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
Pottery Making Illustrated & Ceramic Arts Daily
Ceramic Arts Daily December 29 2008
Hello everyone! I’ve taken a bit of a blog break over the holidays, but have been forced out of my stupor to share some exciting news with you. In late October, local ceramic artist, Annie Chrietzberg, contacted me out of the blue to find out whether I would be interested in being part of an article she was writing for Pottery Making Illustrated featuring my handbuilt/wheel thrown mugs using lino-cuts which were inspired by a workshop I took last summer that Annie taught. Trying hard not to appear to eager, I calmly responded, “Sure, why not?” without trying to show my true crazy self that was bursting with excitement on the inside.
Two crazy busy weeks later, we had images, interview, how to’s etc. completed – did I mention that this happened the week before the Fall Colorado Potters Guild Show? I work well under pressure – sad but true. Annie retreated to write the article with her usual witty, yet informative style of writing and I went on with life as I know it.
Just today, I received a voice message from Annie alerting me to the fact that Ceramic Arts Daily featured her article in its daily email – hence the first blog post in a week. Thank you Annie & Bill Jones (editor) for including me in a great publication! To read the full article (for those of you who don’t subscribe to PMI – which I’m guessing is quite a few), here is a link to the full text on Ceramic Arts Daily.
Meanwhile, I’ve been working on the Colorado Potters Guild website the past few days. Progress is slow, but steady and the site is still most definitely under construction. As a bonus, I think I’ve found a new WordPress template for myself and while I’m in web mistress mode, I might as well make a few updates around here because my template isn’t totally compatible with the new version of WordPress 2.7.
Have a good week,
~Cynthia
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
Earth to Annie Workshop
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
