One Thing Leads To Another

I woke up in the middle of the night last Friday/Saturday because I was thinking about lamps.  In particular that I needed to make some.  RIGHT NOW.  I've probably been thinking about lamps off and on for the past 10 months, but for some reason last week, I FINALLY NEEDED TO MAKE LAMPS.

Last weekend was devoted to lamp making.  I've never made lamps before, but I watched Allen make them.

I started with slabs and added some texture before cutting them and fitting the pieces inside the molds.  The textured side of the clay is on what will be the outside of the lamp. I worked to completely seal up the seams on the inside.  

The top and bottom started out as 2 different pieces.

They were scored and slipped and carefully joined. I worked hard to try to conceal the joint where the 2 pieces meet.  The other seams are part of the design and texture, so I left them visible.  

It was about a 3 or 4 day process to go from waking up in the middle of the night with the idea and getting two lamp forms completely put together.  The slow down was the drying time.  It's been raining a lot here recently. When it rains, the clay dries very slowly.

I will try to remember to take some after pictures when they are all finished.  I don't have a good plan for glazing yet.  I think I'm leaning toward blue, but I could be talked out of it if someone has another great idea.  What would you like to see sitting in your living room?  Once they are glazed and fired, I'll get lamp kits and shades.  For now the focus was on getting two forms that more or less match.

I hadn't done any serious hand building in a long time. I generally like working on the potter's wheel a lot more, but this was a lot of fun. The day after I got my lamps put together, I had a request to make a tall vase for flowers.  The requested height is around 12 inches.  To get something that is 12 inches tall finished, it needs to be 13 or 14 inches wet.  That's more than I can get from one ball of clay, so I either need to throw two (or more) pieces and join them or find a form and do some hand building.

First I tried throwing two pieces and joining them.  This is the second effort.  With the first try I learned what not to do. This was actually three pieces.  That is a 12 inch ruler for perspective. 

I also tried a hand built vase.

I wrapped a slab of clay around a large cardboard cylinder we have in the studio, added some texture, and then threw a top for it.  I attached a slab bottom and the top when it dried to leather hard. 

This ended up looking a lot more like an umbrella stand than a vase, but it could work if one had some BIG flowers to display.  The slab that I used to make the cylinder was 12 inches tall, so this one is also a good bit taller than the finished size that I need. Right now it is giant.  I have to keep reminding myself that it will be a good bit smaller when finished.