and unexpected occurrence this kind of crack is, I will have to briefly explain the ceramic firing process:
1) “Bisque Firing”: This is the first kiln firing, which slowly reaches temperatures around 1830 degrees F/999 degrees C. This temperature might sound high, but it is considered low compared to the even higher temperatures required for the second firing. The clay must be already air-dried as completely as possible before it goes through the bisque firing. The firing then eliminates any residual water still trapped within the clay particles, along with carbon and organics. The clay becomes hardened and less brittle, although it is still porous and somewhat fragile; the clay has not fully “matured” yet. At this stage, glaze can be applied.
2) “Glaze Firing”: (Sometimes I simply call this the “High Firing,” because I often use very little to no glaze on my pieces, but it is referring to the same thing.) Glazed or not, the clay still needs to go through this second higher temperature firing to become completely strong and durable, and for the glaze, if used, to fuse to the piece. (Changes in the crystalline structure of the clay also happen at specific temperatures, but I won’t get into that here.) For the type of porcelain I am using, the kiln reaches temperatures around 2232 degrees F/1222 degrees C. If there are any weak spots in the clay, or small cracks that may have occurred during the bisque firing, they may not be able to withstand the high firing, and the piece will crack badly.
But if the piece seems fine and intact after the high firing, as all four of my figures did, there is normally no reason to think that it might crack again in a gold luster firing. The luster firing only reaches temperatures around 1323 degrees F/717 degrees C, even lower than bisque temperatures. The only reason I can think of is that maybe there was a “hairline” crack, nearly invisible, underneath the figure, that occurred during the high firing, and it just could not withstand the reheating. Still, it is very unusual for a piece to crack in a luster firing, and I wish I knew exactly why this happened so I can prevent such problems in the future.
Needless to say, this has delayed the completion of this sculpture. Unlike cracks in glass sculpture, which can sometimes be “healed” or virtually erased by reheating and carefully fusing the glass back together with a torch, cracks in high fired porcelain can not be fused back together again. In some past sculptures, I have been able to incorporate cracks into the design or even accentuate them intentionally, and I considered doing that in this case, but decided that it would ultimately be a distraction from the look that I intended. Since I already spent so much time on this piece, I would rather remake the figure/panel that cracked, than to permanently incorporate a major flaw into the final assembly. I’ll be making some updates about some new ideas as well, but that will not mean this piece is forgotten—it will just be on hold for a little while longer as a new and improved Nymph 4 catches up to the others!
It is not always possible to smoothly progress in a linear fashion without interruptions, but that is alright. Sometimes it is better not to rush things, and ultimately the results will be worth it.