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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Planning...

So my real job is not quite doing what it was.  There is less work, but it doesn't feel like more free time. I know we are doing several things that just don't bring in the level of money as some other things.  It is totally manageable but it pushes off my freedom farther down the line...

I have been planning on some projects. I have only gotten some done.
I need to make a mug that was requested during the holidays. A specific handle was requested and the "favorite" mug was handed over to me. It was a set of four but only one is still around. So I am going to try to reproduce this.

I have also been looking at this single person tea pots with flat lids.  I want to make a few of those, with a mug and small dish to go with it. The dish is to hold your tea bag.

I want to make some liquor sets, and I have gotten three done (see prior post). Today I did some slip design and need to think about what I am doing for glazing. At least one is going into the soda firing I am doing at the end of March.

I also want to do a dog bowl set for our dogs. I found a way to make a decent stand for the big dog so the bowl can be the right height.

Finally I want to get those chalices done. I keep thinking about it but haven't move forward.

Plenty of projects, not enough time...



Sunday, January 26, 2014

Not Mine!

This is not mine, but is Jesse's slab built Tea Pot.  Behold!!!



Porcelain and making missing pieces...

All of this is Porcelain , I don't really recall what but it is a ^6 from Laguna.  If you recall, about two months ago I had a lid fuse and then the bottom of a rice container s-crack. So I needed to make a body and a lid for those two pieces.

So originally this lid was for a rice container, for serving cooked rice.  Here... well I built a much taller and wider body.  The lid looks better on it to be honest, but it might be a bit too large to serve the original purpose.


Here is a new lid for this jar. Now, the lip of the jar was damaged. The original plan was that I would fire the lid on the jar and it would pop right off.  I put it on too wet, it fused. When I took it off, I lost the lid and damaged the lip. BUT...

This is an Urn for my black dog.  The lid actually isn't intended to ever come off. So when I fire it, I will glaze seal the lid on.


You can see the lid on the jar now, I will let it dry on there. I had to trip it to fit.


So this is a dog... ya... I am not a sculptor. but this is decent.  I put it on now so it will not pop off. Slip and score but the slip was paper clay. So I don't have any issues at all.


So this will get a bisque fire like this. But a glaze fire.. maybe a soda fire?  I am not quite sure yet.

Finding Time

It has been a struggle to find the time, and I have a lot of projects I would like to do.  Here was todays set up.  All of this is Speckled Buff ^6 from Laguna.  I am unsure yet what will have slip added, what will get fired in oxidation and what will be fired in reduction.  I will decide that later, but everything has some markings on the outside so any of those options would be decent.

So these are bottles and cups for serving more expensive, sipping spirits. Unlike Sake cups, these are larger so there can be space for ice if you drink it "on the rocks".
 


This bottle is flattened a bit.  I will smack it again when it is fully leather hard. I will also cut a notch for pouring.


This is a bit for "organic" looking.  I didn't clean the slip off very much. I pushed in with my hands and fingers so there are spots to hold the cups and the bottle.



This is more of a "single serving", I made only one cup and the bottle is a bit smaller.  Again, when leather hard I will cut a notch out for pouring.



 This was the left over clay, it seemed silly to save that little from the bag.  I threw a foot in, rather than set it up for trimming for later.  You can see that inside the bowl, it changes the shape a bit.






Monday, January 20, 2014

Trimmed


Trimmed and burnished. ^6 Speckled Buff clay from Laguna.

utility is the first principle of beauty



"I made my first pot - a wretched little bowl with a pitted glaze - in November, 1962. This simple act changed my life, leading me to believe, 50 years later, that potters may change the world for the better, one handful at a time. My feeling is that we potters finish our work, but only others can complete it, through use. Pottery, therefore, is only finished once, but can be completed endlessly, by a succession of users, keeping it active in a variety of settings. When we say we are “moved” by a pot, it may be the animating force of its creator refusing to be still”.
—jack troy


"But the amazingly keen eye of the Chan-no-yu [Korean master potter] master has discovered in these odd neglected pieces a unique beauty; for what most appeals to him are the things originally made for everyday use.... Chan-no-yu may best be defined as an aesthetics of actual living, in which utility is the first principle of beauty."

--Bernard Leach in "A Potter's Book"






Saturday, January 18, 2014

Far Too Busy... sadly....

I have been far too busy with my actually paying job.  It's not that I don't like my job, I would just like to do half as much of it and do pottery the rest of the time.  So this is the first time I have been able to throw in over a month. Sadly I cannot find my deremal so I can't sharpen my trimming tools bleh.


Anyway here is what I made today.  The studio is very cold comparatively. It's an old house. I tried to use hot water and kept swapping it out for more hot water. But in the end, it was very cold and my hands cramped up and... I was done. I literally could not lift.


This is 5#, likely no foot.



These are four bowls, 2# each.  Thick bottoms, so I can put a decent sized foot in them.






Not my dog btw, this is Izzy.  He comes in on Saturdays.







This is a 1# bowl, again with a thick bottom for a foot.


So, I brought all of the bowls home even though my studio is a mess.  I really need to just go in and throw the crap that is in my way.  That will make me feel better and make it usable.  My buddy that was very very slowly working on it now has a job in a different part of the state.

Anyway, we found that it was very hard to tell if a pot was dry and cold due to how cold the Cup & Bowl Studio is or if it is cold because it is still drying. So easily taken care of by bringing them home.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

This made it worth it..

This was worth the $40 I spent on propane.

it is Celedon, flashing slip and ash.








Just a quick look at the heat...

So, I had an issue of uneven temp.  You can see how the hotter temp was on the bottom.
Also, it is an updraft kiln. It is always a battle to get good reduction.  While in a down draft it is a battle to get it out of reduction.  Anyway, not bad for a first firing in this kiln.

The "liquid" was a ^010, next is ^6 and then ^7






ARG!!!

Ok, so after the failed firing and then finally being able to get a good one going... well I did not think about my thick jars... being in cold cold weather... being heated up so quickly...

ya... totally my fault.  ON THE PLUS... it was only my pots.











Damage aside... look at the glaze and flashing effects. I think I can add more soda next time. I did not want to be too heavy but this looks good.