More old stuff... and excitement!

another thing I made in August - but the good news is that my next pottery class starts this week!!! so that means lots of new stuff to be made + no more social life for me on Monday-Wednesday and Saturday morning :)



Carved Matte Orange Ellipse Vase; Red/white clay mix, bird matte orange glaze with raspberry lightly airbrushed on base; 7" high by 4" wide
This was something I just made randomly one day and thought "oh, this doesnt suck too much, I'll keep it!" When I took it off the wheel i pressed the sides in a little to make it more into an ellipse shape (which, of course, made it a bear to trim. I know thats what you all were thinking when i said "ellipse." ) After I trimmed it I carved out a few lines on it too, just to add some texture. I had just bought a new tool for doing airbrushing and wanted to try putting on a thin, gradated layer of raspberry on top of the bird matte because I had had some success with that in the past. Looks like that layer was too thin (the human-powered airbrush is HARD to use!) and so only a little pink shows through. I'm definitely going to try that technique again.

More August - big big bowl

Amber Ribbed Mixing Bowl;
red/white mix clay; amber celedon glaze outer, white glaze inner; 9" diameter and 8" tall
Gift to the Collection of the Grabowski Family of Pacifica, California
This is one of the biggest things I've made... also one of the last in August. I was really happy that I was able to get something that high and wide and with relatively thin walls. The day before I trimmed it I got a new tool at an art store and so when I was trimming this I decided to use that tool to create ribs all along the outside. I am really happy with how that came out, since it lets the amber glaze pool in the crevices but also it provides a good grip on the bowl for using it as a mixing vessel.
One cool thing that happened in the ribs is that the glaze that pooled actually formed tiny tiny purple crystals in some places!! chemistry is WEIRD

More from August - Plates!

Set of 4 Grey Dinner Plates
Red/white clay mix; white and clear glaze; 9.5" diameter
After I learned how to make plates and did a few random ones for practice, I decided I wanted to make a set. Sets are hard!!! Each of these started off with 6 pounds of clay (which is a lot. a typical mug would be 1 or 1.5 lbs.) I think they are fairly good for a first try at sets (nearly the same diameter, nearly the same height and thickness.) I wanted some of the texture and color of the clay to show through, so I thinned out some white glaze and did a first layer, then took some regular white glaze and did the designs on the rim with a small brush. Afterwards I put a layer of clear on the whole thing. I was hoping that more of the red (rather than grey) of the clay would show through, but not too bad for a first attempt. I also noticed that on the undersides where I trimmed the pieces and had only coated clear glaze there was a REALLY cool swirl/mix effect from when I combined the 3 lbs red with 3 lbs white... so now i'm thinking I might try that again and only use clear glaze. Anyway, now I have a set of dinner plates!

August 07 (Part DEUX)

Just got some more stuff back from the glaze kiln (yaaaaay) - two lidded jars and 3 plates. Here is one of the jars (i need better light than this cloudy fall sky will provide to photograph the other.) The 3 plates are of a set of 4, so pics will wait until I have them all










Pink Bird Matte Lidded Jar; white/red mix clay, rasberry glaze layered over bird matte orange; 4" wide by 5" tall
This was the first lidded item I made. Lids are hard! This one is actually a little too small for the piece, but it does the job well enough considering all I'm putting in it are cotton balls. I really like the effect of these glazes... the first layer is a matte orange color and then I layered a really intense pink on it, so I love that it came out all spotty and only a little pink. For some reason the lid part got what looks like a thinner layer of the pink, so I'll have to be more careful next time. I just glazed a vase in a similar combination so maybe that will come out more clean

August 07 (the month I lived in the studio) Part UN

Below are the things I have gotten back from the glaze kiln... but there are a TON more things that are yet to come!! On their way back are 4 matching large dinner plates, 4 matching salad plates, two lidded jars, a couple really big mixing bowls, a few oddly-shaped vases, a wide serving bowl, and a child's tea set. I'm pretty sure there' is bated breath somewhere out there...
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Gold Grecian Vase; white clay with golden green glaze; 6" tall and 5" wide
Wedding gift to the collection of Mrs. M. and Mr. A Woodworth of Melrose
I had done a lot of moderately odd shaped stuff and wanted to do something somewhat traditional, so I made this vase with a very classic shape. I also for a while had been working exclusively in red/white mix clay (which has the strength of red but is more soft like white) and wanted to see if it had improved my technique with the pure white. Looks like it had! I hadnt been able to pull up nearly this tall before. after I trimmed it I also added little carvings into the bottom half of it to add some texture. There is a double layer of the semi-transparent glaze to give it an intense color and to accentuate the carvings. The people at the studio really seemed to like this piece.

