the last two weeks (of pottery)
Oh joy, the snow. I had my first bad experience (ever) driving in the snow. No harm done to the car, but I missed out on an old friend's wedding. :-(
Yes, there are many other things going on in my life, but for now I feel like writing about this new hobby -- wheel thrown pottery. This time I'll show pre and post-firing photos of my glaze applications. Everything shown below is on porcelain, my current favorite category of clay.
Two weeks ago Sunday, I picked up the last items from the class at Barbara Dunshee's studio. A few things I won't document here, a porcelain mug that was fired unglazed (oops), an agateware mug with too little clear coat, and a nice but simple stoneware mug. The urn for J's dog turned out beautifully, as did a vase and a honeypot.
And over at songandbranch's studio, K has run a glaze firing already, so I have plates and a vase to show for the pre-snow week. This week I'll attempt to refire a mug with some minor glaze problems from that load, and try for a simple glazing of the fired-but-not-glazed mug from Barbara's class.
A small urn, before and after firing: (images are larger if viewed separately)
.JPG)
.JPG)
These photos don't show the full effect of the slip texture on the body of the urn, which adds some depth to the piece. The blue part of the fired urn is slightly more purple, and the top is slightly more turquoise than shown here.
This small vase uses the same glazes as the urn above (turquoise spattered over blue-purple) but without the plain turquoise rim:
.JPG)
.JPG)
I especially like how this glaze combination turned out, though the vase shrunk much more than I expected -- I'd estimate almost 20% overall. I'm thinking about utility a little more carefully now; this vase is lovely, but is too wide and squat for flowers, and not tall enough for kitchen utensils as I'd originally intended.
And the last from Barbara's class, a honeypot of my own invention:
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
The double lip catches honey drips, and the lid can sit in the rim of the pot so you don't have to find a place to set down a honey-coated lid. I think I'll recess the sticks into the inner lip instead of cutting notches in the lid in the future, but future optimizations aside, I'm quite happy with it. This is the same turquoise over blue-purple again. The sad thing with this glaze combination is that the turquoise is Barbara's own recipe, so I'd have to hit her up for the recipe and mix it up from scratch myself if I want this effect in the future.
A vase made at K's studio using her glazes, with mixed results:
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
The fired vase is actually lighter overall, and more of a turquoise toward the top than shows in the photos. That's what I get for taking these indoors. I like the vase okay except for the muddiness of the darker green near the base. I didn't bother to include the top-down pre-fire image since it was pretty evenly off-white inside.
Last but not least, a set of three 6in. plates:
.JPG)
.JPG)
I threw these plates "off the hump", i.e. off the top of one large lump of porcelain. They stack well, and are the same diameter, despite the perspective in these photos. They are brush glazed similarly in bands and dotted spirals, though differently enough to emphasize that they're hand made. I'm especially fond of the mottled green in the lower right of the post-firing image. That glaze has tiny red-gold speckles that develop spontaneously as it's fired. The bottoms (not shown) are a bright blue under-glaze, that I should have over-glazed as they bubbled slightly.
Happy Holidays to everyone, and to all, a Good Night.
Yes, there are many other things going on in my life, but for now I feel like writing about this new hobby -- wheel thrown pottery. This time I'll show pre and post-firing photos of my glaze applications. Everything shown below is on porcelain, my current favorite category of clay.
Two weeks ago Sunday, I picked up the last items from the class at Barbara Dunshee's studio. A few things I won't document here, a porcelain mug that was fired unglazed (oops), an agateware mug with too little clear coat, and a nice but simple stoneware mug. The urn for J's dog turned out beautifully, as did a vase and a honeypot.
And over at songandbranch's studio, K has run a glaze firing already, so I have plates and a vase to show for the pre-snow week. This week I'll attempt to refire a mug with some minor glaze problems from that load, and try for a simple glazing of the fired-but-not-glazed mug from Barbara's class.
A small urn, before and after firing: (images are larger if viewed separately)
These photos don't show the full effect of the slip texture on the body of the urn, which adds some depth to the piece. The blue part of the fired urn is slightly more purple, and the top is slightly more turquoise than shown here.
This small vase uses the same glazes as the urn above (turquoise spattered over blue-purple) but without the plain turquoise rim:
I especially like how this glaze combination turned out, though the vase shrunk much more than I expected -- I'd estimate almost 20% overall. I'm thinking about utility a little more carefully now; this vase is lovely, but is too wide and squat for flowers, and not tall enough for kitchen utensils as I'd originally intended.
And the last from Barbara's class, a honeypot of my own invention:
The double lip catches honey drips, and the lid can sit in the rim of the pot so you don't have to find a place to set down a honey-coated lid. I think I'll recess the sticks into the inner lip instead of cutting notches in the lid in the future, but future optimizations aside, I'm quite happy with it. This is the same turquoise over blue-purple again. The sad thing with this glaze combination is that the turquoise is Barbara's own recipe, so I'd have to hit her up for the recipe and mix it up from scratch myself if I want this effect in the future.
A vase made at K's studio using her glazes, with mixed results:
The fired vase is actually lighter overall, and more of a turquoise toward the top than shows in the photos. That's what I get for taking these indoors. I like the vase okay except for the muddiness of the darker green near the base. I didn't bother to include the top-down pre-fire image since it was pretty evenly off-white inside.
Last but not least, a set of three 6in. plates:
I threw these plates "off the hump", i.e. off the top of one large lump of porcelain. They stack well, and are the same diameter, despite the perspective in these photos. They are brush glazed similarly in bands and dotted spirals, though differently enough to emphasize that they're hand made. I'm especially fond of the mottled green in the lower right of the post-firing image. That glaze has tiny red-gold speckles that develop spontaneously as it's fired. The bottoms (not shown) are a bright blue under-glaze, that I should have over-glazed as they bubbled slightly.
Happy Holidays to everyone, and to all, a Good Night.