axolotl mug
Alas, no pottery this term. Too busy with fellowship application right now, and if I travel for any interviews -- though I still don't know the etiquette for interviewing elsewhere if I'm applying for fellowships with someone -- I'd miss even more classes. Also, no money!
Still a few things I'm very pleased with from last term, though. I finally learned to make mugs. Basically they're cylinders, which means they have flat bottoms, rather than bowls, which have rounded bottoms. (That doesn't mean you can't distort things to make the sides more interesting; that's very much encouraged.) The thing that makes a mug, though, is of course the handle, and I hadn't learned to pull handles until last term. Here are three mugs I made the day I learned it -- the bodies were thrown the week before and had dried out a bit, and then handles just attached.
Bonus studio view in that one. The mug at left lives with Wim now, the one at right was damaged by someone else's carelessness and I couldn't rescue it, and the center one we will follow to the next step. I drew a design on it with a stylus while it was still leather-hard, and sent it off to be bisqued.
After bisque firing, I filled in the axolotl face design using black underglaze. You can see where I sketched in the oval of the face in the clay if you look at the bases of the gill-fronds on the right. I figured such small depressions wouldn't show after glazing. After filling it in, of course, is when I thought of the fact that it's the more dorsal gills that are longer, at least on Hex and Hachi. Oops.
Then I glazed it with clear, sent it off for firing, and crossed my fingers.
It came out great! I haven't figured out why sometimes lately the clear glaze has had a yellow cast in places, but it doesn't look too bad. The mug is a fine size for a cup of tea, which I should go have another one of now to help my throat.
This entry was originally posted at http://jinian.dreamwidth.org/599581.html. Respond wherever you like.
Still a few things I'm very pleased with from last term, though. I finally learned to make mugs. Basically they're cylinders, which means they have flat bottoms, rather than bowls, which have rounded bottoms. (That doesn't mean you can't distort things to make the sides more interesting; that's very much encouraged.) The thing that makes a mug, though, is of course the handle, and I hadn't learned to pull handles until last term. Here are three mugs I made the day I learned it -- the bodies were thrown the week before and had dried out a bit, and then handles just attached.
Bonus studio view in that one. The mug at left lives with Wim now, the one at right was damaged by someone else's carelessness and I couldn't rescue it, and the center one we will follow to the next step. I drew a design on it with a stylus while it was still leather-hard, and sent it off to be bisqued.
After bisque firing, I filled in the axolotl face design using black underglaze. You can see where I sketched in the oval of the face in the clay if you look at the bases of the gill-fronds on the right. I figured such small depressions wouldn't show after glazing. After filling it in, of course, is when I thought of the fact that it's the more dorsal gills that are longer, at least on Hex and Hachi. Oops.
Then I glazed it with clear, sent it off for firing, and crossed my fingers.
It came out great! I haven't figured out why sometimes lately the clear glaze has had a yellow cast in places, but it doesn't look too bad. The mug is a fine size for a cup of tea, which I should go have another one of now to help my throat.
This entry was originally posted at http://jinian.dreamwidth.org/599581.html. Respond wherever you like.