Sunday, October 22, 2017

Slabs and Mugs

On Wednesday, our class will use our new hump moulds to create beautiful platters.  So in anticipation of 7 people lined up at the slab roller, I decided to roll my slabs today, and then in class I can jump straight to creating the extruded rims and feet.  But before I did that, I soaked up Fredi's demo of an oval container with pillow lid.  I found the pillow lid process fascinating, and will need to try that some time.  Or perhaps just use her idea of adding a clay bead, and make some clay shakers.  I've been thinking of that, so maybe I'll try some day soon.

Before I left to roll slabs, I threw 4 mugs, but they really ended up huge.  So they will be very big mugs, maybe more like beer steins.  Then I rolled my slabs.  The first one I textured with my handmade clay stamps, including some which were hot out of the bisque firing.

Mesmerizing, isn't it?

The second slab may be a surprise for someone for Christmas, so I can't say, except that it is textured, and then I applied black slip to it, and will scrape it, to reveal the pattern.  It wasn't dry enough at the end of the day, so I will continue this pattern Wednesday, before draping over the hump mould.

In between working the slabs, I stamped my mugs.  Once the slabs were done and textured, it was time to finish off the mugs with handles.  Here they are at the end of the day :

One by one...
This was such a huge mug, that it didn't seem a normal handle would suit it, so it is a funky double handle.  I'm not sure if a finger would fit in that lower loop, but it looks inviting.

Again, a very big mug.  Fredi made a comment in passing that it looked like a soup mug, and perhaps could have two handles.  So I decided that would be fun.  Although when I googled "soup mug" I don't think any of them came up with double handles.  But I like the balance it provides.  It has a bit of "attitude", almost looks like hands on the hips.

This one I stamped before it was dry enough, so the stamp marks turned out a bit mucky.  And then I dropped slip onto them, but was too lazy to find (I might have taken it out of my bag) my narrow slip trailer, so I ended up squeezing out larger slip dots than I would have preferred.  But it could still turn out okay.

This one's a beauty, and probably a very good size for a coffee mug.  I love almost everything about it.  I hope I will do it justice when I glaze it.

I am waiting on my first few pieces, which should be glazed tomorrow, and I'll hopefully see them Wednesday, but if not, then Sunday for sure.  I'm really curious to see how the brown clay fires, and also some of the glaze combinations I tried.

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