The Last BIG Pot!

I had mentioned in a previous post that I was working on 2 pots concurrently... the Pot from Felipe's Clay and this one that I finished last week & am just getting around to posting! I'm really pleased with the way it turned out! It's about same size as my first Micaceous Pot~ pretty big! This represents roughly 10 to 12 hours of work~

Of course I've got to show a little process... it's what I do!

:)

The first step in building a large pot is rolling out the clay (just like rolling out dough) and placing it in a puki (a shallow ceramic form which helps hold the the shape & prevents your pot from collapsing.)

After smoothing it consistently in the puki, you add your first coil....

...and another, and another, and so on. It looks pretty rough at this stage, but if you smooth, paddle & shape it for long enough, it will begin to look like this~

At this point, I am truly amazed it starts to look like an actual Pot! Being new to the coiling method, it still boggles my mind sometimes... the transition from slab & coil to Pot... and the fact that it all stay together! 

The addition of the fluted rim...

And Handles!

And...Whala!

(After all the scraping, sanding & slip applying and burnishing)

The finished Pot!

Good news is, all the pots have made it through the bisque kiln, and we'll do the final pit fire on Wednesday... pretty exciting stuff! I've got a few other things I'm working on, and still some glazing to do on things I started over a month ago... so I may post those somewhere along the way... but these pots have been my main focus these past 7 weeks. And though I may complain from time to time (o.k, maybe a lot) about working too much & not having enough time to create, I am truly grateful for the time that I have had to learn this process!

:)

Wednesday is Clay Day... Part 4

Well, truth be told... pretty much all my days off for the past 2 weeks have been clay days. Which is great, but then other things that you need to do on a daily basis don't get done. You know, thing like running errands, going grocery shopping, cooking a decent meal... those sorts of things. You see, I only have a couple short weeks left until my class ends and when it does, so does my access to the studio. Sooooooo, this is why on any given day, my kitchen table looks like this!

 I was playing around w/ slab work. My very loose template was the vase on the left... but I wanted to make it a little more "flowy," & came up with this~

It has the potential to look quite cool once it's glazed! And do you remember my little bear from "Days off are the Best," many posts ago? 

http://beckypinnick.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html

Well, I made another one, though a smaller version~

And I finally got back the original from the other post!

Here he is glazed~ I call him my good energy bear... 'cause he really is chock full of good energy!

:)

And here they are together, so you get the idea of size~

And now back to the Micaceous Clay! Well, those of you who have been following my blog since I was taking classes up in Oregon know that I love to document process, and am rather intrigued by it. But dang it... I forgot to take pictures as I was making this pot! To give you an idea... I'm showing some of the scraping & sanding that goes on to reach the finished product. Pretty exciting stuff, eh?

Here I am scraping the inside of the pot. This one was a lot smaller than my first one, and my first closed form (has a lid) pot ever. Since it was small, I felt the walls should be thin... and in order to get nice thin walls from where I started, a lot of scraping was necessary. This was actually a lot of fun! I sat out on my front porch in the sunshine in my PJ's with an endless cup of coffee... my kinda day! :) Below is the pot after the scraping, but before the sanding.

My feelings about this pot are fairly neutral. I don't absolutely love it, except in an I made it so I gotta love it, kinda way but I don't dislike it either. I do have to say this though, doesn't it kinda remind you of Charlie Brown's head?

Seriously... I didn't mean for it to come out that way, but it is kinda shaped that way, is it not?! Then on to the sanding... will this excitement ever end???

... and more sanding~

And finally, after applying 3 coats of micaceous slip, and hand burnishing w/ stones

(oops! forgot to take pictures of that~ suffice it to say it is a long and lengthy process!)

My finished pot... sparkling in the morning sun!

Whew! That was a lot of work! Now again comes the wait for the firing & the anticipation of whether it will make it through, and how the look will transform if it does. In the meantime, I finally got some glazing done on some cups & bowls I threw on the wheel weeks ago, and I'm concurrently working on 2 more Micaceous Pots... another small closed form & another big one like my first~ but they've just been placed under wraps for now... as I go back to those crazy 10 hour shifts at work. It's funny, 'cause I get tired after 8 hours in the studio... so imagine how I feel after a 10 hour work day! 

Can anyone say "Couch Potato?"

Until next week...

:) 

Wednesday is Clay Day- Part 1

So, it's decided then! Starting today & every Wednesday... it is officially my "Clay Day..."

for the next six weeks anyhow. No laundry, no errands, no house cleaning... just me & the clay. Yeah, sure... I would love to do it full time, but it's not an option presently... so I'll do the best with what I've got :). I finally got to dig in & make my first ever Micaceous Pot today! It's not finished, but I wanted to show it anyhow, because for me this is pretty exciting stuff!

I've actually never made a coiled pot before, so it was a little challenging for me. It took about 5 hours to get to this point!

It will still need to be scraped, sanded, slip applied & stone-burnished before it's ready for firing, so lots of work to go, but I'm off to a good start.

Me & my pot... just to show scale, as it looked so small in the pics above, and it's actually quite a large pot! If it makes it through all the steps above, it'll be a functional cooking pot... now is that cool or what?

:)