Sunday, July 17, 2011

I can't believe it, but I'm almost done. My sister is getting married in October and for her place cards, she asked if I could throw little bud vases that would hold a little sprig of eucalyptus and a bamboo skewer with a name card attached to it. I said "sure, how many do you need?" She said "would 150 be too much to ask?"....
So I finished throwing the little vases this weekend (i did 160 to be on the safe side) and I only have about 40 left to trim and apply the little appliqué with their name and the wedding date. I ended up throwing 8 different shapes and they were all 400 grams of clay each and each shape was thrown 20 times. This let's each table have a different vase at each setting but every table will be the same.
This picture shows the 8 shapes and the second picture is a close up of the appliqué.


Monday, July 11, 2011

Just a few pots from the paper kiln

I have not polished them all yet, but here are a few, including what they looked like before cleaning and polishing.










Going to pick up pots in Bragg Creek this afternoon

I will post pictures of the finished work later

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Smok'in Pots in Bragg Creek

I was up and out early this morning. I went out to Bragg Creek (about a 45 minute drive west of Calgary) to build a paper kiln at my friend Loretta's place.
It is dirty, and tiring, but what part of making pottery isn't? Anyway, we started with a bed of cumpled up news paper, then small wood pieces, covered that with a layer of wood chips, and a layer of sawdust. Straw was used to pack in around the edge to keep the sawdust from leaking out and was used in this manner after each layer of pots. On top of the sawdust we sprinkled a special mixture of copper carb. mixed with other things like "Italian Seasoning". It contains a lot of salt, and was not so good for cooking, but it is good for low fire methods like this. On top of this bed of sawdust, we began layering on the pots. Then another layer of sawdust, another sprinkle of the copper carb mixture, and then a generous helping of moose poop, and then more pots. After a few layers of pots, we wrapped a heavy duty wire mesh around the the whole structure, and continued adding more pots, sawdust, straw, copper carb, moose pellets etc. Once all the layers were in place and a final layer of sawdust was added, we began the plastering process. A wheel barrow was filled with thick slip and heavy duty glossy magazine paper was dipped in and then laid out on the wire mesh. We covered the entire structure with one coat, making sure to leave two corners free for the smoke stacks. We wired 2 coffee cans to the 2 corners that did not have a burner port. The coffee cans were then plastered into place. After we had approximately 7 or 8 layers of clay and papers, we lit it on fire with a tiger torch. This kiln will slowly smolder for about 24 hours (maybe more, maybe less). Here are some pictures to document the process.







Now we wait, hope it doesn't rain and go back when it cools down to dig out the pots. Then we clean them up and apply a layer of paste wax to give them a little protection and shine.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

She's been gone, gone, gone, she's been gone so long.....But now she's back

It sure has been a while. I have been avoiding blogging, not because I didn't want to, but I have been so busy, and tired, and truth be told, I have not had much of interest to say.
To catch up since last time, I had posted a few times that I was going to take part in a paper kiln firing, but between the monsoons and fire bans, that did not take place as planned. However, we are good to go for this Sunday. Neither forest fires, tornadoes, or 100 year rainstorms will stop us, so I promise to take some good video and pics of the event and post them for all to see.
Aside from that, I have been commissioned by my sister Erin to make 150 little bud vases for her wedding. You heard correctly....150. I have broken the seemingly daunting task into bite sized pieces, and so far, it has not proved too onerous. If I throw 10 at a time, I only have to do that 15 times, and I can actually throw 2 batches of 10 before my mind wanders and I lose interest or get tired. I am also making a different shape with each batch, so she will have 15 different shapes (but I just crunched the numbers, and instead of 15 batches of 10,  I will have to do about 19 batches of 8). Here are a few pictures of the first two batches I threw. I have even created a stamp to apply their names and the wedding date. These are only 2 of the 5 shapes I have thrown so far.



I have also been working on some new lidded forms, specifically casseroles with some bolder handles:

Here is a video of me throwing a similar casserole


So in a nutshell, this is what I have been up to lately...and I will try to post a little more often from now on.