Off the Porch and Growling

It was a good day at the pottery studio Saturday.

Firstly I decided I needed to reduce my reclaim, this batch was a mix of Miller 65, Standard 181 and B-Mix. So it was a bit more squishy that I like, I prefer the stiffness of Miller sixty-five to the mush of 181.

So I spun up a twelve pound bowl, it is in truth be told a little wonky but I had oodles which is a tad more than scads of reclaim to throw before I could get to my three lovely yes ... three (count them) bags of Miller sixty-five awaiting my greedy little hands. In addition I also threw a, uhm ... lets just call it a lidded form and leave it at that for now since every time in the last twelve months I've tried making what this pot could be (for it is the quizat's hadarack of pots) lol, yes I love Dune, book and all movies about it. Anyway it has never made it out of the fire. Originally I would have made three, however because of my lack -- pots were purchased, for which I feel bad.

I also glazed the ritualistic pitcher pot, and the pig pot ... as always I used red iron oxide, and here is where we find out how well my plan works. I added hair to the pig pot by using a brush and slip to create brush lines in a sort of psuedo random pattern. Fur is and isn't random other than when it magnetically adheres to crap you don't want it to. After I put red iron oxide on I rubbed it off, now the theory is where the valleys are it will be darker - sort of a lighting exercise if you will. I did learn something in art all those years ago - after all. Then after doing a wipe job, I soaked it in soda ash and finally I put a wash of copper carbonate over the areas I wanted to emphasize.

Can't wait to see what they look like when the kiln opens.

Have to use up the Sandard 181 I have left, gotta say I freaking hate this clay - its worse than the bag of schleprock wowsie woo-woo ape poop I threw away some time ago, come to think of it ... I think it was a Standard Clay too. I do not know what they do to the clay, and I am sure it's fine for some folks so if you a standard nazi (lol as opposed to what kind of nazi?)  sorry, but yes my mind just works that way. Anyway if you are on the standard band wagon leave me be, I perfer clay with tooth and workability versus mush in a damned bag. Have to wedge it and let it sit for it to be even remotely useful.

A.n.y.w.a.y ... the pig pot is 181, as is this pot which I modelled off of an Etruscan water pitcher, I varied the handle, and the spout. Spout because "HELLO" its one-eighty-one and it won't stand even after sitting for an hour. Bleh - where was I oh, yeah ... I also put a foot on it because I felt like it.

For the handle I combined a couple of techniques, the split handle which I used to good effect I think on the fountain a few weeks back, and the cut handle technique. The split handle is splitting the ends of the handle and using two attachment points on each end of the handle. The cut handle is simply that, cut the handle at the curve and re-attach it for a distinctly elegant look. I likes it I does.

Added a stamp to the belly of the pot and a few bits like I did with the platters, learned I like that kinda thing too.

Looks very ritualistic, meh blame it on me watching Dune last night which is one of the greatest movies ever. I can imagine the waters of life being poured from this type of a pot.

Cool. Lets hope it survives.

Today is a day I have been waiting for ... for quite awhile in fact. I have been trying to make platter's for some time - finally achieving the goal, trimming them and gettng them back right before heading off to disney. Yahooo ... glazing them this last week. Happily I carol the ode to joy over their return.

I have to say I am extremely, happy with both of them. What you will see is both platter's and a cross section to show off some of the details.


I used Amaco's "Deep Firebrick" as the liner. It's a very nice red, not overly obnoxiously bright and yet it doesn't pink up on you. Nothing worse than getting a pink pot when you expected red - Bleh, just bleh ... anyway, the standard red iron oxide and soda ash treatment is applied on the outside to both pots as well. These are Miller 65 so the shine is down, lol. I prefer a shine, on some pots it's okay to have a duller finish and it looks okay.

Here is a close up view of the handle. I am really, really proud of the handles - from a learning standpoint if just the handles turned out good I would have called this a win, getting the whole package ... bonus. To obtain this organic effect I split the clay on a roughly fourty-five degree angle and then pushed out and up just a smidge (as in not a lot) I then cleaned it up carefully and added a couple of decorative bits made from stamped clay. finally I stamped it to give the glaze a few places to play.

I really, really like how the deep firebrick breaks across edges, and it is translucent just enough to see some of the red iron oxide underneath and where it was a bit stronger we get the burn through which adds to the look I think.

So last week after making the warthog bottle, its not really functional per se ... more of a novelty item but I glazed a few items and got them into the kiln for firing.

The first item was the Heart Vase I made for my wife. I used "Ellens Blue" as a liner and Red Iron Oxide and Soda Ash as I usually do. Remember the heart vase was on of the plugged items I threw awhile back, let bone dry and then steel wooled it to brighten the lines.

Another was the Grecian style, uhmmm maybe Etruscan is a better description, the Greek style was more rounded. At anyrate - it is done in a similar fashion to the heart vase, "Ellen's Blue" as a liner and soda ash and red iron oxide on the outside, I let this one dry on the bat and just pop off so I put my particular potter's mark under all three handles, and stamps. The urn was the first "plugged" pot I did.

The last one was the fountain. Again I had chosen a more classical design and modified it. This one I did borrow from Greece. Like the other two it is done in Soda Ash and Red Iron Oxide for an outside finish and "Ellen's Blue" as a liner glaze. What can I say it was a blue kinda day. Ellen's contrasts really well I think with the red iron oxide patterns. Now you may notice there isn't much of a soda ash shine like usual.

This is because the Clay I used was B-Mix 5 which is a porcelian -ish clay and it does funky things with soda ash. I like the color of the clay however; its a bit to creamy for me and I don't like having to throw thick because it won't stand up. Finally its not a very forgiving clay.

Finally I added hair to the pig pot from last week, I don't know if you can see it but here a photo. I used a thick slip and then took a wide bristled brush to it for the hair. Let's see if it survives the bisque process.

Felt good to get back to pottery, while I enjoyed the break and Disney, I missed the feel of clay in my hands. As luck would have it today was Leather Bottles. An old english pot used for storing liquids. I love making them, they happen to be one of my favorite pots.

Perhaps because of my recent foray into the world of Disney I found myself adapting my leather bottle to the shape of a boar



 ... Hakuna Matata.