Sunday, April 28, 2013

Ceramics: Slab Mug




Clay: Soldate 60
Underglaze: Chartreuse and Black
Glaze: Clear

This was a dart mug I constructed in a hurry and it shows.  An 11-year-old, Audrey made a more graceful and beautiful mug.  She also used B-mix clay which I think is inherently more delicate and less "groggy" and therefore more ethereal in nature.  Here's my takeaway if I decide to make a dart mug again.  Use B-mix which looks more like porcelain than earthenware.  Roll my slab out thinner with a pony roller, which I recently purchased.  I now need a skinny wooden tool for reinforcing and closing seams.  Make the handle slimmer.  However, I do love the color of chartreuse on Soldate and then glazed, which would make a cool tile.

Ceramics: Teapot



Clay: Soldate 60
Glaze: Temmoku and Val's Turquoise
This was the first assignment in my beginning ceramics class: a pinchpot that our instructor neglected to tell us at the beginning to form into a teapot.  It's functional and food safe.  I like the handle though not the shape at the spout.  However, this was a good project to see how high fire glazes turn out.  I dipped the bottom in Temmoku--and I love that brown and then filled the bowl and filled and dipped the outside in Val's Turquoise.  I love the combination of brown and blues and greens and even the rough textures where the glaze "crawled" or where the glaze beaded up and left bare spots of bisque.  It's all a learning process, and it's all good!

Ceramics: Bowl







Handbuilt Slab Bowl
Clay:  Soldate 60
Underglaze:  Teddy Bear Brown on the outside of the bowl
Glaze: Stormy Blue on the inside and inside etching of the exterior bowl
I rather love this bowl.  I had  rolled out a slab on a Thursday evening and while waiting for the Soldate to dry to leather hard, the edges started to get crumbly-looking which lends a lacy look to the clay "fabric."  Studio mates commented how pretty the edges were after I texturized it with my instructor's roller, and so I didn't trim it off and rolled into a slab bowl rather than slab mug (the edges would've been too rough on the mouth).  I also love the contrast combination of brown with blues or greens.


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Ceramics: Wall Vase


 Clay: Soldate 60
 Glaze: Stormy Blue

Ceramics: Personal Salsa/Dip Bowl


Clay: Soldate 60
Underglaze: Black for lettering, antiquing
Glaze: Clear

Inscribed with "NO DOUBLE DIPPING," this is the first bowl I'd ever thrown on the pottery wheel.

Ceramics: Chocolate Dish


Clay: Soldate 60
Underglaze: Amaco Pomegranate and Black
Glaze: Clear

This is a pop-up plate, meaning I rolled out a slab of clay, which I then texturized with a floral-designed mat.  I then pressed the smaller mold with the clay underneath it into a larger mold in a foam pad in order to make the sides come up.  I then stamped it with a quote from Elie Wiesel and what you can't see because of the lighting is the imprint of a Cupid in the upper right.  After bisque-firing, I underglazed the plate with the black and the red and low-fired it again.  I'm assuming that the high firing of the clear glaze made the color in the center spread out though maybe I sponged off some of the pomegranate in order to see the lettering.  Interesting.