Who Makes All This Stuff??

It seems like every weekend lately I have had a ton of pots to glaze.  Here's a "before" shot. 

And an "in progress" shot.  Glazing would be so much simpler if I could use ONE color.  Alas, I cannot.

And this is what my jeans always look like after a morning of glazing.  

And I made a few things too.

These mugs will be for The Copper Rock.  I managed to get handles on all of them Saturday, but it was a struggle.  With the rain, they had not dried as much as they should have before I attached handles.

In class this week, Ron showed me a couple of ways to make oval (and square) bakers.  In each method, you start by throwing a round baking dish.  He demonstrated three different ways to change the shape.  In one, the potter cuts out a small leaf shaped piece of clay from the bottom and then presses in on the sides until the hole is closed up.  I tried this several times and it did not work for me.  I couldn't get the sides to move in enough to close the hole without completely destroying the walls of the pot.  Ugh.  

The second method involves cutting a slit several inches long at the bottom of the side just where it connects to the bottom, moving the "straight" sides in, reattaching the wall, and removing the extra bottom that is sticking out.  (I know how confusing that sounds.  I seriously need a photographer to take pictures of hard to explain things when I am working.)  That's what I did to make this piece.   

  

 In the third method, the potter uses a board or something similar to press in on the walls to change the shape of the pot.  I had some problems with the clay sticking to the board.  I found that one of the small square bats worked better than the piece of wood that I used first.  Sliding the bat off the pot rather than pulling it away was also more successful.   I managed to do this on a piece that I made this morning.  I'll share pictures of it later.  I'm going to take that piece with me to class this week and will put handles on it there if all goes well.

More Glaze Pictures

Here are pictures of a few things that were fired this week.  

A baking dish.

This was the one that I almost killed before it ever got started.  I'm glad that I was able to restrain myself from smashing it.  

Trays.  I'm really pleased with the red and green one and I don't mind the blue and tan one.  

Lidded jars.  

When Glazing Goes Right

Remember this pot from a few weeks ago?  

Well, it turned out really nice!  

I had to miss pottery class this week.  We had the induction ceremony for Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society on Wednesday, so I was busy with that.  When I had gotten all the dishes cleaned up, I realized that it was not quite 8:30, so I ran by the pottery classroom.  I was very anxious to see this piece.  The flowers in the picture are the ones that our PTK chapter officers gave me at the ceremony.  They are so pretty that I wanted to show them off too.  

Here's a close-up of the pot.

Follow Up

I wanted to try to make something that put together several of the new things that I've learned this semester.  A lidded jar with facets seemed like just the trick.  

In the picture above, I have trimmed the foot.  The clay was really pretty wet today (thank you rain)--almost too wet to trim, but I made it work.  When you only have so much time to work on pottery, you have to force some things even if it is not ideal.  I tried something with this foot that is a little bit different.    

Is that a ruffle?  Surely not.  I don't do ruffles.  I'm not sure that I would do this again, but I saw a picture of something like this recently and wanted to try it.  Here's the piece right side up with the lid on.  

I'm going to have to work on it a little more to get the lid to fit better, but I'll wait for it to dry before I mess with it anymore.  I felt like I had pushed my luck enough for one day.  

I also had some stuff to glaze.  I didn't take any pictures of that.  Glazing it not exciting.  But while I waited for one glaze to dry before putting on another layer of color I threw a round baking dish.  

I let the dish and handles (those strips laid out over pill bottles) dry some while Jeff and I went to the in-laws to eat.  Yum.  After lunch (and before the nap that always happens when I've eaten at the Jones's) I put it together.  

I can't ever decide the best angle for a picture of this kind of dish.  No matter what I do, something looks weird.

Note the continued attempt to build substantial handles.  I want them to be interesting as well as functional.  As long as they stay on, they will be functional.  I'm not so sure that I've hit on interesting yet.  With the rain today, nothing dried as much as it normally would, so this piece was still VERY wet and mushy when I put it together.  I did my best to not distort it or leave too many finger marks.  

Saturday School

Since we have had so much snow/ice stuff this winter, kids in our county have been out of school 5 days.  In order to make up those days and still manage to keep most of Spring Break intact, the school board decided to schedule school on some Saturdays.  Today was the first Saturday school.  While I was at the pottery studio today, there were a couple of different groups of students and teachers from North Shelby School who dropped in for a visit. For those of you unfamiliar with North Shelby, here is a quote from their website:

North Shelby is a special purpose public school located in Shelby, North Carolina.  North Shelby provides services to students in Cleveland County Schools between the ages of three and twenty-one who have significant intellectual disabilities and who have been placed at North Shelby by the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team at their home school.

It was a pleasant surprise to have those visitors and I enjoyed showing them around a little bit.  I wish I had been throwing when they came by.  I bet they would have enjoyed watching that.  

On to the pots!  

This week was our Spring Break at Cleveland Community College, so there was no pottery class Wednesday night.  Boo.  There was a day off for me on Friday though.  Other people (people with more sense than me) took some real time off this week, but it was Thursday afternoon before I got enough of my To-Do list done that I felt like I could take a day.  So I spent some extra time in the studio Friday afternoon.  I'm still playing with facets.  Here are some bowls that I made.  

As you can see, I'm still working on facets.  Notice the varying amounts of twist in these bowls.  I still don't have the twist I'd like to have, but I'm working on figuring out what makes the twist happen.  Does the pot need to spin faster or do I need to push out more aggressively?  I think that it has more to do with being really forceful in stretching the clay.  I have decided that I am more successful if I use a stick to push out rather than trying to do it with my fingers or sponge.  Is that cheating?  

Here's a close up of my favorite of these bowls.  It's not large--only about 1.75 pounds of clay, but I like the shape.  

