Sole Plates Glazed
May 2009 – This is an easy fun project for kids and novice potters. Roll slab (any size), impress with interesting textures, including the soles of shoes, place slab on piece of foam (upholstery foam works great), center a block of wood or other rigid surface on top of the slab, press down firmly to create the rim of the plate. Adapted from “Plate-O-Matic”, Pottery Making Illustrated, June 2008.
11 Photos
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This post marks the end of my after school clay class and is the last project that we made. We met for the very last time on Tuesday, May 19th – a fact that makes me a little sad, but also happy in that my future holds different opportunities now. I haven’t been as attentive to blogging as my routine normally dictates. Lots of little activities are interrupting the flow of my schedule – parties, field trips, ceremonies and finally the school comes to an abrupt halt on Friday at 10am when my daughter will collect her 5th grade “continuation” certificate in a final ceremony. I don’t know about her but, I’m excited for the future (both hers and mine).
Meanwhile, I’ve been reading up a storm. I am attempting to do all the recreational reading that I can stand before school starts for me mid-August since I know that everything I read after August 16th will most likely be landscape/ecology related . I just finished The Handmaid’s Tale and Falling Angels this week and am looking for a few more good reads. I have Pollan’s Botany of Desire and What is the What and by Dave Eggers at the ready right now.
Read anything good lately?
Cynthia
This and That
Throwing porcelain – teacher appreciation gifts
I’ve been a little quiet on the blogging front this holiday weekend. I think it’s because my hubby is off work and we’ve been trying to fit some gardening in between thunder storms, playing games, and just hanging out with friends. I did manage to get a little throwing in on Thursday – I realized that only a week remained until the last day of school and decided to throw some mugs for teacher appreciation good bye gifts. I need to attach the handles this morning and then bisque fire tomorrow evening. Nothing like last minute planning…. I suppose worst case scenario, these don’t get fired and I purchase something. I tried, I really did.
Colored porcelain clay
I have also decided to work with some colored porcelain a là Jane Peiser style and dried some slip that I had previously colored with Mason Stains.
Meanwhile, we’ve been making plans for our big trip to Europe this June and spent the early morning looking at apartments for short term rent in Paris. Hubby and I decided to take a short side trip to Paris during the latter half of our trip to Germany – maybe 4-5 nights max. Round trip plane tickets from Frankfurt to Paris on Air France are only $113- per person and by getting an apartment for the 3 of us, we’ll save on dining out expenses. I’ve found some really cool, centrally located pedestrian friendly ones that aren’t terribly expensive – anywhere from 95 – 120 € which I don’t think is terribly bad for Paris. (The exchange rate is currently $1.39 to 1€.)
Gotta go make some handles,
Cynthia
P.S. We’re going to see the new Star Trek movie today – I’ve heard some positive reviews from friends who’ve seen it.
From slab to lidded box
Stoneware lidded boxes
Better late than never, I have begun production mode (well for me at least) in an effort to have a decent amount of work at the Colorado Potters Guild show opening April 30th here in Denver. I keep forgetting to ask whether or not we are allowed to bring ceramic jewelry for sale, because then I would have no trouble producing 105 pieces in time for the show. Some members do bring buttons and in my mind the leap from buttons to jewelry isn’t a big one, though as a newer member I don’t want to raise the ire of any of the long time members. While I haven’t made any buttons in awhile, I might bring some to this show because they aren’t terribly hard to make and I could crank some out pretty fast.
Meanwhile, my covered boxes are my best sellers – though this time around, I’m breaking the mold a bit. Instead of hand painting the designs in under-glaze like this one that I made last year:
Hand painted lizard box before glazing
I will be adding laser toner decals for the graphic decorations like I did for this one recently:
Seashore themed porcelain box with decals
On the one hand, it loses part of the hand made touch by not painting the boxes, but it does speed up production significantly. Speaking of speeding things up, I was perusing the Essential Guide to Mold Making & Slip Casting Ceramics by Andrew Martin again yesterday while I had some time to kill and think the boxes are the perfect candidates for slip casting! No time to make any right now with a deadline looming. I’ll wait until after the show is over. Until then, I make these boxes 3 – 5 at a time small batch style like artisanal wine or cheese depending on how large of a slab I roll the night before and the size of the boxes I decide to make from each slab. 
I roll a slab from about 4-5 pounds of clay (not sure because I don’t weigh it) and then after smoothing each side with a Sherrill rib, I place the slab between 2 pieces of dry wall to allow it to become leather hard overnight. I suppose these fall into the category of “stiff slab construction” as opposed to soft – which I also dabble in occasionally.
I’m getting better at prying myself away from the computer in the morning – so with no further adieu…
Signing off for the day,
~Cynthia
P.S. I know my theme looks rather boring right now, but several people using IE were having difficulties with my site. I need to personalize this one, but in the meantime, I’m pretending to be a minimalist [as if such a thing were possible].
Making connections
Handbuilt Bowl with text stamped glazed
Is it really Friday already? Time seems to be set on fast forward right now, ‘cuz it’s really flying! This bowl is from the archives [well sort of] - late January, I made some slab built projects inspired by a Bill Van Gilder video I watched. Simple projects that aren’t too difficult to reproduce.
Hand built bowl with text stamp
This bowl was basically constructed using a slab of clay which I draped over a wood block and allowed to set up before removing the block. Any type or shape of support could be used for different types of plates, bowls or platters – more infinite possibilities.
Side view of bowl
I was a little worried about the very wide rim slumping in the glaze fire, but was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t. I did use a ^6 white stoneware that I purchased from Mile Hi Ceramics called “Ash” that I like a lot. I use it for almost all my hand built work now a days. I don’t like to throw with Ash, however because of the extra grog. I suppose I’m spoiled by silky smooth porcelain clays I’ve been using.
Me on left and Deb Babcock in her studio/gallery
While I was in Steamboat Springs, CO last week, I arranged to catch up with Deb Babcock – fellow Etsy Mud Team Member and potter. Last Thursday, after skiing in the am and needing to rest my burning thighs thanks to 17″ of new powder, I took the afternoon off and went into town to meet Deb. She has a great studio space that also serves as gallery/shop space in a strip mall enroute to the ski hill. I was impressed with how bright and spacious her studio is compared to my dingy garagio. She works right in the middle of her shop, but keeps it very tidy due to the retail aspect of her studio. Very cool and creative use of space. It was interesting to learn that 33% of her income comes from Etsy sales and the rest from her shop and local shows. Her busy time is surprisingly Summer/Fall thanks to the enormous snow drifts piled high in front of the shop – but not so surprising since my favorite time to visit the mountains is in the summer!
I really enjoyed meeting a fellow potter and learning how Deb makes it work. And, I am enjoying my new hand built Blue Sky Pottery mug that I purchased from her shop – the photographs in her Etsy shop don’t do her work justice.
Have a great weekend,
~Cynthia
P.S. I’m not sure I like the new WordPress Theme or not – but I was getting bored of the old one. I’m still adding stuff to my side bars, including some music that I’m really groovin’ on right now (that’s coming, I have to reduce the file sizes – so nothing yet). It looks pretty good in Firefox (my browser of choice), but like crap in Internet Explorer. So, if you’re reading this in IE, my apologies – I need to get under the hood and mess with the coding a bit to clean it up. What the hell – why can’t code look the same accross all browsers? That’s hooey.
