Mishima Ceramic Technique

Mishima Ceramics Definition

Mishima is a technique where by you inlay slip, underglaze, or contrasting clay into a main clay body after doing sgraffito at the leatherhard stage. This technique will create an extremely fine, intricate design with hard, sharp edges that would be difficult to replicate reliably in any other way.

Mishima Pottery Tools needed

1. Underglaze
2. Metal Rib
3. Sgraffito Tool

You can do this with watered down underglaze or oxide washes when it is bisqueware.

This is 3 ways to do it on greenware

Traditional Mishima Technique

1. Once it becomes leather hard Do your sgraffito work on the piece
2. Add the underglaze a little watered down to your sgraffito lines
3. Let the underglaze dry so that it doesn’t shine anymore
4. Use your metal rib to gently scraping the underglaze off of the surface of your piece
5. This will allow the underglaze to stay inside the sgraffito lines and it will stay inside the grooves/lines however, don’t go too deep with your scraping as you may take away your sgraffito lines

The pros of this mishima inlay technique is that you don’t need wax and it takes less time

The cons of this technique is that you may scrape too far and erase your design. The other problem is that you may create different layers if you dig too deep.

Mishima Wax Resist Technique

Additional tools needed

1. Wax
2. Foam brush
3. Sponge

Steps

1. Apply the wax to your leather hard piece

2. Let it sit for half an hour to dry

3. Do your sgraffito on the piece

4. Apply the watered down underglaze or slip

5. Let it dry for about 5 minutes so that it isn’t shiny and lets the underglaze soak into lines

6. Sponge underglaze off wax using a clean portion of the sponge each pass

7. Rinse sponge out and keep sponging

Pros of this method

Don’t have to worry about scraping to far and destroying mishima design

Cons

This method takes longer as you have to wait for the wax

More tools and supplies needed

Mishima Slip Wax Resist Technique

Additional Tools Needed

1. Underglaze or slip
2. Wax
3. Foam brush
4. Sponge

Steps

1. Apply slip or underglaze to the leatherhard piece
2. Wait till the slip or underglaze dries to leather hard
3. Wax the piece (this is very IMPORTANT)
4. Let it sit for half an hour to dry
5. Do your sgraffito on the piece
6. Apply the watered down underglaze or slip
7. Let it dry for about 5 minutes so that it isn’t shiny and lets the underglaze soak into lines
8. Sponge it off of the wax

Pros of this method

Don’t have to worry about scraping to far and destroying the mishima design

Can use two contrasting colors and have more contrast and interest

Cons

This method takes longer as you have to wait for the wax

More tools and supplies needed

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