What's going on these days...

Oh boy.  I am sick.  I have had a temperature hovering around 100 degrees for the last three days (and possibly the day before that).  After sitting on my ass for about 72 hours, I'm finally starting to feel like a person again.  This means I should do stuff.

My studio has been making incremental progress.  I met with an electrician on Thursday, and he says he can get the kiln wired up properly pretty easily (for 1/6 of what it was going to cost to wire up my previous space).  I am just waiting on the homeowner, now; she has other electrical work she wants done, so she was going to contact him directly to talk about that.

I spoke today with the son-in-law of one of my coworkers, who is a contractor/carpenter type person, and he's going to help me make my wedging table soon - maybe within the next week or two.  I am looking forward to recycling clay properly on plaster; this canvas covered board thing that I have right now is not working that well for me.

Another task is finally selling this tabletop wheel that is sitting uselessly in my studio.  Anyone know someone who wants one?  It's two-speed, quite durable, heavy and in great condition.

Anyway, I've been getting to work on kickstarter rewards - 11 shot classes, 2 mugs, 1 stein, and 1 bowl in various stages of completion at the moment.  Once we get the kiln plugged in and I order a vent and get that going, it should be underway - hopefully by the end of the month, although that's frighteningly close at this point.  I want to post some pictures of what I've been doing, but iPhoto is being weird and not recognizing my phone at the moment.  Back when I figure that out.

-Lorraine

Picture Post: Gosforth part two

These bowls were not meant to be similar in shape, but it would have been nice. The one on the right was first, and was thrown more closely using Dick's instructions than the one on the left. They're both a little tall for their width, in my opinion, making them less pleasing to me as bowls... that's something I'll have to work on since most of my bowls end up being this kind of shape.

These pots *were* meant to be the same shape... something I was only partially successful at. The one on the left was thrown with Dick providing assistance, and the one on the right was when I tried to copy the first one several hours/a day later (I don't remember exactly). Thus, the one on the right is a bit smaller than the one on the left, and it also has less of the smooth curve of the original. I patently need to work on making sets of things, so that they're this amount of similar I suppose is good, as it's a good leaping off point for making sets. However, I would that they were more similar.


Plates! My favorites, ever! (sarcasm) Actually, all my plates (all three) went ok. Dick's method for pulling them out flat is somewhat different than I used to do, and despite my difficulty at the beginning with it, I think it works better. Neither of these ended up being quite the size I wanted... I always forget about the shrinkage! Or, rather, I forget quite how much there is. The one on the left I pulled up after widening it, for to make a casserole dish or some such like that. The one on the right I deliberately made with more clay so that it could be larger, and I was relatively pleased with how it ended up.


These are my raku pots. I only used three glazes: white, black, and copper. The copper makes the turquoise-y color, and white and black together make blue. Raku is delightfully unpredictable, so these did not come out quite as I imagined them. After cleaning them up a bit (they end up with quite a bit of extra carbon on) I did find shiny colors that I like... if I had these to hold, turn about, and consider, I might become fond of them. As it is I'll have to reserve judgement until August/September/whenever.

Picture Post: Gosforth

This picture shows several different pieces, some of which I subsequently destroyed and some of which I kept and continued to finish. The vase in the background I made with Dick's assistance; the shape is very pleasing, and although it is a little bit small, it's well balanced. The vases I originally made to be the gifts for others, but as I kept looking at them, over the week, I became less and less fond of them, finally tossing them into my clay to recycle. They were all right, but unturned (untrimmed) they showed the skill I still had yet to learn. The two jar tops I did throw lids to finish - except I forgot or underestimated how much the jars had already shrunk, and my lids ended up too big. I had to slowly trim down the outsides in order to make the lids fit the jars well enough. Embarrassing... but it was ok because I learned about making jars and lids. Plus I ended up with three useful jars.


These candle-holders were originally goblets in my mind, but Barbara correctly pointed out that it would be easier to throw goblets than handbuild, so I did candle-holders. They were made by using a press mold, which was essentially the inside of a plastic food container lined with saran wrap. What was, for me, the most important and creative part of the process was deciding upon and making the bases for each individual piece. All of the candle-holders have a base that deals with the number three; most have three sections providing support for the central base. I wanted them to look like a set, despite the differences between each of them, so I used slips in a single color family (actually, hard to avoid since most of the slips they had were of a single part of the spectrum, from yellow to blue). If you look closely at the picture, you may be able to distinguish five different slip colors. Or maybe not. But they're all there - light green used twice, dark green three times; turquoise used thrice, light blue once, and dark blue thrice again. To fill out the rest, I simply left the clay as it was - hoping that the colors work well with it. I'm extremely nervous about these pieces; I inadvertently became fond of them as I was making the different bases for each holder, because after feeling creatively stale, suddenly I had ideas just flowing from my hands. I am desperate to see how they turn out, but as they're being fired with the rest of the earthenware stuff, there aren't even going to be pictures until late August. Aaaaagh.
I almost left this pitcher too late to make it into, well, a pitcher. Also, it's being strangely hard for me to spell pitcher today. Anyhoo... I just threw it as a vase-like pot (5lbs of clay, go me!) and then forgot to make it into a pitcher until it was almost leather hard. I remoistened the top and edges and let it sit and then slowly began pulling the spout. I actually borrowed one of Dick's creamers from the shop so that I could attempt to create a dripless spout as he does. I don't know how well it worked, but it does rather closely resemble one of his so we'll see. The handle I expected to have to fight in order to get a long enough handle, but although it was far from perfect I was able to pull a handle on my first try. Another point for the experience versus the time spent away. Of course I put it on slightly diagonal. Whatever.




And here are my finished jars. The two in the back are the ones I had to scrape repeatedly to make the edges fit into the tops of the jars. The front one I didn't even turn - I liked it as it was, and it fit the jar rather well from the start. I think that the one on the right looks a little like a bobby's cap - a police cap for those from the non-UK side of the pond. Like me. I'm not from the UK. Yet.



This was a piece I made out of my destroyed first 5lb piece. Dick was helping me throw it to be taller than the seven inches I couldn't get past, and his hand got caught on it at one point like does tend to just happen. So I cut the top off and threw this with the bottom. I love this shape but I forget about it - Bev had thrown one with Dick's assistance the day before, and I badly wanted to do one myself as well. It's far from perfectly spherical, especially after I took it off the wheel, but I'm ok with that... sometimes.