Soul Sole Plates
Shoe soles l-r Danskos, Tevas, Skechers
Please excuse my fun with homophones, but my students and I played around the other day in clay class with our shoes and some clay. While packing up unsold pots after the Colorado Potters Guild Spring show last weekend, I stopped to talk with Penny Woolsey, who also teaches clay classes to kids. I picked up one of her unsold pots which was a really cool plate with a textured rim, when she remarked, “Haven’t you ever made soul pots before with your students?” Of course, she didn’t mean “soul”, but rather “sole”. She explained the project to me and I thought, “Perfect!” – this is what we’ll make in the next class.
But, first, I had to try the project at home to make sure the kids could handle it. I set off for my closet in search of cool soles and came up with 3 pairs of shoes that worked – Danskos, Tevas and Skechers – yep, I’m practical that way aiming for comfort over style.
After rolling out a slab and cutting the basic shape – use a shoe to print texture into the clay
I used all three shoes for a variety of textures and only printed on the rim of the plate. Some of my students printed the entire slab with very cool results. The kids had a great time comparing cool sole textures and mixing and matching. I’m not sure anyone had ever looked at the bottom of their shoes before – I know I don’t normally make a practice out of it.
Using the "plate-o-matic" technique, I placed the slab on a piece of upholstery foam and used a wood block to press down in the center which causes the rim to pop up – presto magic instant plate
I saw this in a Pottery Making Illustrated article last year and really loved the technique. The article is easily found but is a direct download – so if you’re interested here’s the pdf version: Plate-O-Matic.
Leatherhard sole plate
My plate is drying and I didn’t get any photos of the kid’s plates taken because I decided to go ahead and load the kiln yesterday. I’m not firing till the weekend, but it’s another busy week and I’m trying to save time when and where I can.
Tomorrow, I head down town with my daughter’s class for the Denver Shakespeare Festival. It’s a lot of fun, but also exhausting. Most of the K-12 schools in Denver Public Schools are participating. It’s fun to see everyone all dressed up in period costumes and at their thespian best.
It’s almost the weekend,
~Cynthia
Kid’s Sculptures and New Large Mug Design
Hello everyone! I apologize for being a neglectful blogger the past week thanks in part to how busy I find myself this time of the year. Also, I came down with a bug this past week and barely had energy to do the those tasks that I absolutely have to do every day. I’m on the mend now and hope to resume life as normal.
My after school kid’s clay club made these adorable little sculptures two weeks ago and when I pulled them out of the kiln, I was so darn excited to see how they turned out. The project was inspired by a fellow Colorado Potter’s Guild member who makes fun little ceramic and metal insects. I asked Penny Woolsey if she would mind if I did a similar project with my kid’s clay class and she gave her blessing.
The sculptures are hand built and then the screws are added before bisque firing. I was a little nervous about the metal melting in the kiln, and even called the screw manufacturer to verify the metal that was used to to make this particular screw to assure myself that I wouldn’t have a kiln disaster on my hands. Here’s a list of different melting temperatures of various common metals – so once I established that my screws weren’t lead, brass, aluminum or other low melting point metals, I fired the sculptures. I was so excited to open the kiln and find these gems and hated to give them back to the kids.
Porcelain unfired mug
In the meantime, I managed to get in a few studio hours last week and made a new type of mug (new for me). The body is thrown and the handles and base are hand built. I’m going to fire a bisque kiln this afternoon and am looking forward to seeing how this one will fare. It’s a large mug – 16 oz. capacity or so.
Porcelain doesn’t hold up well to hand building in general which is why I have been using a white stoneware clay for my hand built mugs. I like the whiteness of the porcelain clay better than the stoneware clay, so this might be a good alternative.
Have a good week,
~Cynthia
