Just wanted to share the results of the finished pots I started while back home this summer & catch y'all up on what I've been up to claywise. We Raku fired these pots in class a couple of weeks ago, but I just got around to photographing them today~ so, without further ado...
The Bear Pot!
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| Bear Pot~ Aerial View :) |
My other pot~ really digging the round form, but the rim... not super crazy about it.
Mom's Pot, taking in the Fall Colors! (yes, amazingly... after the snow & wind we received last week- we've still got a fair amount of color on the hill... I was pleasantly surprised.)
Another view of Mom's Pot. I find the effect of the Raku firing interesting... it reflects the shadows & highlights & the finish can actually look quite different depending on how the light hits it and/or how it is photographed.
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| Raku'd Black Polar Bear in the Snow |
In other clay news- I have taken the "Bean Pot Challenge" this semester... no cups, no bowls~ just pots! The pots below I started the first week of September when I was staying at the Sublet.
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| Wet Clay Bean Pots |
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| Dry Pot- needs Scraping & Sanding |
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| Sanded Pot, needs Slip & Burnishing |
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| Polished Pots~ Ready to Bisque |
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| Closer view of the pot on the left/ above. I really like this one. |
Above a bunch of my classmates Pots, getting ready to go into the kiln. Below, various classmate's PIPs (pots in progress.) It's right about now that I am thinking, (o.k, really I am saying it out loud,) "It's a potzapalooza!!" Well it really is, dontcha think?
Below is the 2nd to the last pot I made. I was having some trouble w/ the rim (for me, it's one of the harder parts of making the Bean Pot) and I had to cut it down & build it back up several times.
Finally, I just had to leave it at that~
There it is below on the left in it's drier state, next to my last pot on the right.
(It seems to have shrunk quite a bit & looks kinda squatted down... but so it goes.) Perhaps after sanding & polishing it'll be a decent pot.
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| "Raw Pots." Still need waterscraping, sanding, slip, burnishing! |
Oh, and for those of you that have asked, Yes, I am getting settled into my new place, thank you. And nope, I did not find the perfect little inexpensive Casita I was looking for... and thus I am an ... I hate to say it... an Apartment Dweller. It was the best I could do given I was running out of time on my sublet. I try not to dwell on the lack of privacy (people walk by my front window,) or the fact that I can hear my neighbors when they take a shower, or cook, or shut doors. Whatever~ it is quieter than my last place, which says a lot. On a positive note, I can see the mountains & the sunrise, AND it does have a little more space... here you can see I set up a little space in my kitchen to water scrape my pots yesterday.
I also had a bit of good fortune come my way after pot scraping as I scored a few more items to complete my kitchen "clay station." Being the helpful person I am, :) I responded to an S.O.S for cleaning help for one of my friends that is moving out of town. It was a lot of work... cleaning fridges & stoves & so forth... and without expecting anything in return, he gave me that little blue work bench & baker's rack! Cool.
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| Kitchen Clay Station |
So that's about it for now... my "weekend" is over & it's back to work tamale. I'll also be trying to get 3 more pots sanded & polished by the end of class on friday for the Final Pit Firing on Saturday, followed by too much work, and then a family visit! So, please do not hold your breath, anxiously awaiting the final results... I will get around to posting them once they're finished, but I honestly could not tell you when that will be!
:)
