Porcelain Project

Tonight I start a 3 day class at Desert Dragon Pottery to learn the art of speciality glazing on porcelain. I threw six "shouldered" pieces each with its own little drip tray. I can't wait to see how this goes. Let's hope most of my pieces make it through the firing process. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I have several new completed hand built pieces that  I will post as soon as I get some good pictures of them.

I'm getting behind

I wish I was better at keeping this journal current. I've been working so many hours at my "paying" job that after I come home, I'm not interested in even looking at a computer. I've only been able to get to the pottery studio once a week on Friday afternoons. That is MY time to de-stress and relax from a busy week.

I'd love to put up a picture of the latest sgrafitto plate I made, but it was ruined in the bisque fire kiln when the person loading the kiln forgot to stilt it because they didn't know it was glazed on the underside. They assumed it was red clay and not red glaze. I've had several pieces ruined in the past several months, one of which is a French Butter Dish. That one made it through the glaze firing process and then the lid wasn't handled properly and was broken after it was removed from the kiln... Several other simpler smaller thrown bowls made it through, but had particles and chunks of stuff from the kiln firing landed in the bottom of 2 of them. This will require grinding away the "stuff" from the bottom of the bowls, adding more glaze and then re-firing.

However, I did finish one project that I'm very excited about. A large hand-built (not thrown on the wheel) bowl. It's bigger than anything I could have thrown and it was my first attempt. I started by rolling out sheets of clay on the slab roller, cutting them into abstract pieces and then laying them over the outside of large bowl. After it dried to leather hardness but was still soft enough manipulate, I I trimmed the edges to look ragged, flipped it inside another bowl of the same size and shape and then smoothed out the inside. I covered it in plastic again, leaving it for several more days and then moved it back to the outside of the form again ( I had two bowls the same size and shape which is why this worked). I continued to smooth out all the edges where the slab pieces were layered and adding my finger indentations to give it a handmade look. It came out so great that many people have asked if it was a thrown bowl.

So, this bowl came out beautifully in the kiln, which was really good since I had the most time invested in it.

Trimming

I had four pieces to trim yesterday all of which took way too long. I'm on my third attempt at a butter dish. I can't remember what these are actually called, they are the type where you put the butter inside a crock, turn the crock up side down and set it inside another crock filled with cold water. You are supposed to be able to leave the butter out on your table or counter top, unrefrigerated, and the water will keep the butter fresh. (You do have to change the water every day or so.) They are fun when you have friends over for dinner as it's better than just setting out a plastic tub of something and are a great conversation piece when your friends try to figure out how to use it. I've found that you do have to use real butter, because the other stuff will just melt and fall into the water which is kind of gross. I digress...

As I said this was my 3rd attempt because these little pieces are not easy since you have to measure a lot to make sure the one piece fits inside the other piece. Well of course, I measured but it still didn't fit since the crock part that goes inside the other part was too long or else the other part was not deep enough, whatever. Being determined to make this work, I carved and trimmed and carved some more until I made it fit. I can say this, the section that holds the butter is kinda small now, so it won't hold a lot of butter.. but it should still work.  I've got to look up the name for this thing...

The other pieces were just regular thrown bowls. The one bowl was so dry by the time I trimmed it that it was almost too late. The best I could do was clean it up a bit on the bottom and smooth it out. It flew off the wheel one time (oops) while I was trimming and broke a chunk off the rim... Ok so now it's got a nice scalloped rim all the way around. Isn't necessity the mother of invention?  I'll post the pics after they're bisque fired and then after they are glazed.

Finished High Fire Projects

Yesterday yielded some great results from the last hire firing at Desert Dragon. I am particularly pleased with my tall coil pot/vase. Glazing any piece that you've spent a long time on (I actually dreamed about this one) creates anxiety for me since I am still learning glazing techniques. (Does the learning process with clay every stop?) Applying glazes you know will run A LOT as I did on my coil pot, made me very nervous, so I decided to wipe it down leaving the bare stoneware in places. The result was very good. The imperfections are what make each piece unique and "hand made".

