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
New Lino-Cut Printed Covered Stoneware Box
Flower Lino-Cut Printed Covered Box
Carving house shaped lino-cut
This particular house shaped lino-cut was made for the article that Annie Chrietzberg wrote for the current issue of Pottery Making Illustrated (Jan/Feb 2009 pg 17-20) and this is the first time I’ve actually used it to make something clay related – ’bout time wouldn’t you say? I did just have a flash of an idea as I wrote that last sentence – excuse me while I make a note to self…. Okay, I’m back now and will test my idea later today. In case you’re interested, the house template is 5″ tall from base to peak x 3.25″ wide – the roof begins at 3″ from the base. Don’t ask about the .25″ – it must have been a good idea at the time. Want the template? Click here: house-shaped-template-pdf
Click on one of the images below to see larger construction photos of the “House that Cynthia Built”:
The box is not quite finished yet – I still have to cut the lid off, add some feet and a knob. I made it on Monday, so it should be leather hard by now. I make most of my covered boxes with “stiff slabs” meaning that they are already at the leather hard stage by the time I assemble them. To make this box, however, I used 1 hour old fresh slabs since I needed fairly pliable clay so that I could bend the eves of the roof without worrying about cracking – yet the clay also needed to be slightly stiff so that the walls would not flop over during construction. As with many things in life, timing is everything. 
Meanwhile, I am chaperoning a field trip to the Denver Art Museum and the Colorado History Museum tomorrow with my daughter’s class. I’m bringing my camera and also a sketch pad so that I can get some ideas for new designs. I’m always amazed when I see pottery from eras past - still very fresh – or maybe it’s just that there are only so many things/forms etc. that one can make with clay so we keep reinventing the past? Not sure what the answer is.
See you Friday,
~Cynthia
Bisque Texture Plate
Gingko Bisque Texture Plate about 12 inches x 18 inches
Last fall, I made a bisque texture plate by impressing leaves from a ginkgo tree that I planted in my front yard about 2 years ago. As you can see from the photo, it cracked right smack down the middle (a crack developed along one of the stems while drying and then during bisque firing, the heat did the rest). It doesn’t mean that I can’t use it anymore, but the crack limits the size of work that I can make with it. Each side is still large enough for me to make the base for a hand-built mug (see below) and when I had an hour to spend in my garagio the other day which wasn’t enough time to really get into any kind of production mode, but just long enough to test out some of this plate’s other possibilities.
Hand Built Ginkgo Printed Mug
Ginkgo Texture Close-up
The texture is pretty to look at, but also very delicate and fine which proved a little problematic for printing purposes. After my first try, the impression was spotty at best, so I had to smooth out the clay and try again. Since my bisque plate is fairly delicate, I placed a towel underneath the plate and then put my clay slab on top and used a rubber mallet to make sure that the entire surface would be left with an even impression. After tapping the slab with the mallet, I used a rolling pin and my favorite Sherrill rubber rib to smooth out the clay on the non-printed side.
Ginkgo Plate Trio – still green
Since I knew I didn’t have enough time to make a mug, I decided to make a few small tea bag/soy sauce dipping sized dishes with the amount of clay that I had impressed and ready to go. I’ve been lacking motivation after taking such a long break from my studio, but know that doing something even if it’s small, is a step in the right direction in regards to getting back into some kind of a routine.
Small Ginkgo Plate
As with any type of printing – whether on paper or clay, the reverse is always true and what shows up. If you take another look at the ginkgo mug (above), you’ll notice that the ginkgo leaves are not raised as compared with these little plates. That’s because I impressed actual leaves into the slab I used for the mug, and I used the bisque plate for this one which left a raised impression. I’m not sure which one I like better – I’ll have to decide after I glaze it. If I prefer the former, I’ll have to make another impression of the bisque texture plate and then bisque this one – or wait till spring when my tree leafs out again.
Pink Glazed Flower Pendant
I’m still making jewelry – this one is available in my Etsy Shop for $20.00.
