Whistles

I was in the mood to glaze the other day, and I think that is part of it -- I MUST be in the mood to glaze or I just draw a big b l a n k. These whistles had also sat neglected in the bisque form on my shelves, but now they are glazed and I am happy with how they turned out.


Here's the bad news. The apple whistle I made fell during the firing and melted with the small teeny vase. They are now one -- forever!

Little Teapots / Spicepots

I made these so long ago. Then they sat on my shelf in the bisque state for months and months until I finally glazed them last week. I used to be so good at doing everything in a timely manner, but sometime in the last year or so not so much.

I just couldn't decide what it was I had wanted to do with these. I remembered it was a simple idea but I was determinded not to glaze until I either remembered or came up with something new. Then, the other day I was poking through my shelves, it was shortly after I knocked the handle off a mug, when I remembered SIMPLE GLAZE AND LEAVE BARE CLAY ON HANDLES AND SPOUNTS AND LIDS. So easy. I can't believe I forgot, but I remembered (as I usually always do eventually) and here they are. I'm pleased with the results.

Experimenting with Shapes

I don't have any photos at the moment, but I have been experimenting with some home-made stamp designs. Lately I've been obsessed with squares, rectangles, circles, ovals, etc ... patterns have always interested me. I have a bunch of stamps ready to go into the kiln for a bisque firing and then I will be able to stamp shapes, teeny tiny shapes, into some of my beads. Come to think of it, I do have the bead which started this particular obsession. Here it is:

I stamped these beads with a square tip of a drill bit set. As I got to looking at it, I started thinking about mandalas and the different geometrical shapes on those and that got me wondering how I can fit such a lovely texture pattern on a bead.

Square Hollow Forms

In open lab I decided to get play with the square hollow extruder die. It took me about 20 minutes to try to figure out how to put it together and then I set about extruding a small amount of clay.


It took me a while to figure out what to make. I should have thought ahead and looked at a book I have on this subject before going to class. However, it was all one of those spur of the moment type of projects so I had to think really hard. I swear my brain HURT from all that thinking -- worse than MATH! Finally I decided to make tea candle houses.


I had a bit of square hollow clay forms leftover so I made this small square/round mug. Let's hope I don't break off the handle.

Big Vat

Here it is. It is finished. Unfortunately there is a teeny tiny horizontal crack near the bottom. It does not go all the way through the piece, but it probably will fully crack either in the bisque fire or the glaze firing. I don't know. Who wants to place a bet? Or should I just break it up into little bitty bits and reclaim the clay? I don't know. I'm open to it all.

Because I'm CLUMSY I have all but gotten a bit detached to most of my pieces, this one included. Or at least I try. I think it cracked because I placed it within about 5 feet of one of the bisque kilns in the classroom. That was stupid. Really dumb. I should have known better. I would never do that in my own studio. Of course, the kiln is in the backyard so it is a mute point. However, in the future I will keep this in mind.

I will make and continue to make careless mistakes until in the very fiber of my being I automatically avoid them. Someday. It's all a learning process, right?

And this morning, for the third time in a row, as I was moving the bisque/greenware around the shelves to figure out what my next kiln load should be, I again knocked a mug and the handle flew off. Again. I'm a bit frustrated with myself. I liked this mug. I liked the last mug. I really liked the mug before that.

This blog is for my successes and my failures and my growth as an potter. Aren't you excited to see that I have room for lots of growth. It is way much nicer to have room to grow than already knowing it all. What would be the fun in that? Discoveries are great and fun and in time I will have more successes than failures and maybe in time I will become less klutzy. Yes?

Today in Ceramics Class ....

As soon as I walked in the door I got this out and added coils to both pots. I can tell by the photo that I pushed both of these a bit too far. They will have to harden and by Monday I will have to paddle them into shape. The 'top' is about ready for a neck. The 'bottom' needs a bottom, then it can be turned over after it is hardened. So I think two more classes, or by this time next week, I should have it built.


We were told to take between 25 and 50 (or more) pounds of clay and compress them into a big block. We were able to mold it anything any shape we wanted (like a fish or a gorilla face, or whatever). I chose to make an lamp or a vase with abstract geometrical designs. When it dries a bit, we will take these and cut them in half and scoop out the excess clay and put it back together again. SO FUN!


