Achoooo!

First covered container - May 2015

After glazing. The slash of blue was unintended, giving this piece its name - The god spot.

Bummer.

Last week was cool and crisp and this week the skies have opened up. It is pouring and cold.

A virus has had me huddled in the house with meds, tea, chicken soup, and extra blankets for 8 days. The few times I have been out (a passenger - to get something to eat) I could see the leaves finally turning. The woods are bright with swaths of orange and yellow and red.

I have missed walks in the crunchy leaves. I have missed watching the transition from summer to fall. Until today fall was moving slowly. Then the temperature dropped from 70 degrees to 40 mid-morning. I was clear-headed enough to head to the college to work on final projects for the semester.  I bundled up and, along the way, I scoped out the walk - trees I plan to visit when the rain is done (potentially 5 days!).

While the sneezing continued, I felt well enough to spend a few hours in the clay - my therapy. I knew I was pushing it a bit, but once in the barn I pulled out all I have "in process" (7 pieces headed to the bisque kiln, 1 piece out of the glaze kiln, 21 pieces waiting to be glazed - YIKES!). I sanded a few rough spots, applied wax-resist to the 21, admired my newly-glazed vase, and threw 8 more pieces. I have an "order" for 8 mugs and one for a mug and bowl. I am also trying to use up my stoneware clay. It should still be fine after the short winter break, but I will have more clay next semester.

I am also trying out other clay to see what I might want to use in the future. So far I have used four different clay bodies this semester. The stoneware clay we use in class (Balcones) is a good all-purpose throwing clay. It comes in 3 colors and shrinks about 10 %. I like it fine. B-mix is a porcelain-like white clay that throws nicely, but shrinks like crazy. If I use it again I will carefully measure work before and after to be able to know what to expect.  Gruene Butter is buff clay that throws like the B-mix. I don't know how it will fire or glaze yet. And raku clay is very sturdy-a challenge to throw and full of grog (feels like sand, but it is crushed ceramic used to make a clay stronger - it smooths the fingerprints right off the tips of your fingers). It is designed to withstand the thermal shock of the raku process.* A friend is using it to build a large piece and I am playing with the "leftovers." I am looking forward to see how it glazes.

Most, if not all, of my work this semester has been functional ware.** You use it for something - bowls, mugs, cups, vases, and covered containers. I have been working on my skills: wedging, throwing, trimming, finishing, and glazing.  I made three glazes and have a notebook of recipes. But I focused more on basic skills. [Maybe my Christmas holiday will allow for some time to plan glazes I want to try.]

This foggy brain just realized that I need to take photos of the pieces made with different clay so I have some record of how they behave. I will do that tomorrow - and log them into my notebook. For now I will post miscellaneous photos to record what is what so far. [I figure a bunch of bowls and mugs make nicer illustrations than a bunch of cold medicine containers and a pile of tissues.]

Not my best photo, but it does show how I like to work...alone. Actually, I enjoy the exchange of ideas with my classmates, but I do get more accomplished when it is quiet and I can immerse myself in the process (you know it is a distraction thing).

 Glaze samples:

Three mugs (I have posted before, but want them here as I think about glazes).

Bowl - stoneware with tenmoku glaze/rutile slashes.

Same bowl

Funky glaze. It was an accident - we don't have the recipe. I want to use it before we use it up.

Plaid from last semester. While not a planned "test" of the glazes the piece is really heavy. It is a test now, but I expect to do more of these to give away.

I love the way these glazes work together. Tenmoku under/mottled blue over.

My favorite, vainy

 Wet work:

Stoneware cylinders (for mugs) waiting to be removed from bats and dried (need to be trimmed and have handles added).

B-mix bowls. They bisque fire almost white.

Greenware (not bisqued yet): 

Items on the left are bisqued stoneware. 7 items on the right are drying stoneware.

Bisqued ware: 

Pink bowls are stoneware. Middle white bowls are B-mix. Two bowls on the right are raku - you cannot see how rough the finish on these guys.

Mugs and vases/containers.

Bisqued items with wax resist applied. The wax keeps the glaze from sticking to the bottoms. [Note the covered container in the lower left-hand corner.

I had divided them up by the type of glaze I was going to use. But went home without glazing. I am rethinking (fretting).

Glazed and waiting for the kiln:

Most things went into the tenmoku.

Some got slashes of rutile next.

Two bowls and mug on the left will get a mottled blue glaze atop the tenmoku. The others were waiting for vainy - a weird glaze, but about my favorite.

While looking at glazes I notice we added a "candy apple green"! These guys are the first try with it (for me).

Waiting on the shelf with a wavy work by another student. I cannot wait to see it fired.

We filled the shelf.

I love this piece. I thought it might be a birdbath, but now I am not sure...some kind of centerpiece...a serving piece?

Glaze fired! As promised, the stuff came out of the kiln today. Some was amazing (BTW, the wavy thing above is for chips and dip. There is a bowl for the dip that rests on top.

Here are all the guys fresh out of the kiln - except the new covered container.

An accidental drop of wax on this bowl (and my lazy self) resulted in a new decoration for things. Will probably play with this NEXT semester.

Enjoying the "slashes." This is a B-mix bowl. Did not like the rest of the glaze, but chalking it up to learning.

The slashing is an easy decoration. And the green glaze turned out beautifully!

I threw this "little" container (it is really small....maybe four inches in diameter) at the beginning of the semester. I have wanted to play with driftwood handles. I will keep working on it.

Another view - the container isn't that nice, nor does the lid fit all that well, but I love figuring out how to attach the driftwood (two holes, natural cording, Girl Scout knots).

This is the large (6X8 inches) lidded container that the glaze loved.

I still have lots of work to do/skills to learn, but I can say that this guy turned out lovely.

 After unloading the glaze kiln I dried some pieces to go in the next bisque fire and threw some bowls and mugs. It was not a good throwing day. I don't know what was wrong, but everything was a little wonky. Still, I am trying to take advantage of the last few days of the semester.

Miscellaneous:

Raku clay - wanted to make a couple more cups and a container.

Tried out the Gruene Butter clay too. Two mugs (one is awfully thin at the bottom) and a bowl. Trimming will clean them up a bit. I actually did trim them up and added handles today. These mugs are pretty small. They may be more cups than mugs.

NOTES:

*http://www.robertcomptonpottery.com/Method%20of%20Raku-Firing-Pottery.htm

** vs. non-functional pottery (like sculpture) See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic_art

 Note on clay: I was not crazy about the way the B-mix or the raku glazed with some of my favorite glazes. It did glaze beautifully with the green apple glaze. I suspect part of the reason is that the clay is a white body and the glaze was slightly thinner than normal. More testing required.