Never Say Never

I am excited about what the glaze did on this candle holder.  I used a combination that I've used before - white covered by blue and then something called "textured burgundy" at the very top. (See the lidded casserole in a previous post.)  I like it because it runs down the sides of the pot as it fires.  I wasn't sure if the holes would cause the running glaze to speed up (running farther), slow down (not running as far), or it it would end up dripping off the pot and making a big mess. I'm still not sure if this was a speeding up or slowing down result, but I'm pretty sure there was no dripping.

If I had it to do over again, I'd flare the top of this piece out just a little bit.  Maybe not quite as much as the first candle holder (see the picture to the right), but I think it needs just a little something up there at the top.  I'm forgiving myself on this though because I'm so happy with the glaze.

This pair of mugs has the same glaze on the same clay body.  Without the holes, the look is pretty different.  Note how more of the white glaze is exposed as the burgundy and blue ran down.  There are a few places on the candle holder where the white is exposed but not as much as here.

This post is titled Never Say Never because I think I said that I'd never make another candle holder with the interlocking circles again.  They are a pain in the butt to make, but when they are done, I forget all that.  I threw another one yesterday and made sure to flare the top out some.  I will be cutting out the circles today.   In just a few hours, I am sure that I'll be swearing off candle holders once again.  

Finally!

In April of 2011, I shared a picture of a wheel and kiln that I'd bought.  Here we are two years later and I can finally report that I have now used my wheel!

A space opened up in the studio and Allen gave me the go ahead to bring my wheel.  Jeff and I moved it in on Saturday morning and I promptly got to work.  I have to confess that I was a little bit worried that I wouldn't be able to throw on this wheel.  It is very different from the one I'd gotten used to using.  

I guess I did not need to be worried.  I managed to make several things that morning.  Looking at this picture reminds me that I had a bowl to trim.  Ooops!  I haven't done that yet.  There have been a number of other things that have gotten in the way since Saturday and I haven't managed to get back over there.  I hope it hasn't dried out too much.  Yikes!  

Finished pieces

Here are the finished Yummy Pots.  I'm taking them over to Robyn tomorrow to see how I did on the size.  If I managed to get this right, I'll be making more of these.  I LIKE them!  

And the lidded casserole that I made a few weeks ago turned out nice too!  

I Love Recycling...

I've recently learned how to "reclaim clay."  (OK, I confess that I'm not sure that I spelled that correctly.)  What does that mean?  Put simply, reclaiming clay is the process of taking scraps, adding a whole lot of elbow grease, and making usable clay.

Without getting too technical, here's how it works:  We all dump our scraps into a bucket.  Periodically someone adds water to soften everything up and holes are poked if needed so that everything really breaks down into kind of a slime.  (It's delightful really--especially in winter when it is cold slime.)  When the clay is pretty consistently slimy, it is ready to go.  I recommend working it up when the bucket is about half full.  Trust me, you do not want to do more than about half a bucket at once.  Dry clay is added and it all gets stirred around until it looks more or less like what you see in the picture below.  Notice that this looks like more than half a bucket.  It grows when you add the dry clay to it.

Now the real work begins.  Pull up your sleeves because it is going to get messy.  Pull out about 3 or 4 pounds of the mess and wedge it in more dry clay until it is kind of crumbly.  Then move to the pounding board and wedge until all the dry clay is worked in, some of the moisture is worked out, and the entire lump of clay is still soft but is no longer too mushy.  (You love this super technical language that I use, right?)  The softer the lump, the more wedging it takes.  Repeat over and over until the bucket is empty.  Periodic rest breaks are permitted. When I finished with this bucket, I had 47 pounds of clay, my arms were sore, and I'd sweated through my t-shirt.  

Then the clay is sealed up in plastic bags and stored for a couple of weeks before it is ready to use.  Even after all this work, there may be parts of the clay that are more firm than others.  Sealing it all up in plastic allows the moisture from the softer parts to transfer to the harder parts.  