I also threw three good sized mugs on Friday afternoon.  Here they are with the handles that I put on them this morning.  

Vicki stopped in to say hi today too.  She took a couple of pictures of me working.  Here I'm working cutting facets in a piece.  This piece didn't make it.  I should have started with a much taller, more narrow cylinder to do what I wanted to do.  I had to start over...

One of the nice things about working with clay is that if something doesn't work, you smash it up and try again.  Maybe I'll remember to take a picture of what I ended up with.  

Hump Day!

You know, my pottery class meets on Wednesday, right? 

This week, I tried throwing off the hump.  Let me try to explain.  If one needs to make a number of relatively small pieces, it can be done by using a large ball of clay, centering just the very top part, making the piece, cutting it off, and then repeating all those steps.  I am not good at it.  Not.  At.  All.  In the past, I have tried throwing some very small pitchers off the hump, but I kept cutting the bottoms out when I'd remove the pitcher.  I was successful in making some nice bottomless pitchers...which are good for nothing.  

I worked on jars with lids this week.  Ron first showed me how to use my fingers to make the gallery for the lid to sit in.  I've always used a putty knife or some similar tool.  Fingers make a softer, curved gallery which I think is a little bit better for some types of lids.  A putty knife makes a more distinct, 90 degree angle at the outside edge of the gallery and in ways I think that might be less forgiving when attempting to get a lid to fit.  I'm going to continue to use my fingers and try it with some different types of lids for a while and see what I think.  

For the sake of full disclosure, Ron demonstrated two ways to make the galleries for lids.  I only tried the first one.  When throwing the jar, leave the top edge kind of thick.  Then push down on the inside edge of the rim forming sort of a shelf (which is what I am referring to as a gallery).  The lid sits on this shelf.  The other method involves a rim that is thinner and folding it over to make the shelf.  I have not tried that yet.  

The lids that I made on Wednesday night were flat bottomed and sit down in the jar.  Getting the fit perfect is not essential with this kind of lid.  If it is a little bit large, it just sits up higher and if it is a little bit small, it sits lower in the jar.  The truly hilarious part was cutting them off the hump.  Ron used a string to wrap around the clay and cut the lid off flat.  The key to that is holding on.  The first time I tried it, I let of the string and my clay ate it.  Yes.  String more or less disappeared and the lid was still connected to the hump.  Um. No. I managed to relocate the end of the string and disconnect that lid, but I never got a neat, flat bottomed lid.  Here are two of my attempts.  

As you can see, I got better.  I'm going to keep trying this.  I do think that if I can get the hang of it, I'll be more successful getting a flat, level cut than if I try to use my cut off wire.  

Here are the jars with the lids on.  

Pictures that I wish I had to share in this post include, a close up picture of the gallery so you can see what I'm talking about and some step-by-step pictures of the lid throwing/cutting off process.  For that I'll need an assistant.  Maybe I can talk Jeff into going to the studio with me later today...

7 Layer Dip

My sister Carol and I were talking earlier in February about things to cook/eat when snowed in.   There's this wonderful Mexican bean dip stuff that we make in our family that we call "7 Layer Dip."  It is a recipe that my room mate Jenni found when we were in college.  I think it was on the back of a bag or tortilla chips or something.  This can be made in just about any pan that is oven safe (Jenni and I made it in a bundt pan at least one time while in college) but I've got this one glass baking dish that I always use. To make this long story short, Carol was trying to work out how she was going to be able to cook both 7 Layer Dip and a cobbler (don't get me started on the recipe for Chocolate Cobbler that I've discovered) since she usually made both those recipes in the same pan.  

As a result of this conversation with my sister, I decided that 7 Layer Dip would be most excellent if cooked in a pottery baking dish.  I'm working on making baking dishes that are the same basic shape and size as my glass dish.  Here is the first effort.  

7 Layer Dip:

1 can refried beans

1 medium onion chopped

8 oz sour cream

1 package taco seasoning

sliced black olives ( 1/2 to 2/3 of a can is what I usually use.  I eat the rest while waiting for the dip to cook or save them to put on a salad.  You can leave this layer out if you are not a fan of olives.)

sliced jalapeno peppers (I cut the slices into smaller pieces.  Use as many as you like.  These can be left out as well, but I would not recommend it.)  

grated cheese (Cheddar or Mexican blend are my favorites--Do not skimp on the cheese! Use enough to make a generous layer on top.  I do know know how much that is since I just pile it on until it looks right.)  

Layer the ingredients in the order listed above. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  Serve with tortilla chips.  YUM!  

Time Flies

Where did February go?  Seriously how is it March already?  I'm glad that spring is a little bit closer, but I feel like I should have accomplished more in February than I did.  Oh well.

This week in pottery class (because I know that you are dying to hear what I learned) we glazed.  Other than this shot of my pots with glaze on them I have nothing fun to show off this week.

My pots are the ones closest to the camera. I will try to take an "after" shot this week once they are fired.  I'm actually pretty excited to see what a couple of these glazes look like.  These are all glazes that are different from what we use at Allen's studio and I really liked a couple of them on the testers. I'm also anxious to see if the lid fuses to the jar on that one pointy lidded thing in the left of the picture.  Since that piece was fired "lid on," I tried to keep the glaze off any surfaces that would touch.  Since those surfaces are inside the pot, I'm not totally sure that I did. There's always the possibility of the glaze running a little bit when it is fired too.  Keep your fingers crossed.  

I did a little work in the studio this weekend.  I'm working on getting my mug inventory back up.  I fired 4 at Allen's this week (one of those sold before I even got it home) and 2 more at the college.  Then there are these 6 that I made this weekend.