Thursday - Yet more yunomis

Thursday I made --you guessed it, more yunomis.  These are made from cone 5 clays instead of the cone 10 ones I have made up until now.  The left side is earthen red, and the right side is little loafers.

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2010-05-30 Clayworks - Making with a vengence

I decided I needed to make some more creamer sets since they're fun to make and people seem to like them.  The last batch I made with earthen red and I thought I would like to try a lighter clay with some of our translucent glazes so I made these using little loafers.  Little loafers is a low fire version of loafer's glory.

After seeing Adrienne make them for years, I finally attempted an oval casserole and made a large one using the little loafers.  I am thinking about glazing it with our translucent amber and/or green.  We'll see how it develops.

After that, it was on to glazing some cone 10 pieces because the kiln was being loaded on 5/31.  Work, work, work.  It feeds the soul.

Little loafers creamer sets.

More playful sets.

The oval casserole with the lid slab upside down on top of it.

Glazed cone 10 pieces.

Ju-Ian glazing her work.

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2010-03-20 Saturday - Frenzied making

I went to Clayworks on Saturday to try and get some things made before I lost studio access for the break.

I made some more of the earthen red bowls and some more orangstone slap trays.  I also tried to make some straight-sided orangestone bowls, but after the first one came out well, I tossed the next three for one reason or another.  I'm trying to get a straight-sided shape that will take a handle well.  I'll try again next session.

Part of the work I planned on getting done.

I like the spiral on this slap tray.

2010-03-04 Thursday - New Bowls

I made several of these bowls and am thrilled with them.  They are earthen red with white slip and translucent amber glaze.  I will be making more using this glaze combination in the future.

 

  

2009-09-23 Wednesday - Class time

Wednesday night class at Clayworks. I made some lids for the pots I made on Saturday (and forgot to photograph). I made some more crackle finished pots out of phoenix on Saturday. One has blue slip and one has black. These should be interesting since the clay will fire mostly gray.

I'm trying to get more volume in my pots. I want them to command some space and don't just live in someone else's. Step by step I'm getting more comfortable in my clay skin.

Lids (upside down).

Alternate lids and a small pot.

My earthen red pot was fired.

2009-09-17 Thursday - Glazing

I went to the studio to glaze some earthen red pieces I made. One was thrown and then altered, and the rest were (are you sitting down?) ...hand built!

I don't do much hand building, but I really had fun with these pieces. I made them in between classes when I didn't have access to a wheel. I was just playing around with these, but I think I will try some serious work soon.

2009-08-29 Saturday - Clayworks

Went into Clayworks on Saturday to finish up my glazing for the cone 10 kiln firing that was slated for Sunday night. The usual Saturday crew was there and it was fun catching up with everyone. In between glaze layers I did some hand-building with slabs in earthen red to pass the time.

Robin, Cindy, and Becky.

Turns out the kiln firing has been postponed since there is not enough student work. We will try again for September 13th. The hardest part will be staying away from the studio until September 16th when classes start. It feels like an eternity. Maybe I need to start knitting.

2009-08-23 Sunday - Clayworks

I went into Clayworks for a while on Saturday AND Sunday this weekend. I got a lot done (but never as much as I wished to accomplish). It was great to feel productive after being so washed out by the heat in the studio lately.

I finished up most of my orangestone and switched to earthen red to make some more mugs and and "paintable" pots. Unfortunately my reclaimed porcelain (helios) is not quite ready --it still has the consistency and look of vanilla icing. I enjoy working with all different types of clay. Each clay influences the type of pots I throw, but I love to mix it up. I was thinking this afternoon that I haven't seen anyone make really tall pots in earthen red, so I'll have to try it.

Not a bad afternoon's work.

When I got home from Clayworks I went out to put some watermelon rinds in the compost pile and saw some more fungus. It's everywhere this year with all the rain we've had.

The old pallet I use to keep the dog
from running through the compost pile.

It's a whole forest in miniature.

While I was out there I thought
I'd document the tomatoes.

Still in progress.
So many tomatoes, so little time.

