Twisty Vase Revisited

I saw some friends in Washington not too long ago who are posted overseas. One of them was nice enough to ask if she could have a "twisty vase," so I set about trying to make another one. The first was an absolute disaster. I cut it slightly too small for the cylinder I was using as a mold, so my friend helped me push it together, since the clay was extra thick due to a suggestion by my hand-building teacher (though I didn't want it thicker, I find it hard to disagree with someone who has decades of experience). To prep the cylinder so that clay wouldn't stick, I had wrapped it in newspaper. Well, we didn't notice that as we pushed the edges together, we wedged newspaper in the seam. When I tried to carefully pull it apart to try again, the whole thing collapsed, helping me to realize I hadn't dried the slab long enough.

So, next time, I rolled the slab to my preferred thickness and let it dry until I thought it was stronger. This time, I tried twisting right away, without reinforcing the seam. Bad idea. The whole thing came apart and because it was more dry than previously, it didn't want to be stuck together again. Again, the whole thing came apart and I threw it away.

Third time is, indeed a charm. I rolled the slab to my preferred thickness. I dried it until I could test it's willingness to stand by bending up a corner and seeing if it would stay. I cut it to the right size, and properly beveled the edges this time so that they overlapped well. I took the mold out and reinforced the seam with coils, and reinforced the bottom with coils also. Then, I put the mold back in the vase in order to twist it. It came apart several times, but a little at a time, and I had enough reinforcements that I could pull more clay over the cracks. I then worked more clay over the seam with a scraper and slip.





However, this time the bottom twisted too. I don't remember if I didn't add the bottom until after twisting. That seems unlikely, because it would be harder to attach after twisting, but I could have done it. One of my friends, whose work is amazing, said she liked the twisty bottom, so I decided to keep it.



It is under plastic, drying slowly. We'll see if this one cracks as it dries. Twisty vases are harder than I think they're going to be every time.

Flower Plates

I decided to attempt to make hand-built plates using a mold. I can throw plates, and I'll try to take pictures and post the two that I've thrown so far too, but they are a little heavy and I'm not quite happy with that for everyday use. So, I took the first mold at Brickhouse where we had eight of the same plate. The studio manager, who is an amazing handbuilder and brilliant at glazes, had said I could use his molds while he was on vacation, but I felt guilty borrowing those for my first attempt at plates. Of course, he actually came in while I was making these and told me again that I should use his molds (and, specifically, that these will likely warp in the kiln). So, my next set will certainly be with his molds. I just wish he were here to help me as I stumble ahead.

So, I set up my molds, made a lot of slabs and sprinkled corn starch over everything so they wouldn't stick. I then trimmed to the edge of the plates and kind of "banged" the plate on the table to get it to sink into the mold properly. I then cleaned up the edges to round them and added a hand-coiled foot on each. (I somehow forgot to take any photos of the bottom of the plate). I sprayed white slip on them so that the colors of the underglazes will turn out very bright after glazing. After they had all dried enough to carve, I carved this hand-drawn daisy-like flower into each one.

I took these photos after the plates had been "bisqued" as I was about to glaze them with clear glaze using the spray booth.









I thought anyone who actually reads this blog might like to see a little of the process, so the following are three photos of the spraying process for glazing.


One plate set on a kind of bat that has ball bearings that allow the two pieces to spin smoothly, creating a kind of hand-wheel. This makes it easier to apply glaze evenly in the round, though I found it wasn't all that helpful in applying glaze to plates, since they are so flat. The shelf is in the middle of the spray booth, suspended by molded ledges in the plastic hood.



This first photo shows the plate with glaze sprayed on it. You'll immediately note that clear glaze is not clear before firing, but rather thickly white.



The second photo shows the spray booth from slightly further away so that you can see the spray "gun" and the set up a little better. It's a little bit like an airbrush, but with glaze filled in the container. The idea of the booth, as my Office of Research Safety friends would tell you is that a large fan pulls air away from you through a filter to try to prevent you breathing the glaze. I also wear a proper face mask. The glazes are safe to eat on after firing, especially because the shiny part of the glaze encases anything you shouldn't eat, but the particulates would not necessarily be healthy to breath (e.g., copper, cobalt).

I Broke A Bowl to See My Progress

A few weeks ago, I threw this bowl (below) as part of my practice of "throwing off the hump." Throwing off the hump saves time in that you wedge a large piece of clay, rather than several smaller pieces, and you throw a succession of small pieces (e.g., bowls, mugs), cutting each off the large hump as you go. I looked around for a video on someone else's website to show what "throwing off the hump" is, but I couldn't find one that wasn't trying to sell something. So, if you want to see the technique, I suggest doing your own search and choosing one you like.

I've been throwing off the hump as a way to practice throwing many pieces one after the other that I then cut off and recycle. It's a useful technique for when I'm good enough to sell pieces, so that I can throw half a dozen bowls off one wedged piece of clay.

I kept this one sample to practice trimming, since I don't need a single rice bowl. As I said to my teacher, I either need eight of these or zero. So, after letting it dry enough to trim, I gave it a foot, which you can see in the right bottom of the photo. I can honestly say I'm very comfortable with my trimming skills. I think the feet that I give my pieces goes with their shapes and that I can mirror the inside of the form with the outside bottom well. It also lets me know that my pieces must be fairly well centered, or trimming them would be difficult.

However, what I did not realize is that "S" cracks are very common in throwing off the hump because you don't have the wheel or bat directly under the bottom of your piece to help with compression. I learned yesterday that I need to use a wooden tool to put the compression in after trimming. I must not have been paying attention the first lesson for trimming, because I hadn't even known to use something after trimming to push the grog back in for months, but since learning that, I've been using a soft rubber "kidney" because it makes such a lovely smoothness or a sharp metal kidney to give it nearly a burnish. It turns out that this isn't enough to compress the bottom. So, this bowl had a tiny crack in it after it finished drying.

Since I had never intended to fire it, my teacher helped me break it so that we could see my progress in evenness. Here it is:



As you can see, it is perfectly even. My joy upon seeing that was huge. I am progressing. This would have been a beautiful rice bowl.

Everyday Mugs -- Japanese Maple Leaf

These are my everyday mugs now. Well, kind of. Half of these are everyday mugs and half are too tall. I made them over two days and somehow measured the height incorrectly on half. So, three are perfect for everyday tea and three would be great if we liked big mugs of coffee. The ones we're using everyday are very comfortable and perfect for a big mug of milk-and-sugar tea. The one I like best is actually the least perfectly round. Still, I'm going to have to make at least a few more of the correct size.

The handles were very successful in comfort--wide enough to be supportive, no sharp edges, and the curlicue can be helpfully supportive also. The thickness is perfect for "mouth feel" so that you don't feel like it's a drippy cup. The tall ones are too heavy when full for me to like them, but are okay. The shorter ones are not too heavy.

Anyone who has read this blog at all will realize that I haven't posted every day recently. However, I have actually made three more mugs (shorter still with sneezeweed flowers in sgraffito) and glazed them too. I have also made eight dinner plates with sgraffito daisy-like flowers painted in eight different colors. Those are waiting for the kiln.

Further, I got better at registration in silkscreen, learning how to fine-tune by hand using mylar, so that I finished one more round of "Got Fish?" on paper. T-shirts to come.

I also threw slabs on the potter wheel. However, I threw all those back in to be recycled for various reasons. I will post on those reasons tomorrow.