It's Still Vacation at Brickhouse

I've been going in a little less frequently lately because Brickhouse is still on break, and I have to pay $5 every time I go. I know that's not much, but I'm also trying to look for a job, so I'm slightly busier. (I have to say that rewriting your resume for each job is necessary and annoying).

So, I went in yesterday to fix the twisty vase's bottom where I could see I'd created a hole. I think it's good now, thanks to advice from my teacher and a little care on my part. I patched it up by scraping away some of the already drying clay so that the shavings went into the hole and completing that with a tiny coil and some slip. I decided to even out all the edges that way so that only the center has the twisty pattern and it has a decent foot upon which to sit. It's wrapped in plastic again for slow drying. I may have to do more smoothing, since it may end up with plastic wrinkles. I'm hopeful this time, since the seam held fine. My teacher would like to see the whole thing a little smoother, also.

I glazed these two little plates to go under my planter pots a while ago, but they still haven't come out of the kiln.



The brownish-looking glaze will be a rich brown, called New Tyler Amber, and the splashes are a faux celadon glaze that, when placed over the New Tyler Amber, make a cool speckled effect of green with brown speckles. They match the pots, currently sitting on plates that don't match (the one in the front is sitting on a plain yellow plate and the one in the back is sitting on a white plate with black painted swirls). Also, the current plates are full-size dinner plates, while the pots have diameters of probably less than six inches. The bottom of the pots is the New Tyler Amber and the top is the faux celadon over New Tyler Amber.



I attempted to ensure that the bottom view of the side of the pot still has the dark New Tyler Amber showing, but that the splashes of faux celadon make clear that these plates are specific to these pots. They are also proportionately sized.

If anyone needs planters like this, let me know. These are fairly easy. I can make different colors, of course.

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).

The Lamps Are Bases

Well, the photos from the iPhone don't do these justice, and neither do the cheap lamp kits I bought. I need better lamp kits and I'm going to have a bit of difficulty finding shades that make me happy. A few people have suggested that I need to make my own shades, and I think they may be right. The cheap lamp kits seemed fine, until these were done. Now the cheap brass looks cheap and shiny.

I will definitely make more, once I figure out better lamp kits.

The flowers are forget-me-nots and orange blossoms with a little liberty on colors. I wanted romantic, loving flowers for our bedroom, but orange blossoms are actually white. I "upped" the color a bit to make them prettier. The forget-me-nots are a little more purple than they would be in real life, but not as purple as the photo makes them seem. The blue sky spray really turned out exactly as I would have wanted it.

Questions? Comments?

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!

Tile "Quilt"

I made these tiles because I envisioned a "quilt" of ceramic tiles. Despite the constant reminder from my hand-building teacher, who wanted me to apply a white porcelain slip before carving and painting, I left them "clay" colored for painting. I really wanted them to look like clay pieces, not watercolors or cloth or anything else. I made the tiles large (8"x8") and very thin.

The idea was to have a 3x3 grid of tiles, tied together with leather shoelace-like string, and put in a slightly rustic "Arts and Crafts" like frame. After I made 11 tiles, the people at the studio looked through them and decided that this group "goes together." You can see the stack of other tiles in the top right corner of the photo in which I attempted to capture the layout (wow, the iPhone and I are not a good combination for good photos). My teacher came up with the idea that I stagger them, as seen in the last photo. I would place them in two rows, staggered, to create a 2x6 grid, or really a 2x12 grid, with every other space being blank.

I had several problems in my grand vision. First, the "sky blue" -- actually called turquoise by the underglaze manufacture -- burnt out a little bit in the kiln, leaving some obvious tile showing through, and some obvious brush strokes. Second, I applied a little heavily the green glaze that I used to make an underwater effect on the octopus and starfish. Third, I didn't apply the same glaze to the fish, which is problematic since it is also underwater.

I think I will do another project like this, making the tiles smaller (maybe 6"x6") and applying porcelain slip to the tiles. I also want to figure out how to spray the sky or water on before making the rest of the composition, or by applying wax to the rest of the composition, so that I avoid uneven brushstrokes.

These are horrible photos, so I don't think that anyone will see the success here. I think I will finish the composition with a frame and take a proper photo with a real camera because, honestly, there is a lot to love with these also.

Slab Mugs with Curlicue Handles and Japanese Maple Leaf

As usual, I went to Brickhouse after exercising (made it 1.5 hours today), and procrastinating significantly (still don't know why I'm prone to that, but, dang, I am prone to procrastinating).

I finished the three mugs I started earlier.




They haven't even been measured yet, so I'm about halfway, but the hardest halfway as far as the time and work commitment. Plus, I already figured out how I want to glaze them, thanks to an amazing guy.

I also glazed my twisty vase, though I forgot to take a photo, which is probably for the best since just glazed vases tend to just look "fuzzy." I had put it on a bottom shelf, too dark for iPhone, when I thought of it.

A great day, I must say. Tomorrow, I will make more mugs to match.