Bodies – Clay That Is…
A small sampling of clay stacked in the damp room of the Colorado Potters Guild
Last Monday, I had a decision to make and let’s just say that decisions are not made lightly by me and I had to call in back up. I had no clay – well, actually I have a lot of clay, but most of it needs to be reconstituted/reconditioned/recycled/whatever after over wintering in my garagio. What’s a girl to to do? I called in a life line…only she wasn’t in when I made the desperate call. So I marched back to the damp room of the Colorado Potters Guild, pulled up my big girl panties and confidently pulled out a 25# bag of P60 (^10 porcelain) determined that I was going to throw me some porcelain just like old times.
Handbuilt Platter by Kathleen Laurie
Luckily while I was dinking around the guild, looking for my shelves and gathering tools, my girlfriend, Kathleen called me back and talked me off the ledge. I hadn’t yet opened the P60 and calmly returned the bag to the damp room and replaced it with a bag of Dover (^10 white stoneware) after Kathleen kindly relayed how forgiving Dover clay is in contrast to the P60 – clearly she was trying to spare me from failure & a hurt ego after tenderly reaching out to the medium again. BTW, both the P60 and Dover clays are manufactured by Mile Hi Ceramics in Denver and Dover’s price tag is a bit friendlier too which is always a happy thing.
I should back track and explain my clay conundrum by telling you that I have mostly worked with ^6 clays and historically have fired my work in my own studio in previous years. So, choosing a new clay body with a different firing temperature is a bit daunting. I have to say that I really like Dover – it’s smooth, but not quite like porcelain. There’s still a bit of grog, but barely noticeable and the clay seems to hold up against abuse very well. I’m still practicing throwing and when I head into the guild tomorrow I’m going to try hand building again – my favorite pastime.
If choosing a clay body is difficult, wait till I get around to glazing…the choices at the guild are fantastic and I’ll be like a kid in a candy shop, paralyzed by the endless combinations of available delicacies.
Wiggle Wire Tool
Homemade Wiggle Wire Tool
I’ve noticed that quite a few people use a “wiggle wire” to cut their freshly thrown mugs off of the pottery wheel head which gives the bottom textural interest and also negates the need to trim a foot. I’ve wanted to try one for quite awhile and decided to attempt making a homemade one myself after I came up empty handed at my local ceramic supplier. I could order the Bill Van Gilder Wiggle Wire Tool online, but then I remembered that Emily writes a lot of tool reviews and “how to’s” so I went in search of a wiggle tool on her site. Lo and behold, I hit pay dirt!
I looked around my studio which also happens to be the woodworking/tool shop and gathered many of the tools and supplies I thought I might need to make one. The following images show how I made my wiggle wire tool – click on an image to enlarge.
Emily has a great list of resources of where to find wire to make a custom cut off wire tool on her blog. While making mine, I improvised and ended up using a fairly thick 19 gauge wire I had lying around the garage which makes it very sturdy – but after a quick web search, also found coiled springs at automotive shops online, hardware stores and other non-pottery general purpose shops. I tried using some thinner beading wire, but it was too fine and didn’t hold its shape. I also vaguely remember reading a tutorial in a clay magazine that suggested using piano wire – but since a piano shop is not on my regular route, I decided to skip this outlet.
Meanwhile, I did a little housekeeping yesterday – not actually cleaning my home, but rather straightening up all the files on my computer including documents, desktop, programs, email addresses, photos etc. I feel so much better now and can actually find what I’m looking for easily which should help me be more productive. I made & organized folders and deleted old files, duplicates, and addresses I don’t recognize and then did a complete maintenance clean up of my system.
This coming week, I have Monday – Friday, 9am – 3pm to work in the studio while my daughter is in school and I’m looking forward to getting back in the swing of things. I need to make work for 2 local Colorado galleries, and the Colorado Potters Guild Fall Sale is fast approaching – not to mention the holidays. I know I’ve written about Wholesalecrafts.com before, and this weekend I made the decision to drop this sales outlet. I took a hard look at my schedule & priorities and realize that at this point in my life, I just don’t have the time to devote to adding more obligations on top of everything else. It’s too much stress and that’s no way to live.