The pie dish (at least that's what I'm calling it) turned out well also, although the glazing choices with turquoise and woo blue (which looks like blue denim by itself) turned out a little muddy in places. Turquoise runs a lot and woo blue is very reliable at not running, ever. But who wants to glaze everything in woo blue all the time.

Several Projects Completed

Today after several weeks of not being able to get to the studio (work and family commitments keeping me busy) I was able complete several projects. The two I am most pleased with are my scraffito box and my raku vases. After the box was bisque fired (the first firing before glazing, the finished product is like greenware) I decided I didn't want to change anything. Not add another glaze color. The project itself was so labor intensive that I felt if I added anything to it, I would probably ruin it.  So we dipped it in a clear glaze only for the final firing.

As for the Raku vases, I am very excited. I haven't done this type of raku firing before other than a "naked" raku which I hated. It was so labor intensive and the finished product was, well.... awful. Not worth it. With these I painted the dry clay with a red terasidge (I'm sure that is not how you spell it and I don't even know exactly what it is other than some sort of pre-glaze) , then the pieces were bisque fires (high fire, cone 10). I glazed them with the Raku glaze Lustrous Copper and they turned out magnificently. The great thing is that I glazed them this morning and then the Raku firing was immediate so within an hour I had a finished project. Much better than waiting several weeks for the regular high firing which is about once every 3 weeks.

I also raku glazed a little pinch pot. I didn't have too much invested in this little pot. It was my first attempt and it was already cracked before it went through the raku firing. Nevertheless, the color is also awesome. Gold Burst.

I still have a several other projects to complete and it's time to start some new ones. I'll keep you posted

What's next?

I have about six projects in progress at the studio, all in varying stages, but nothing drying at the moment. I know of 4 pieces that should have come out of the bisque fire last week, but have not had a chance to get out there to take a look at them.  I have a three piece set of decorative plates made with a soft-slab technique. The patters on those were made with small leaf stamps on one, a large pebble-look pattern on the second and on the third I used various sizes and shapes of branches or bark and just pressed them into the clay. My goal when they're glazed and fired is to use them as wall decorations over my couch. most likely sitting on a shelf. I have another scraffito platter which should be ready as well, to glaze and then put into the final firing process.

My weekends have been been so busy lately that I haven't been able to get out to Desert Dragon at all so have only been going after work a couple days a week. Not really the ideal way to accomplish a lot.

This weekend I actually crafted a couple of cards, one for my Mother and the other for my daughter-in-law, for Mother's Day. I have the stamping supplies and tons of card stock, but run out of time and end up hitting the card store. I decided this time, I wouldn't do that. Ahh so many ideas, so little time.

The Scraffitto Box

Well I finished carving the box on Wednesday. It became more challenging as I carved each side. Even though I kept it covered in plastic, I waited too long between visits to the studio for carving and by the time I got to the last side, it was very dry. It works best when the clay is still leather-hard and the carvings come off like little curls of chocolate.

It needs to finish drying completely now and then will be bisque fired. What will remain then is virtually like "greenware", on which I can add other glazes or dip in a clear glaze and then proceed with the final firing. What people don't know that  don't work in clay is that the process from start to finish is time consuming. There are many steps and you have to wait between each one. If a piece dries too fast or is bisque fired before it is completely dry, it could crack and break in the kiln. 

I will take a picture if the box after its bisque fired and post it here. I really am excited to see how this piece will turn out as are many of my potter friends who have been watching its progression.

My first posting

Ok, so now I've started this blog which no one but me will ever care about. Well, maybe my kids will get a laugh if I let them know about it. But, I'll have a place to put down my ideas and hopefully make them happen. I've been taking classes at my local favorite pottery studio (Desert Dragon) and have learned all sorts of new techniques for handbuilding. Right now I'm working on a Sgraffitto piece. I did one already. It's carving on clay or other medium. Now I'm doing one on a clay box that I made first. Very time consuming, but fun. Can't wait to see what the end product looks like.
That's the thing about working in clay, you never know what will happen. After all the time you spend on something it could crack or blow up in the firing process. It teaches you to let it go, move on to the next thing. There is no perfection in clay.