Random

This picture is of one of my favorites from the soda kiln we fired at Medalta and it does not even come close to its amazingness in real life.

When I got home from Medicine Hat I was exhausted, but the brain has been busy imagining new forms. This pitcher, although definately not a new shape in the world of ceramics, is for me. I have altered pots before but they always looked clumsy to me so I never really moved in that direction. I have given it a try again and I think I like it...

These teapots are also a bit of a change in direction for me, and I have made a few more to potentially go into a couple of teapot shows coming up this fall.

Finally, I threw these large bowls on the weekend. I know the two on the right were thrown from 9lbs of clay, but I think the one on the left was from 6.5 or 7lbs.

Whittling down my list of things to make

I spent the day in the studio on Sunday from 9am to 4pm and as you can see, it was a day spent assembling teapots and throwing cups, bowls, pitchers and platters. I also managed to get 3 other large platters trimmed. Because these platters are in the 16 - 18 inch range in diameter, I decided to punch holes in the foot ring to allow for a cord or wire loop to be added to allow the eventual owner to hang on their wall as ART as well as being a functional piece. Saturday was spent working at Ceramics Canada and I picked up 3 boxes of polar ice porcelain and a 44lb bag of Plainsman stoneware clear base. This is a new glaze product that Plainsman has developed and it is absolutely crystal clear. It works amazingly on the new polar ice body and it accepts mason stains really nice and will allow for a huge range of colours that I have not been able to use, until now. I am thinking tangerine, bright yellow, turquoise, red, purple, and then various concentrations of each one so that I have a nice range to choose from. The clear we have in the studio is a bit yellow, which is OK if you are only using stoneware bodies, but on a truly white porcelain, you don't want that, so I bit the bullet and will use Plainsman's clear base instead.
I am well on my way to my goal of 1200 pots before November this year. Since Dec 26, I have 105 pots thrown and in various stages of completion. That works out to 8.75 % of my goal.
I managed to pull a muscle in my back on the weekend, so I hope it resolves itself  before next weekend so I can plow ahead and maybe get 12 - 15 % of my goal achieved. If I can hit that 25% mark by the end of February, then it should be "easy" sailing from here on out. The true test will be in the glazing of course. This is the last stage where disaster can strike (unless you count packing breakage), so I am trying to count as few chickens as possible until they all hatch. It seems that I am focusing on those easy to knock out forms, like cups and bowls, but I know there are time sucking forms that I need to get making more of, like casseroles, more teapots, creamers and sugars (that match), etc that involve throwing multiple pots to make one pot (like the lids and spouts etc). Don't even get me started on handles, they are simple to make, but again, a time sucker when it comes to attaching them. 

Everything is the same, but different

This was the view from the front of Ceramics Canada on Saturday after the storm passed. One minute all was sunny and warm, the next it was a downpour. The aftermath was quite beautiful though. After work I went over to the studio to glaze a load of pots. They are all sort of the same, but each one is very different.

Studio Time

The first long weekend of the summer is now over (sigh). I did manage to get 3.5 full & uninterrupted days in the studio, so that is a bonus. I did a lot of black and white sgrafitto, I threw some mugs, and I may have lost my mind a bit, as I threw 1 20 lb canister, 1 10 lb canister, 1 5 lb canister and then topped it off with a 10 lb pitcher. I know full well that I will probably not sell these. Nobody in this town buys jars, let alone massive ones with no actual purpose other than to look pretty.

 This is the 20 lb canister

 Pretty jars all in a row(I know, the handles/lugs suck)


 I was asked to come up with a "chicken" teapot for a student that collects chickens, so this is what I came up with first:

and then just in case it wasn't that obvious, I made this one:

I filled in the time spent waiting for things to dry with these: