Another Cat Bowl, Another Cat Cup, as Well as Other Assorted Small Stuff

Here is an assorted hodgepodge of stuff. The yellow lemon is a pinch pot I was showing someone how to make that eventually turned into a small bowl for squeezing lemon juice into for pouring while cooking. The cat coffee mug speaks for itself. I had some trouble keeping the black and brown lines from bleeding, but the cup and handle turned out well. Can’t have everything.

The fish plate and the blue plate are the results of my first foray into porcelain. Oh my! I have to learn how to throw this clay. I threw several other pieces that fell apart. It’s a very smooth clay that has very little if any grog in it (bits of dried clay) that give it “tooth,” or something to hold onto. Because I got used to using a lot of water with other clays I’ve been using, the porcelain got saturated quickly and flopped while I was trying to work with it. I need to figure out how to manipulate it using much less water. Once bisqued and glazed though, porcelain is lovely and hard. It’s a joy to draw on, and the lines hold their shapes with little or no bleeding.

Mostly I’ve been working with clays that will fire to a high temperature (cone 10) for a salt glazing workshop I will be participating in in April: Phoenix and Loafer’s Glory. Those of us participating in the workshop will show up with roughly 10-15 pieces each (20 if you throw small like I do) to glaze and load into a special brick kiln. So, I have lots of pots in process that will show up in a batch near the end of April or beginning of May! Stay tuned!

In the meantime, also stay tuned for (hopefully) more successful porcelain pieces.

A Flower Pot on Which to Apply Glazes

Fun with Glazing. For this one, I dug out the designs in the leather-hard clay, then applied underglazes for bisquing. The ladybug is surface only, but also had a wax application before final glazing. The glazes are spearmint green in the inside and over the rim and white mandy on the outside. I then wiped the outer glaze off the leaf designs (and waxed the bugs). My “shoulda” for this one: I shoulda wiped the white glaze out of the black lines. I also forgot one leaf (not shown here).

I was at an art museum this weekend and was pleased to see that other [accomplished] ceramic artists also have issues with glazes that wander out of boundary lines. Remember the kid who always tried her best (and mostly succeeded) to color within the lines in coloring books? I was that kid!!