This is a technique called Mish-ee-mow-kee. I do not know how it is really spelled and it is the first word that Google was not able to help me figure out. Either that, or I did not hear the correct pronunciation. First a design is carved into the leather-hard clay and a slip is applied. It is allowed to dry and then it is scraped. The colored slip will stay in the crevice. I've done this with beads before but I didn't know it had a name. I'm getting so very smart in ceramics class. lol! (I found this link online and I bet this it) http://www.e-yakimono.net/guide/html/mishima.html


Here is the bowl that came out of the pit fire. If I had burnished it more it would have been more shiny. However, our professor gave us some wax to buff these up a bit. Having never done this before, it sure was fun. I've seen some very exquisite pieces before and I can see how people could get hooked doing this sort of thing.

18 Inch Coiled Form -- Ancient Vessel

The "big" assignment in Ceramics is to make a coiled form that is at least 18 inches high. Another assignment was to find an ancient form and 'copy' it. Enterprising students could combine these two assignments. That's what I have done. I figured there would be quite a bit of shrinkage, at least 10 percent, so I decided to make mine 23 inches and remove all doubt.


However, this is so big that I'm putting it together in two pieces. The top photo is the bottom, and you have to imagine it upside down. I'm coiling smaller and smaller until it is almost to a point.

This photo is the top piece, and it is right side up. After it is the right size, I will have to add a neck and attach the entire thing to the bottom piece. This is a very fun project and the best part is that the school kiln will be big enough to fire it!

Bisque Pinchpots

Here are two pinch pots that the ceramics class I belong to pulled out of the kiln this morning. This one was pinched, and then I coiled on top of the pinch pot. Next I put in some scraffito and applied sprigs. It is about 8 inches tall.


This is also a pinch pot bowl. This one I stamped with a homemade stamp (not commercial). The other pinch pot I made is in the pit firing. It will be ready on Wednesday morning. I have made three more pinch pots but so far do not have photos. The assignment was to make 6 pinch pots, three alike (with the same types of bottoms).

These both look crooked, but they aren't. I just didn't take time in Picasa to straighten them out. It's my photo taking that is crooked! lol!

Pit Firing

Today in Ceramics, we got to do a pit firing. First we wrapped our pieces in toilet paper. Apparently the paper will help to protect the pot during the firing as well as provide firing materal.


The next step was to load the can with some bricks in the bottom. I'm not sure why these are here other than to help hold the can down as well as perhaps retain heat. I had run inside to grab my camera so I missed this part.




If I had been thinking harder, I would have asked if these wood chips are the same woodchips I used to buy for my (now deceased) guinea pig Miss "B". However, I was busy snapping photos and thinking, "A PIT FIRING, SO COOL! A PIT FIRING!"






After all the pots were loaded into the trash can, it was lit. Then after the fire was going good, a lid was placed on it, but not all the way. It needs to have some air in order to continue to burn. The lid will help to circulate the air and keep things hot. This will get up to about 1300 degrees, about the lowest clay can be fired and form some sort of crystals. In other words, if it gets wet it won't fall apart, but these pots certainly will not be food safe.

However, they should be jet black when they come out. Yay!

Leah Leitson Workshop

I had the pleasure of attending a Leah Leitson workshop at the Dallas Craft Guilt this last weekend. I love her work. On a website promoting her workshop it says,

"Leah works exclusively in porcelain. Her work is predominantly inspired by the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century decorative arts, particularly utilitarian table wares and Sevres porcelain, as well as being inspired by plant forms in nature."

(mudfire.com ). If you'd like to look at her work, they have quite a few photos on that website link, also. What I appreciated most about this workshop was learning how to touch and manipulate a freshly thrown wheel form and transform it into a very different sort of pot.

The picture above has been transformed into a teapot and now sports a handle and a lid. It is a closed form that I put lobes into with a wooden rib, and then after it was leatherhard, paddled into a somewhat square shape.


These are some forms I threw. The one in the foreground is a bowl that I put lobes into and then closed up. Since this photo was taken I've added some legs. My daughter wants me to just leave it like this (with legs), but I want to continue working with it.

My goal is that by the time I've integrated these new techniques, that nothing I produce will look like Leah, but like me. I do NOT want to be a copycat, though I realize that being a copycat is how we initially learn. So if anything I produce looks like Leah, I will be labeling it, "Made after a workshop with Leah Leitson".

Leah is a wonderful teacher. This was a hands on workshop and I have never thrown so much pottery in three days, ever. I also have never thrown Porcelain clay before last weekend. I threw a clay by Laguna named "Miller 550" and I have fallen in love love love with it.

