clay: butter box and soap dishes

The butter box I made from my tar paper template is done, and I think this size is gonna work for those supermarket butters that are a short rectangle.           

The clay body is Smooth Red from Clay Planet and the glaze is Gloss White from Laguna. I love the contrast between raw and smooth.

I did have to grind the cover a bit, and the plan this morning is to measure and cut on grid paper another template to trace on to tar paper and make another butter dish that's a bit longer. I also like that the top cover is narrow enough to pick it up with one hand and not need a handle though the butter dish that I'd made from speckled buff had a square handle to lend some visual interest to the pot.

I asked my student aide what they thought these pots were. They answered taco holder? business card holder? spoon rest? That made me chuckle. And I need to find the bisque soap dish in the kiln room that is rectangular and has a raised grid of lines.              

The larger soap dish if I remember correctly is stoneware glazed in Amaco Blue Rutile and Western Celadon. The smaller dish is glazed in Coyote Opal. Tomorrow my plan is to go to World Market and buy citrus-scented (my favorite) soaps to put in them. But maybe the soap dishes I make from now on should be more conventional looking.                                                                   

And here’s the butter box I made yesterday afternoon in the community studio while also under glazing my pear rattle.                             

I wish now in retrospect that I had made a more rounded handle, and I will probably remove it and sand the greenware top and bottom (make those sharp edges bullnosed). I’ve still more of this speckled buff clay, and so the plan next week is to make a round salt crock like the one I sold at the pottery popup.