Posts Tagged “pottery making illustrated”

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

Me, Lillian, Annie, Cindy, Diane and Kathi

On Saturday, I took a one day hand-building workshop with 5 other people taught by Annie Chrietzberg at her studio.  In addition to being an accomplished artist, Annie has been writing articles for Pottery Making Illustrated and graciously shared her hand-building techniques and templates with us.  If you visit her website, check out her workshop schedule and download her some of templates for your own use.  I highly recommend taking one of her workshops if you happen to be in the Denver area or any other of her scheduled workshop cities this year.

Kathi and I making handles for our cups

We’re really paying attention and don’t want to miss a thing!

Rolling out slabs for our platters

Another demo

My cup

I’m super excited about learning how to make a more refined cup using hand-building techniques.  When I first saw Annie’s gorgeous cups, mugs and tumblers I wondering how she got that texture on her cups that look like they could have been thrown on a wheel.  The cups we made are HUGE!  I’m guesstimating that these would hold upwards of 20 ounces once fired.  That’s a whole lot o joe!  I love coffee, although occasionally, I drink a good strong cup of English tea or green tea.  Check out all the different ways one can drink coffee.

We also made a small platter with double sided texture.  These are really cool!  I imagine that I will further shun my wheel in favor of hand-building techniques.  My challenge now is to change the templates and to add my own textures.  One of my main concerns when taking a workshop is that my work will end up looking like the instructors.  So, I’ve got some work to do to make these my own.

I really enjoyed the day and am ready to make some new work!

Have a great week,

~Cynthia

Several weeks ago, I visited the Clay Stamps website and tried to purchase a bevel-o-matic clay tool via their Paypal Buy Now Link. I didn’t receive a confirmation or shipping info after committing to purchase. A week later, an email appeared in my inbox from Paypal informing me that Clay Stamps has not claimed my payment and that I should contact them or cancel my purchase. After emailing and receiving no response, I reluctantly canceled my order. I always like to give someone the benefit of the doubt - they could have been on vacation or something. I was going to follow up with a phone call to the number listed on the website, but after telling my Father in Law the story and showing him a photo of a handmade bevel tool in a recent article in Pottery Making Illustated (go to the link on bottom right, titled “Beyond the Square”), he responded, “I can make you one!”

He made me 2! What a great Mother’s Day present and perfect timing. The Summer Art Market is looming in about 5 weeks, and I want to do some more hand-building since my little porcelain boxes sold out at the Guild Show last weekend.

Meanwhile, I’ve been shopping! I need to stop, but I keep finding great independent artists whose work I adore. Friday, I visited the Castle Clay artist’s show and purchased an Asian inspired salt fired mug by Don Cox. Yesterday, I went to a mead & sushi tasting event that featured work by local artists and purchased some steam-punk pins by “The Pork Shop Show” and a reproduction print mounted on a 1″ gallery wood support by Two Little Fruits.

Both the mead and the sushi were delicious! The mead was home brew - and I’ve decided I need to make some for us after I research recipes - finally I’d be able to use the Grolsch bottles with the little ceramic swing top stoppers that my husband has been collecting over the years and won’t let go of. The lemon variety tasted a bit like Limoncello, and I love lemons. The sushi chef likes to do home parties, and I asked him if he would be adverse to doing a kid’s party. I don’t know if you remember, but, my 10 year old daughter loves herself some sushi. She always wants to go out to the most expensive sushi restaurant in town for her birthday every year. It would be cool to learn how to make it ourselves!

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

~Cynthia