I thought I’d keep the artistic ball rolling this week so I
headed back into the studio to make some new work. I made some vessels that I have been thinking
about for a while; here is a picture of what I threw last weekend.
I also threw some large bowls last October that have been
hanging around the studio so I thought I would put them to use. I decided to make them into wall plates, so
last weekend I threw a foot ring on a few of them. Here is a picture of one after the foot ring
was added, you cannot see it very well but trust me it’s there.
When I went out to the studio today I threw a rim onto the
same bowls to give them a little more presence.
Here’s one of them with the rim freshly thrown.
I threw all of the new work (and the bowls) out of Rod’s
Bod, a stoneware clay that I love. It
has a lot of iron in it, which caused some beautiful iron spotting with most
glazes. But since I want to add this
work to the work I showed you last week I needed a white(ish) surface to draw
on. Since Rod’s Bod turns a nutty light
brown when left unglazed I needed to add a slip to turn it white. I used a slip made from B-Mix (cone 10,
another clay I use a lot), which is what I used to make the set of pots that
you saw in the last post. It turns a
really nice white, but without all the technical difficulties of a Porcelain
clay body. So I gave these new vessels a
coat of B-Mix, let them dry and then gave them another coat. By the looks of them I will have to let them
dry overnight and give them another coat or two tomorrow when I get off of
work. Here is a picture of them after
they were slipped, you can see they look whiter, but what you cannot see are
the thin spots left from the brush strokes which will be resolved tomorrow (the bowls haven't been slipped yet the rims were still wet).
I’m hoping that they will be dry enough for Keturah to add handles to them on Sunday. That way they can start the long, slow drying process so they won’t crack or fall apart on me.