As my daughter grows older, needs me less, and eventually leaves home, I know there will be plenty of time to build a full time career out of clay. In the meantime, I’ll nurture my part time foray into clay and my patch work quilt of a life making ceramic work, being a mom, teaching, subbing and volunteering. Geez, in the past 2.75 years of blogging, I’ve learned so much about myself, my limitations, my inspiration and where I want to go and what I want to accomplish. It’s been a weird, exhilarating and humbling ride.
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
Coming soon to my website: glaze recipes, gallery images, how to’s!
Working on Cups, Boxes and Platters
Hand built stoneware cup with square base
I’m continuing to work on the lessons I learned in the workshop that I took last weekend in an effort to make the work my own. This cup is one of the results and one I’m going to continue developing. I like the square base and the round top. My original intention was to make the entire cup square, when my husband mentioned that a square rim might make the functionality tricky. He asked if the user would have to drink from a corner. Given that it’s a fairly large cup with a large rim expanse, I tended to agree with him. So, this cup was the result of our discussion.
Poppy relief printed stoneware box
Remember my lino-cuts? I finally finished one of the boxes 2 days ago. It’s drying slowly to minimize warping and cracking. I also switched my slip from a regular slip made from my clay body to a paper clay slip made with my clay body, which happens to be a white ^6 stoneware called Ash manufactured by Mile Hi Ceramics here in Denver. It’s gray in color before bisque firing, but will be white once fired. It’s not as white as the porcelain I throw with, but it does the trick. In reduction, this clay body (ash) would have a gray cast, unlike porcelain.
Top view of the Poppy Box which is larger at 7″ t x 5″ w not including knob and feet
Hand built stoneware platter with hollow handles
I made this with a combination of the techniques I learned in Annie’s workshop and another Pottery Making Illustrated article titled, “Plate-o-matic” written by Paul Wandless about the work of Amy Santaferraro. I can’t find a live link to PMI, so here’s the pdf: Plate-o-matic by Paul Wandless if you want to give it a go.
Side view of platter
The plate was made using Amy’s technique and then I added double sided textured and hollow decorative handles like I learned how to do in Annie’s class. The hollow handles are pretty darn cool if you ask me and I need to come up with my own templates now.
In the meantime, I must go and make some more work!
~Cynthia
Studio Progress
It has been a productive past few days around the Guajardo household! Inspired by Pinky’s home renovations, we have begun painting the trim in our home, clearing out the garage and general sprucing up of the homestead. After remodeling our house 1 1/2 years ago, we basically moved in and have been living with all sorts of unfinished projects. We sort of turned a blind eye to it all, until I said, “enough is enough!” We have to finish it, I feel like there’s something that still needs to be done every single day of the year and after the feng shui seminar, it’s just plain bad energy.
In addition to painting the trim we have begun the process of cleaning the garage in anticipation of my studio conversion. I’m working in there, but it’s not pretty. Functional, but not pretty. I can already picture the crisp white walls and light streaming in from the new windows…bits of inspriation and eye candy hung on the walls. Back to reality, we posted several items to our local Craigslist for free and for sale. We arranged the items for easy extraction from the garage that will find their way back into the house including an upright piano and a set of bedroom furniture. Stacks of boxes of slides are sitting in our dining room waiting to be scanned and archived.
And, I am letting a large portion of my stash of artist’s canvas go via Ebay. If you looking for cheap canvas – give my auctions a looksie. I have 6 packs of 6″ x 6″ x 3/4″ stretched (staple free edges) canvas starting at $7.99 per box and 6 packs of 16″ x 20″ x 3/4″ stretched (staple free edges) canvas starting at $15.99 per box. These are all still sealed in their boxes by the factory. I purchased these new from Art Supply Warehouse last year for $12.99 and $29.99 respectively.
In the meantime, I started coloring some of the porcelain clay with mason stains to begin some experimentation with millefiori for my ceramic pendants that I’ll be selling on Etsy.
Several people commented that they had no idea what 500 pounds of clay looked like. I purchase this pre-made from Mile Hi Ceramics by 50 pound boxes. It comes with 2 – 25 pound bags per box. Here’s what one bag looks like. So, I had 10 – 50 pound boxes in the back of my Pathfinder (one of the few times I need an SUV – that and camping). 
