2017-03-16 - Thursday - Clay

Thursday was all about clay.

A bunch of us from Clayworks went to lunch and afterwards went to Herb Cohen's house to see his art collection. It was quite a collection to tour.

This is one of Herb's pieces.

Later that evening at Clayworks Ju-Ian showed me the clay portrait of me that she's been working on. I think she's captured me pretty well.

Look at the second photo, not the first. I included the first one to show how flat the piece looks lying down. As soon as you stand it up and the light creates the natural shadows of a face it looks much more realistic.

Lying down --flat.

Upright, much more natural.

Ju-Ian poking me in the eyes.

Later still, I carved the base of the snorkel pot and finished the abstract piece I was working on.

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2015-02-19 - Thursday - Pots

On Wednesday night I tried to make a large garlic pot, but it slumped so I recycled the clay. I also made another pot that turned out a bit heavy in the bottom third.

Thursday night I tried carving some of the weight out of the second pot, but I wasn't happy with it so I recycled that one too.

I threw these two pots and called it a night.

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2015-02-15 - Sunday - Vases and VSVs

Sunday I carved another vase, threw a foot on the last one, and made eighteen VSVs (Very Small Vessels) or weed pots. It's been a while since I made VSVs and I throw them "off the hump". I would have had twenty, but I cut the bottom out of one taking it off the hump and ripped the last one. The way I choose to look at it, at ninety percent I'm doing better than ever.

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2015-02-14 - Saturday - Vases and dinner

Saturday I carved three vases and threw a foot on another one. After that I had to get home and change since we were meeting our friends for our long-delayed Christmas get-together. I know, it's Valentine's Day, but we're all so busy nowadays it's hard to schedule these things.

Vase carving.

Better view of all sides.

Front one is upright without an added foot while
the back one is upside down with a new foot.

Lisa, Tom, Karen, Pam, Chip, and me.
Tom does not normally smile like that, he's just not right.

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2014-07-17 - Thursday - New pots

On Thursday I modified some of the pots I made earlier in the week.  I carved one and cleaned up the other.

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2014-06-05 - Thursday - Carved pot

Thursday I carved the round pot.  I really carved it.  We'll see what the glaze does.

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2014-05-15 - Thursday - New work

On Thursday I carved and decorated the two-piece pot and made some tea bowls, but I'm not really thrilled with any of the forms.  I may or may not keep them when I go back and look at them again.

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June 3 - More pots

Saturday I made some new pieces, decorated some others, and carved the big pot.  The new pieces have some looseness to them, which I've been working toward.  I sometimes want my pots to be a bit looser and more organic and it's an effort when you've been working at making them clean and precise for so long.

I put some wonky handles and decorative banding on the two phoenix pieces destined for raku and I'm planning on slipping them before the bisque to start with a white canvas.

I carved the big phoenix "castle" pot to remove some of the weight from the bottom third and also add some visual interest and remove some of the rigidness from it.

I made two pots from recycled clay and had fun playing with them, putting four accent handles on one of them.  I have some interesting plans for the glazing on those.

The last pot I made has a simple form.  It is made with craggy crunch and I wedged vermiculite into the clay before I started.  It's destined for the raku kiln and while I want the pot to be blackened with carbon, the vermiculite should add some gold highlights.  We shall see.  In the meantime I have something to add to that pot in the near future.

It's all about the process...

Mess 'o pots.

Two decorated pots and one pleasantly wonky one.

One traditional, one wonky, and one simple.

As if the craggy crunch wasn't rough enough,
the vermiculite adds more.

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