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.