"It's Been A Good Week"

On Monday I registered for a two week long workshop at Penland School of Craft.  Going to Penland has been a dream for a while now and I've been saving for years.  I am so excited!!  

This is the time of year that the summer starts taking shape.  Our family settles on a date and location for our family beach trip. It's normally this week that invitations to the Advanced Placement Reading go out.  We make beach plans usually before I know if I'm going to be grading AP Exams, but I always plan with the hope that I'll get to go to what my friends and I have come to refer to as "Math Camp".  This year, the family beach trip got pushed to late July instead of the third week of June (immediately after the Reading) due to some other family obligations.  

When the Penland catalog came to the house last weekend, I found the workshop that I thought I wanted to try to get into.  Checked the dates - June 21 to July 3.  Hmmmm, it doesn't conflict with vacation and would work even if I got an invitation to grade AP.  Perfect!  The next hurdle would be to actually get IN the workshop.  Registration opened at noon on Jan 13.  I was right there at my computer at noon working on registering. As were a bunch of other people...the website was SLOW.  After about 45 minutes, I had confirmation emails regarding my registration and payment of my deposit!  It turns out that I was doubly lucky.  The website crashed twice and the Penland folks suspended workshop registrations until Wed, Jan 15 while they tried to fix the issues.  BUT I got in before all that.  Wow.  

Then on Wednesday, I received my invitation to grade AP Exams!  So I'll leave on June 10 and will get back home on June 18.  I'll switch gears from math geek to crafty artist person.  Then I head up to Spruce Pine, NC for two weeks of pottery-ing.  Cool.  

In addition to all this excitement, I taught Nikki a lesson on Monday afternoon.  She is doing great.  Every week, I see improvement.  

The kiln has been not acting quite right the last few firings, so the Kiln Doctor came to take a look on Wednesday afternoon.  We easily have enough work ready for both a bisque fire and a glaze fire. 

The verdict was that we need new elements.  He said it was ok to bisque fire, but not to try a glaze fire.  OK.  I hope that it will work out for him to come back with the new parts next week. The sooner the better.  I've got a show that opens the first week of February.  Must fire pottery!  

Meanwhile, I've been cranking out stuff.  The first part of the week it rained.  A LOT.  It was a struggle to get things dry enough to finish them.  I made 4 cake plates on Tuesday. 

They sat on the shelf uncovered until Thursday before I could trim them.  I expected them to be dry enough to trim on Wednesday.  

Wednesday, I made the parts to a set of canisters.  

I was able to put on handles Thursday afternoon, but the lids weren't dry enough to work on until Friday morning.  

And Some Other Things

How can I make a bowl this shape?  

Thanks to Ron Philbeck once again for helping me figure out a pottery "problem".

Obviously, start by throwing a bowl.  But then what?  It needs to be altered and needs to have a foot trimmed.  Altering the rim has to happen when the clay is wet.  Trimming the foot has to happen at the leather hard stage. If I alter the rim, it won't sit flat on the trimming bat.  

Solution?  Make a chuck!

Alter the rim right after throwing the bowl. Then when it is dried to leather hard, invert the bowl on the chuck to trim the foot.

Genius!

Next up - a lid for something that is not round.

Um, how?

I threw the sides, let them dry to leather hard, and attached to the slab bottom.  I have done this before. This time though, I cut a gallery in the rim to hold the lid.

The lid is also a slab.  Using a big sponge to give some support in the middle (the one on the bottom in this picture), I let the slab kind of sink down in the casserole.  After it firmed up enough to hold its shape while I handled it, I flipped it over and then trimmed it to fit the shape of the dish.  This gave the lid some curve.  The second sponge is there to help it keep the curve while it dried.

This piece is still drying, so I still don't know how it is going to turn out.  Fingers crossed for no cracks and no warping.

I'm working on "not round" lids because I've had a request for a 9 by 12 inch casserole dish with a lid.  That is a challenge on two levels for me. First is the lid and second is the size.  

This is a rectangular piece that might end up approximately 9 by 12.  It is still a guessing game for me to try to get finished pieces of a particular size.  If the size does come out right and if the lid on the oval piece above works out ok, I'll see if I can put the two together.  

Stay tuned.

When Pottery and Geometry Meet

I have to start with a picture of the finished project since the first picture of the post is what gets shared on Facebook. 

This project was fun.  It started with someone that I did not know asking for help finding a potter who could make the pot in the picture below.

We have a number of mutual friends who put us in touch.  I was honest that I didn't know if I'd be able to make something similar, but that I would really like to give it a try.

I love it when I try something new....and it works!  Here are some pictures that I took of the process. 

I started with a hexagon for the bottom of the pot and added 6 pentagons, one on each side.

I used a paper towel to keep the second "layer" from flopping down flat.  Some time in front of the fan did the trick to firm things up enough that I could keep working.

The last "layer" was more pentagons.

Each seam got a lot of attention both inside and outside the pot to make sure that I had good, strong joints everywhere.

I was really worried that one of those joints would crack.

It took the better part of a Saturday afternoon.

Finally got to put that last piece in place.

I was thrilled that everything fit.

This pot was a gift, so even though I worked on it in late November and early December, I waited until I knew that sharing this would not ruin any surprises. 

I've been working on several other unique projects that I'll share with you in another post.