Ancient Seal

This is interesting. My assignment in Ceramics I was to find ancient pottery and write a small paper. My paper is actually on a vessel, but I found this beauty in an auction from 3500-3000 BC and it was going for a mere $450.

(from the website)

"The linear design represents two human figures crossed. The design can also be read as a double lined cross under a single line cross of "X" shape. D: 41 mm. Not published in Sarianidi, Die Kunst Des Alten Afghanistan. This remarkable seal has the density of limestone. A choice and very rare seal.">

Looks like it would make a pretty bead.

Pinch Pots

I got this picture off the google images search "Pinch Pots" ... it's from Pottery.About.Com. I might start bringing in my small camera to class. Hopeflly people won't think I'm too odd wanting to document things.

As some may have guessed, by now, today in Ceramics I, we tackled the Pinch Pots. I've made two sad little pinch pots in the five years I've been playing with clay, and I have to say that it was a repeat performance today. The main idea was to get it symmetrical and the thickness of the walls even.

I mostly did that, but the last ball of clay I did was the best. We were to save our three best. Mine were all awfully awful so I saved them all. Maybe I'll have a better perspective on Monday. However, tonight I'm going to get some cone 6 clay and do the same thing here, at home. Fun fun!

Here are some pinch pot links I found online:
Wikipedia
Tutorial

And then I found this link! And it is beautiful!!!
Pinch Pot Whistle!

Anchors Away! A P100 mask

This is what I bought today. It is an AOSafety QuickLatch® Facepiece with Voice Transmission System Assembly QuickLatch. Apparently it comes in three sizes. I don't know which size I bought, though it does seem to fit just fine. The Latch allows for quick donning & doffing. Facilitates quick communication. NIOSH Approved. $43. Bonus: I won't ever need to buy a new set of lungs.

This was on my supply list for the Ceramics I class I am taking. Okay, so it wasn't actually on the list, what the professor actually said was, "Buy a double-banded mask and make certain it is a #8210, don't go overboard and buy that big two cylinder mask."

So what did I do? I bought the biggie mask. In school, on my report cards, it commonly had the phrase, "Natalie would do SO much better in class if she would just follow directions."

Actually, I am going to go and get a more disposable type P100 mask for class. It is about $7 and just as good. Bonus: I won't look like an alien in class. At home, in my studio, or outside (holding lumber while hubby saws through a board), I will use the biggie mask and I will use the snot out of that thing!

I like my biggie mask though, because I am chemically sensitive and paranoid as well. I'm one of those persons that when I can't sleep I imagine every horrible possible most painful and scary detail as to ways I could damage/poison myself if I'm not careful enough.

Bead Jar Winner!

The actual number of beads in the jar was 734. Fellow Etsian Theresa from Theresa Rose Designs came closest without going over with her guess of 720! She wins over $50 worth of NKP Beads!


These are Theresa's 7 favorites! Visit Theresa Rose's Etsy store today for some gorgeous jewelry designs!

Congratulations, Theresa! I hope you will love these handpainted unique one of a kind beads!

School Daze

I've definitely decided to go ahead and get a Bachelors of Fine Arts so I am back at college (again). I love school. I've gone to college off and on since my children were babies. The joke is that I've been 20 years at a Junior College with only 2 more years to go. I actually have three classes left to finish up the Associates Degree, but I've procrastinated about taking them (Speech, PE, and one more class in humanities). I can't figure out if I'm going to go ahead and take those and get the associates or just go onto the University of Texas in Arlington. Decisions! Decisions!

However, until at least one of my children graduates, we can't afford big college costs. My oldest should graduate at the end of May. That means I could start in the fall. However, I still have about 20 credits that I could take at the community college that will transfer and they are only about $150 for three hours (and the price goes DOWN with each course, not UP like at big cost college). I do believe I will continue there for financial reasons and then make the big switch.

I'm about to start the second week of a Ceramics I class and so far we have discovered the joys of wedging reclaim clay. This is something I'm familiar with as I have been doing this in my own studio for a few years. Actually, I have about 300 pounds of reclaim clay in various stages of drying that needs reclaiming but I just keep buying new clay. I never throw the rest out. However, I am seriously in need of a used pugmill!!! Anybody want to get rid of one, really cheap? Until then, it looks I am going to continue to be a human pugmill machine.

The best thing about this class is I will get to experiment with equipment and clay and firings that are not possible in my home studio. SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!