Wednesday, June 1, 2016

First Finished Items from the Garden Pottery Course

I was happy to drop by Shadbolt Center today, and find 7 of my pieces out of the kiln.  6 of them I was able to take home, and the 7th, another of my twisty pots (the striped one in the center of the photo), was selected for another student display:

I took photos of it, and said good-bye for now (see this post for the "making of" photos).  This one was white clay, with black and turquoise slip, and finished with Celadon inside, and Clear outside:

Cool.  I still have another one of my early version twisty pots on display in the main atrium.  For this one, my notes say that it is yellow clay (which turns a beautiful brown color when fired) and finished with iron oxide and Gerstley Borate outside, and Amber Celadon inside:

I can't wait to get those little babies home.  I have a few more also in the kiln, hopefully ready next week, and a couple more I may save for a soda firing in July.

As for the ones I brought home, here they are :

1) If this one looks familiar, it's because I've made a few of these now.  It may even be my "best seller", since this style of pot was very popular at a fund raiser earlier this year.  This one is a bit paler in colour, but still nice.  2500 g grey clay with vine maple leaf imprints, tinted outside with iron oxide, and Matt Green glaze inside.  I really like the spiral on the foot of this one.  The shape is a bit frumpy, but at least it is not as heavy as some of my previous vases.   (See an in-progress photo in this post.)

2) This one is a nice large pot, from 2600 g white clay, with a bit of yellow marbled in (hardly visible), and then I experimented with my new dragon scale tool to texturize the shoulder.  I'm pretty pleased with the result.  Here is a closeup of the shoulder and foot :
I'm really loving that triple foot.  It's something pretty unique to me, I think.  I am using it on all my larger pots, where I can.

3) This big boy is another piece for another garden totem.  It started as 2200 g of yellow clay, which has turned a rich dark chocolate colour.  Delicious.  I sprayed it with Carbon Trap Shino, which didn't do anything spectacular, but is a good rich colour.  The stamp is something I borrowed from Herb, it was a wooden stamp from India.

4) This is another totem piece, inspired by my classmate Rob.  My notes say it was drips of turquoise and black slip, and sprayed Clear.  But it appears it was turquoise and blue slip.  Either way, it turned out pretty nice, and will contrast nicely with the other totem pieces.  I can't wait until I have enough to assemble a totem.

5) This plate / shallow bowl has been attracting lots of attention.  It was 1200 g of my favourite Plainsman 570 white clay, pushed out with a cow's tongue, and decorated with turquoise and black slip.  Glazed with Amber Celadon on the outside/bottom, and Clear on the inside/top.  Nice effect.  Not quite the pattern I was trying to achieve (inspired by something I saw on Instagram), but still quite a nice texture and pattern.

6) This was 3000 g of yellow clay, which I was attempting to shape into a donut, but the donut didn't quite close, so I went with a backup plan, and made what could be a fairly attractive and practical cactus / succulent planter, with drainage holes and pretty attractive feet.  It was also sprayed with Carbon Trap Shino.  What a yummy colour.  I'm glad I went for this colour, instead of a green.  Although another time, a brighter / lighter colour would be fun.

All pieces bear my artist's stamp.  I'm getting pretty good at remembering to stamp before my pieces are too dry, and finding a place where the stamp will show up.

Stay tuned for more pieces.  By next week I should have more, for sure.  If I'm really lucky, I may even have my monster lantern with clematis decoration.  I glazed it today :
I have my fingers crossed for this one to make it through the final firing okay, after all the hours of work put into it.  So far it has held up well to being carried around.  It lost one leaf during the bisque firing, but I can't even see the spot where it popped off from, so that's good.

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