NKPdesigns

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Orange Clay Whistle and Textured Vase


Lately I have been focused on the "beady" side of things and not so much on the pottery. However, yesterday after rolling about 100 beads I had to get on on the pottery side of things. I was going to make a lid for the vase (pictured below) but I got sidetracked. I pushed the clay into a handmade thrown bisque mold. I looked at it and thought, OH, this mold is perfect for a round clay whistle. I made another 'side' and attached them together. Up to this point the clay whistle bodies have been thrown on the wheel, but this one is hand-build. I'm thinking of laying contrasting and complementing colors, opaque and transparent, some on top, some juxtaposed next to, and the value of each will be important as well. Lets see if it survives the bisque-firing first though.


I've traveled so much this summer (New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts) that I haven't been on the wheel at all. It felt great to wedge this clay and pull it into this shape. It's a pretty enough shape but I got to looking at it and wondering what simple thing I could do to make it different than a store bought vase. I looked through some homemade stamps and didn't see anything I liked. Then I saw a bisque bead that I had textured with a stick and thought, "Perfect!" So I rolled it over the vase in a couple of different directions. I'm hoping that the glaze I choose will emphasize this in a particular way that pops out this simplistic texture

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