pottery studios, thowing and glazing
After touring a couple community centers, J and I have settled on Jefferson Community Center's pottery studio for winter quarter. They fire to both cone six and cone ten, and have a good facility for both wheel and hand built pottery. And at less than $200 and with lots of available practice hours, it's a very good bargain. Montlake, Mosier and Seward Park studios were all good options, with location being the single largest deciding factor in the end.
Sweetening the situation substantially, a new friend from pottery class, see www.songandbranch.com, has invited me to come over and use her studio space on a semi-regular basis. She doesn't use her wheel very often, concentrating on sculpture, and values the company as it helps her focus on getting more work done. I've already thrown and turned five items, and should see the bisque results tomorrow:
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After drying, the mug developed a crack where I joined the handle at the top. Hopefully I can patch that with paper infused slip and it'll be fine. (fingers crossed) The rim of the vase cracked with I was turning it (trimming its foot ring) and I patched that together with paper slip. The three plates are of slightly descending size, so they should nest well, a happy accident as I was aiming for the same size. I'll see soon if they've warped or cracked in the bisque firing.
Glazed but unfired honey pot:
The honey pot and lid have been fully dipped in blue-purple, rim dipped in turquoise, then spattered with turquoise. I'm hoping that the turquoise will create a complex diffusion pattern as the two glazes melt together.
A mug, copying a housemate's favorite mug in shape and glazed in his favorite color, green:
The interior is satin white, the better to see a beverage's color, the outside dipped in spearmint green in three bands, and turquoise spatters that I hope will meld with the green and create interesting effects.
A porcelain vase with glaze applied, but unfired:
Another piece dipped in blue-purple glaze with turquoise spatters. I hope the glaze doesn't run all the way down to the kiln shelf...
A deceptively familiar glaze pattern on a large mug:
This actually has bands of black and purple on the outside and cream breaking rust on the interior, all underneath the blue-purple dip and turquoise spatters. I suspect that some part of this will suffer from overly thick glazing, either running too dramatically, becoming muddy, or the interior pooling too thickly and forming pinhole patterns. Or it might be super-cool. (fingers crossed)
All the glazed pieces will come out of Barbara's kiln by this weekend, so I'll likely have both beauty and disturbing learning experiences to share soon. ^_^
Oh, and in case you're curious what throwing pottery on the wheel looks like, there are many youtube videos to cruise, just search for pottery wheel and you'll have more vids than you could possibly watch: Beginner -- Intermediate -- Advanced
Cheers!
Sweetening the situation substantially, a new friend from pottery class, see www.songandbranch.com, has invited me to come over and use her studio space on a semi-regular basis. She doesn't use her wheel very often, concentrating on sculpture, and values the company as it helps her focus on getting more work done. I've already thrown and turned five items, and should see the bisque results tomorrow:
After drying, the mug developed a crack where I joined the handle at the top. Hopefully I can patch that with paper infused slip and it'll be fine. (fingers crossed) The rim of the vase cracked with I was turning it (trimming its foot ring) and I patched that together with paper slip. The three plates are of slightly descending size, so they should nest well, a happy accident as I was aiming for the same size. I'll see soon if they've warped or cracked in the bisque firing.
Glazed but unfired honey pot:
The honey pot and lid have been fully dipped in blue-purple, rim dipped in turquoise, then spattered with turquoise. I'm hoping that the turquoise will create a complex diffusion pattern as the two glazes melt together.
A mug, copying a housemate's favorite mug in shape and glazed in his favorite color, green:
The interior is satin white, the better to see a beverage's color, the outside dipped in spearmint green in three bands, and turquoise spatters that I hope will meld with the green and create interesting effects.
A porcelain vase with glaze applied, but unfired:
Another piece dipped in blue-purple glaze with turquoise spatters. I hope the glaze doesn't run all the way down to the kiln shelf...
A deceptively familiar glaze pattern on a large mug:
This actually has bands of black and purple on the outside and cream breaking rust on the interior, all underneath the blue-purple dip and turquoise spatters. I suspect that some part of this will suffer from overly thick glazing, either running too dramatically, becoming muddy, or the interior pooling too thickly and forming pinhole patterns. Or it might be super-cool. (fingers crossed)
All the glazed pieces will come out of Barbara's kiln by this weekend, so I'll likely have both beauty and disturbing learning experiences to share soon. ^_^
Oh, and in case you're curious what throwing pottery on the wheel looks like, there are many youtube videos to cruise, just search for pottery wheel and you'll have more vids than you could possibly watch: Beginner -- Intermediate -- Advanced
Cheers!