Twisty Vase

This is the second in a series of "twisty" vases. I wanted to do a twisty vase, but my teacher convinced me out of the idea, and instead I created a vase that was a cylinder with applied twists that reminded me of seaweed. I should probably take photos of that one and post it too, even though it was a while ago.

Still, I wanted a truly twisted vase, where I made a cylindrical vase and then twisted it physically. It was kind of a hilarious process, since it turned out my hands weren't strong enough to twist the clay once it was a cylinder, I ended up putting it between my knees, which held the vase still, while twisting the cylinder with my hands.

The first attempt was actually a disaster -- I twisted too much at the bottom and the whole thing collapsed. The second time, I used a cardboard cylinder in the middle of my clay cylinder and twisted carefully from top and bottom, a little at a time.

To glaze, I sprayed on a dark blue, scraped off the glaze at the curvy bits, sprayed a cream-colored glaze there, and then sprayed with a dark, olive green to give it the speckled texture. Please zoom in on the glaze. It turned out really cool. Thanks to my glaze guru at Brickhouse!