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.

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.