New Pots

I haven’t spent much time on the wheel throwing mud.  It takes a lot of upper body strength and I just haven’t been feeling as well physically and strength is the first thing to go.  So, I’ve been playing with slabs.  I love building with slabs.  It’s been a trial working with the red clay (I think it’s called #4).  The usual shrinkage is around 15%, but this red clay seems to be at least 25%! Wow that’s a huge percentage to figure into your work.

I started this mug with a Qt container as my form.  It measured 5.5″ tall and I only took off a smidgen of the top to level it.  I was the laughing stock of the class.  Every joke imaginable about a BIG cuppa something.  I kept trying to explain that the red clay shrunk CONSIDERABLY!  They never let up.

The teacher showed me how to pull a handle.  But after she walked away I was doing it backwards (that’s a dyslexic for ya!).  She looked across the room and said, “WHAT are you doing?”  The she showed me again.  Well, once I got it, I got it!  No wonder it was working for me!  Plus getting the right size was a bit of a struggle trying to match it to the size of the mug.  TTT Things Take Time!

I am very happy with my glaze selections…FINALLY!  It’s Creamy Rust over Ochre on the red clay.

I like how the canister turned out.  Those are little pine cone indentations on it.  I made it for some handmade wooden utensils I bought.  You can’t see it, but I used a new technique for me. I clear glazed the inside, then dipped it twice on the outside by pushing it down in the bucket of glaze and dispersing the glaze from the inside like we used to do in grade school science with Mrs. Vernon.  I loved that science experiment!

My mug is a comfortable 16 oz with room for cream.  That is the perfect size for me. The handle is perfect and comfortably fits 3 fingers with the pinky underneath and the thumb on the thumb thingie!  I couldn’t be more pleased.

I felt good enough to throw last Friday and it was trial and error….more error and lots of trials.  I must of thrown and torn down 5-6 times for almost 2 hrs.  Then I did it!  The teacher was shocked at the near perfection of my bowl.  I was too!  I’ll show it when I get it glazed.  Unfortunately I threw it in the white clay, but that’s ok.  I’ll find something to glaze with that won’t be too bright.

The butter dish that I worked on for months is finished but I don’t have a picture.  I took it in for the teacher to see just how much the red clay shrinks AFTER the glaze firing.  I started the butter dish by making a mold.  The finished lid fits inside the mold lid even though it was formed on the outside of the mold.  The teacher gasped and said, “you’ll have to use that for your grandchildren’s tea parties!”  So, now I have to start again and make a new mold from the outside of the original mold, hoping that I can get something that holds more than a pat of butter!