Porcelain pendant with slip inlay – still green
To make the jewelry just a bit more interesting, I tried my hand at doing a bit of mishima or slip inlay on a porcelain pendant. After it’s glazed and fired, I’m going to add a ceramic laser toner decal for a third layer. It might be just a bit too busy with the slip inlay, glaze and decal, but it will be a good experiment. I was a bit too hasty when I removed the excess slip and then I sanded fairly vigorously on top of that. Note to self – don’t rush…. Once it’s fired, I’ll add a silver plated Aanraku bail (used by dichroic glass artists) to the back with epoxy glue.
Meanwhile, ever put the wrong cone in a kiln sitter and not realize your mistake until it was too late? I’ve over fired a kiln once before and you think I would learn, but luckily, this time I put a cooler cone in the sitter rather than a hotter one. Yesterday, I fired the kid’s work for my Tuesday clay class and this morning when I went to pop the lid open, everything looked just plain drab ugly. I grabbed the box of cones that I left laying out near the kiln and luckily I put a cone 018 in the cone 06 glaze fire. Thank goodness I noticed my mistake early enough and since class isn’t until tomorrow afternoon I replaced the cone with the correct one and am refiring the kiln as I write this post. It should be cool by tomorrow morning in time for me to unload and pack the work for class.
Bonus – it’s freezing in Denver today and we’re expecting a high of only 18ºF so my garagio will be nice and toasty when I head out in about an hour to work since one of my kilns is firing.
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
More Custom Linocut Mug Templates
New lino-cuts for mug templates
I started this post exactly 14 hours ago, but then the day beckoned with all her obligations and I’m only now getting back to finishing my draft around 10:30pm (normally way past my bedtime – yeah, I really know how to party). I wanted to publish the post tonight, however, so that I can spend some time tomorrow morning perusing all my favorite blogs while I drink my coffee instead of forcing my brain cells to align just enough to write something coherent.
I think this one turned out really well considering that this is the first impression and all the linoleum dingle berries have yet to dislodge themselves. The dingles will burn out though when I bisque this. Speaking of doing a bisque fire, I think I will have enough new work to fill the kiln next week!
Here’s the almost finished mug – I say almost because it still needs to be cleaned up once it firms up to the leather hard stage. At this point in the process, I actually don’t touch this very much once assembled. I tweaked the handle template a bit and came up with this sassy one. I like it better than the original which just seemed to have too much clay. I’ll probably tweak the handle template just a bit more so that it’s slightly larger. I’m really excited about these new pieces and the direction it’s taking me – I sure hope they turn out nicely.
^6 stoneware test tiles
In my last post, I mentioned that I had hoped to start doing some glaze testing this week. It’s been delayed slightly. In my enthusiasm to find new glazes for these pieces, I neglected to check if I had sufficient test tiles. I only found 1 usable test tile in my studio and it was a porcelain clay one – so I made about 100 test tiles using the white stoneware clay body on Tuesday night. I want to do some 6 part color progression glaze testing using Mason Stains and need a lot of the tiles to accomplish my goal. I’ll need even more if my tests don’t turn out so well. Time to put on my chemist’s hat…
Meanwhile, I did nothing in the way of clay today. Well, that’s not entirely true. After an early morning Dr. appointment and a few other errands, I spent the day at Park Meadows Mall. I normally consider this an evil place and quite energy sapping, but I promised my daughter that I’d take her for an afternoon of lunch and shopping – she had $44.00 in her pocket that was burning a hole. I had an ulterior motive though. I was on a mission to visit every kitchen store possible in search for some new studio tools. I did pretty well and will be playing around with the new tools all day tomorrow.
Do you know what? I’d love to visit and travel around Japan someday. There’s such a rich ceramic and pottery tradition in Asia that would be wonderful to soak in and witness. No – I’m not going to Japan any time soon, but 3 of my pieces are this week or early next week. I hope they’re well received.
That’s it for tonight,
~Cynthia
PS. I’ll edit this in the morning – so please excuse all grammatical and spelling errors.