2009-06-04 Thursday Painting Pots

Thursday night I was back at Clayworks painting earthenware pots. I am trying different scenes, but most of it is rather naive, primitive, or juvenile looking. Every once in a while I am really pleased with one or two, but I have quite a ways to go to bring up the average. Not having done any painting for thirty years has taken it's toll on my admittedly minor skills. I'll keep practicing. Onward and upward.

Painting, painting, painting.

Last of the three pitchers-turned-vases.

Saturday 2009-03-14 Pi day

While today was "Pi Day" (3/14) and I made two pies (an apple and a cherry), I forgot to photograph them. It's just as well; they tested good, but they weren't really photogenic.

I only got one out of four tasks done today at the studio (well, two out of five if you count bringing the cherry pie with me). Lots more work to do on my current batch of earthen red creamer sets. Maybe on Sunday.

Stephanie had to get some green bagels.
Not too sure about them...

My Speedball underglazes came on Friday.
Can't wait to try them out.

I made some chicken breasts tonight
with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.
There might be a song there somewhere...

Thursday 2009-03-12

I handled some earthen red mugs and Greg made this udoo drum which looks intriguing.

Tuesday 2009-03-10

I got some earthen red pots that I made last year back from the glaze kiln. They got pretty dry on the shelf so I couldn't put handles on the small pitchers.

Small pots.

Thursday night 2009-03-05

Thursday night Greg's class was making brushes. It looked like fun, but I would rather purchase them and spend more time on clay.

Makin' brushes.

On Wednesday night, I handled some mugs I had thrown in earthen red on Saturday. On Thursday night I threw some more and hope to handle them on Saturday.




During our afternoon Muddy Fun class on Saturday we were told of a developing sink hole in the parking lot and we had to move our cars to higher ground. I'm sure the monsoons we were having were responsible for it and it didn't look too bad when I left that day. Thursday night it was opened up and it was apparently larger than I thought. Good catch for the parking lot crew.

Our studio is right downtown.

Barricade city.

The main site.

It's actually quite deep.

Life is deeper than it looks.

Memory? Not sure...

I have been bringing my camera to the studio religiously and keep forgetting to take pictures of the work. I have been in a big hurry to clean up and leave and after I get everything cleaned up I smack my forehead when I realize I have forgotten to photograph my work.

Things are going pretty well. I have thrown a bunch of larger orangestone and craggy crunch pots and some of them suffer from some compression cracks (ugh). I will be recycling them soon. It gets frustrating that even after all this time I can get a run of compression cracks when I least expect them. I seem to get less cracks throwing off the hump, go figure.

I am currently working on some orangestone and earthen red functional ware since I have a sale coming up on March 21. I have not sold at this venue before so I want to make sure I have a good range of items to offer.

Work, work, work...

Slip and glaze

Here are some of my earthenware pots that came out of Greg's firing. I tried some slip work and used some hare's fur blue. I will experiment with this some more in the near future.

Greg's pots - fired

I promised pics of Greg's finished pots and here are some of them from 12/24. I stopped by the studio to pick up my work and check out his. Great stuff. It's all a canvas.

Greg's pots

12/23/2008

Slipping and glazing at the studio with Greg. I just had to capture some of Greg's earthenware pieces on silicon (hmm... used to be 'on film'). He really does approach each piece as a canvas. Look for the finished pots in a later post.








Nice, huh? I now own one from the previous firing and I will post it as soon as I can.

Friday night slipping

Friday night I met Greg at Clayworks to get some of my earthenware pots into his bisque kiln. I slipped some of them and did some sgraffito on some of them. I don't have pictures of all of them since I rushed to get some of them into the kiln before Greg closed the lid. I also learned the hard way what Ron, Doug, and Hannah talk about when pouring slip --it can make the pot really soft and start eroding it away. Lesson learned.

When I got there Nick was furiously working on his wonderful planters and he stayed way too late as he left with me (and we all know how late that can be).

Some slipped and sgraffitoed pots.

This would be a syrup warmer.
Could you tell?


The fish pot.

Earthmovers Incorporated...

... just a couple of pounds at a time.