Butter Dishes

One of the nice things about working in a studio with other potters is getting to use their stuff.  I'm using Ronnie's butter dish template here.  

Start with a slab and trace out as many butter dishes as will fit.  

 Smooth off the edges with a sponge, and apply any decoration.  I used a leaf from the yard in the picture above.  Sometimes I just decorate the edges of the dish with some texture.  

Place the flat butter dish on the foam textured side up.  Carefully position the wood block in the indention made by the template from the first step.  

Push down into the foam.  This causes the edges to curve upward around the block.  

These butter dishes are done and ready to dry.  

Remembering Things That I Used To Know

  

 Allen was working on some pots yesterday and I watched him make the lids.  I've done lids like this before, but it's been a long time and I had forgotten some of it.  Its always good to watch someone else throw.  Even when they are doing things I'm pretty comfortable with, I still pick up something new.  In this case, I was reminded of the steps in a relatively complicated process.

I decided to give it a try today.  The picture at the left shows the pot and the lid (before it is finished of course).  The perspective is a little weird, so I put the coffee cup in the picture to give you an idea how big it is.  The bottom was 4 pounds and the lid was about 1.5 pounds.



I realize now as I'm thinking about how to describe the process, that I need more pictures.  (Anyone want to guess what my next post will be?)

The lid is thrown upside down.  The flange will fit down inside the jar.  If I've measured correctly, it will be a snug fit.  Since I need to finish this tomorrow, I covered everything plastic so it wouldn't dry too much.  Since it poured rain all day today, the plastic probably was unnecessary, but better safe than sorry.

Tomorrow I'll try to get some pictures of the steps and of the "finished" piece.

Salt Fire

I've been in the studio almost every day for the past two weeks and it has been wonderful.  After not having  the time or energy to do much over the past couple of months, it is great to get back into it and find that I can still make stuff.  

I'm currently working on pieces for a salt fire.  Allen and I are taking some pieces over to Ron Philbeck's later this month to be fired with some of his work.  This is something new for us and I am SO EXCITED about trying this out.  The opportunity has also given me a goal to work toward and has been instrumental in getting me motivated to make pottery again. So THANKS to Ron for inviting us and to Allen for including me and making it possible for me to participate even though I am going to be out of town on the actual day of the firing.  More about that later...

Pictures of some of the things I've made for the salt fire are below.  There are also some mugs and napkin holders that I didn't get pictures of for this post.  I'm making lots of things of various sizes with the understanding that it might not all fit.  Anything that doesn't make it in will get glazed and fired in our studio later.  

Candle holder

Cookie jar or large canister (this might end up being too big)

Cream and sugar set

Small lidded bowl (that handle isn't as crooked as it looks)

Large lidded bowl