I've done this twice now and this is my stash of reclaimed clay.  I think the bags on top should be ready to use now.  When I get back in the studio (have I mentioned how I am working too much this semester?), I will let you know how I like throwing reclaimed clay.  

Updates

A few weeks ago, I had pictures of the yummy pots that I'm making for Robyn.  Well, they have been bisque fired and glazed and they are ready for the next glaze fire.  I thought you'd like to see them in their present state.  

The one on the left should be yellow and the one on the right will be blue with some kind of purple at the top.  The glaze that I used at the top is one that really moves a lot, so I'm hoping for purple running down the sides of a blue pot.  We shall see.  

Do you remember the rectangular baker from a few weeks ago?  Well, it is completely done now.  

I was hoping for a little bit darker color on the glaze, but this isn't bad.  It did warp a little bit, so it doesn't sit exactly level on the counter.  That's how you know it was hand made, right?  For those of you who wanted to know how big it is, it ended up with about 9.5 by 11.5.  So if I do this again, what color(s) would you like to see?  

Candle Holder??

Here's another something new that I tried this weekend.  The inspiration for this piece came from a video clip that my dad sent.  (http://www.wimp.com/puzzlejug/)  While I'm not up to making a puzzle jug, I thought that  the interlocking circles were really cool.  

I threw the vase shape and let it dry a bit.  I think I should have let it dry a little more than I did, but patience is really not one of my strengths.  I measured the circumference of the vase and worked out what size circles I wanted to use.  I marked where the centers should line up and then used a compass to mark the circles.  

That was the fun part.  The not so fun part involved cutting away the pieces that I needed to remove.  I may also regret starting this when the piece is dry and I have to sand it to remove all the sharp edges before firing.  I tried to be as careful as possible and smooth off edges as I worked, but I am sure I missed things.  It was getting late and I was hungry - not a combination for me to do my best work.  

I am less than pleased with the triangles that I cut out at the tops of the circles.  I should have been more careful with them to make them more uniform (the late/hungry thing contributed to this issue as well).  Now that I'm looking at it today, I think I need some cut outs at the bottom too.  I was a little worried about cutting away too much too low and ending up with a piece that was going to collapse under the weight of the clay left at the top.  For a first effort, it's not awful I guess.  Sometimes I need to do something the wrong way so that I can figure out the right way to do it next time.  Will there be a next time?  I really don't know.  It will depend on how much "fun" I have with it from here on.  

For reference (in case you weren't willing to watch the whole video from wimp.com in the link above), this is the jug from the Victoria and Albert Museum that inspired this piece.  

Rectangular Baker

There's an article in the Mar/Apr 2013 issue of Pottery Making Illustrated on making a Rhubarb Crisp Baker that reminded me of a similar article in an older issue that I have read in the last year.  (I can't put my hands on the issue with the other article in it, so it must be an older one that Allen or Ronnie brought in to the studio.)  In both, the project consists of making a ceramic baker by throwing a large ring, altering it, and then attaching it to a slab.  This technique allows the potter to make a square, rectangular, or oval shaped baker.  

This weekend, I gave it a shot.  I took about 4 pounds of clay and threw a large ring.  I left it a little thicker on the rim on purpose.  After a few hours (I went home and took a shower and nap in the interim) when it was dry enough to handle, I cut it off the bat and shaped it into the rectangle that you see here. 

  

While the sides continued to dry, I worked on making the bottom.  I rolled out a slab, moved it to the wheel so that I could add the swirl design, and cut out the rectangular shape that I needed.  

Then I attached the ring to the slab.  The last step was to add the handles.  

For this project, I made this as big as I could.  Honestly I didn't even measure the diameter of the ring before I removed it from the bat, so I have no idea how large this is.  Sometimes I just jump in and see what I can do.  It will be interesting to see what size it is once it is fired twice.  Next time around I might be a little more careful and try to make something that is a standard size.