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Lithium Ripple Vase; Red/white clay mix with Lithium Brown glaze; 9" tall and 4" wide
this is one of the tallest things I've finished to this point. It started as a plane straight column and I collared in at various points to make the ripples. The glaze is a simple coat of one type, and has metallic specs in it. I think now I'm going to experiment with some colors over the Lithium to see what kinds of coll effects I'll get.

July 07 - gettin the hang of it

Round Mocha Hobbit Bowl; Red/white clay mix, mocha brown glaze with poured hobbit hazel partial overglaze; 7" diameter and 4" high
This was the largest thing I had made at the time, a deep bowl with a large foot trimmed into the bottom. I LOVE how the hobbit hazel glaze made these speckled blueish areas on top of the brown

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Open Mocha Hobbit Bowl; Red/white clay mix, mocha brown glaze with poured hobbit hazel partial overglaze; 8" diameter and 4" high
This bowl has a different shape than the one above, but I liked the Round Bowl's glaze so much that I did something similar here

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Celedon Tile Sculpture; White clay with double layer of celedon glaze; arrangement approx 2' wide and 1.5' high; Acquired by the collection of Mr. D. Bort of The Fenway
I wanted to do something a little sculptural, off the wheel, that I could hang in the apartment. these tiles have a lip on the back and are meant to hang on a wall together, loosely arranged. I'm not sure how I feel about the final result... maybe it will be one of those 'sketch for xyz' things that real artists make, and then the real XYZ is a masterpiece. right...



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Bird Matte Lunch Plate; White clay with birde matte orange glaze; 8.5" diameter
This was my second attempt at a plate. It has a somewhat recessed bottom with a wide lip. This glaze is neat with all the texture but really hard to work with, since the way it drips on actually shows on the surface... I'll have to experiment more.

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Hobbit Mug; Red/white clay mix, Hobbit Hazel glaze with clear overlayer on top half; 5" tall and 3" diameter
Gift to the Collection of Ms. Holly Mullally of Seattle
I wanted to make a somewhat chunky mug and to play around with this cool glaze, and this was the result. good enough to use at work, at least

June 07 - Not-shabby stuff

Small two-tone plate; White clay, celedon and white glazes; 7" diameter
This plate rocks my world. First plate I ever made, and I just love how the celedon glaze pools in the ridges and crackles all over to form a really neat texture.

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Green Water Pitcher; White clay with Green semi-transparent glaze; 6" tall and 4" wide
This was my first attempt at a pitcher. The spout isnt well executed, making it dribble with pouring, so it works much better as a vase. I really like this glaze's ridges and crackles (a theme in my tastes, as we'll see.) It also pooled around the handle connection in a neat way.






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Chip and Salsa Set; White clay, Yellow and white glaze; 12" diameter and 2.5" tall
I love this set. I made it on my 3rd class, and the two pieces are separateable (but designed to sit one inside the other for chips and dip.) I planned to use a yellow semi-matte glaze with a white glaze rim on top, but the white did this really weird/cool thing where it speckled most of the way down the sides

May 07 - Early Work (i.e. the stuff that sucks a little bit)

Small cereal bowl; white clay with blue 'fleckners' glaze; 5" diameter, 3" tall
I eat out of this bowl almost every day. I made this in my 2nd class, so it doesnt suck quite as much as the first stuff I made. I like that the glaze pools in the ridges made when it was thrown on the wheel


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Large cereal bowl; White clay, blue and forest green semi-transparent glaze; 7" diameter, 2.5" tall.
This is one of the first things I made, and is THE first thing I glazed. So it kind of sucks. Actually the bowl is pretty nice, but the glaze was awful... it was originally light blue with a brown design in the middle, but it looked AWFUL so I put a forest green over it. The green and blue combined in a funny way that isnt quite as horrible, so I kept it.



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Crappy blue and black bowl.
I only post this to illustrate how bad my first attempt at the potters wheel (since 10th grade at least) was and how far I've come. The shape sucks. The glaze was so bad I had to re-glaze, and THAT was so bad that I covered most of it in a layer of black glaze in addition. OK now that you have seen it please avert your eyes upwards.