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
