Sunday, April 3
Big trouble, Little pots
Had a bit of trouble today. Guess it had to happen sometime, the class project is amphora. Amphora are greecian urns which contained oil, wine, water - pretty much everything. They come in many differing shapes and sizes, typically the more ornate amphora were given as gifts during the olympics and filled with scented oils, or so I have learned.
So ... last week we threw the base, six pounds of class clay approximately a six inch diameter inverted cone coming to about eight - nine inches tall. Looks like a dunce cap of clay, let it dry some over the week for part two today. This is where the trouble comes in, because it is an ice cream cone of clay you have to make a chuck in order to hold the cone level and true to center. A chuck is a copious amount of clay tall enough that your pot doesn't meet the bat, wide and thick enough to be stable. Usually opened to the bat.
The initial trimming went okay, you have to get the excess out of the conincal part as well as compress the cone to remove and reduce any possible area's where it might crack. Good so far, then remove the bat with the cone still in the chuck. Throw a three and a half pound ball slightly larger than the diameter of the cone opening - use calipers. Peel the edge so you basically get a L shape going. Dry the ring from containing excess moisture.
Take this bat off the wheel, put the cone back on the wheel, check make sure its center and then take the ring you've just thrown, invert it and place it atop the cone. Cut it off the bat and throw down to seal the ring to the existing base before throwing the added ring. Remember to throw as dry as possible.
I wish - didn't get that far, added ring, started to throw and the chuck torqued. Bad word. Several bad words. Well can't recover that. Smash almost fifteen total pounds of clay and start over ...
The good thing is it's only clay and in clay prior to firing I can have a "do over" and sometimes you just really need a do over. Today was that day.
So I did, same song - second verse. Stay tuned for next weeks clash
So ... last week we threw the base, six pounds of class clay approximately a six inch diameter inverted cone coming to about eight - nine inches tall. Looks like a dunce cap of clay, let it dry some over the week for part two today. This is where the trouble comes in, because it is an ice cream cone of clay you have to make a chuck in order to hold the cone level and true to center. A chuck is a copious amount of clay tall enough that your pot doesn't meet the bat, wide and thick enough to be stable. Usually opened to the bat.
The initial trimming went okay, you have to get the excess out of the conincal part as well as compress the cone to remove and reduce any possible area's where it might crack. Good so far, then remove the bat with the cone still in the chuck. Throw a three and a half pound ball slightly larger than the diameter of the cone opening - use calipers. Peel the edge so you basically get a L shape going. Dry the ring from containing excess moisture.
Take this bat off the wheel, put the cone back on the wheel, check make sure its center and then take the ring you've just thrown, invert it and place it atop the cone. Cut it off the bat and throw down to seal the ring to the existing base before throwing the added ring. Remember to throw as dry as possible.
I wish - didn't get that far, added ring, started to throw and the chuck torqued. Bad word. Several bad words. Well can't recover that. Smash almost fifteen total pounds of clay and start over ...
The good thing is it's only clay and in clay prior to firing I can have a "do over" and sometimes you just really need a do over. Today was that day.
So I did, same song - second verse. Stay tuned for next weeks clash
Labels:
Class Notes,
Year of 2011
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