Utensil holder, thrown and altered recycled clay, oxidation fired

Tea cup, slip, thrown and faceted, recycled clay

I started to practice altering thrown forms this semester, beginning with faceting.  This requires throwing pieces with thicker walls (~1/2") and then using a wire to carve away facets.  In this case, I rotated the wire as I cut away clay so that the facets would be twisted.  I made 3 layers of cuts to create this pattern around the outside of the cup with octogonal symmetry. I brushed white slip inside and outside the cup and then bisque fired.  I then used choxils and soda ash, similar to the pitcher from last semester for the glaxing.  I think this is a very elegant and modern look for a tea cup and plan to make more.

2 cups, dundee, reduction, wheel thrown

I threw another 2 cups to match the two from last semester.  These 2 show some improvement in shape, and are somewhat lighter.  Although I used the same amt of clay this pair is about 1/2 inch shorter than the original pair. The glazing also turned out a bit different with more of the pearl showing through and the temmoku over glaze seems thinner and less drippy.  I like!

2 mugs - dundee, reduction fired, wheel thrown

 These are my favorite pieces of the semester.  I'm starting to get some good glaze results.  These cups were thrown separately from nearly 2lbs of clay and then the handles were pulled and attached.  Glaze is clear over woo interior and pearl/MD shino and temmoku/pearl exterior.  The contrast in color and texture (thick and drippy vs thin and creamy smooth) outer surface is very interesting.  Clear/woo combination looks dark and rich on dundee and I like how the thickly glazed bottom looks gem-like, almost as if glass shards were melted into the bottom of the cup.  I made 2 more cups in 4th semester - hopefully they will turn out similarily.

Thrown vase, Dundee red, reduction fired

 This vase actually was intended to be a pitcher but as I was collaring in the neck after bellying out the body, the piece began to collapse because the walls were too thin.  So had to cut off the top.  I was able to salvage the piece by creating this nice vase shape,  The glazing was done by pouring some MD shino and blowing to get a thin layer and then dipping in pearl.  Waxing the pearl/shino areas and then redipping in toffee.  The interior is celadon.  The celadon dripped out in one area around the rim - I like the contrast of this celadon with the toffee/pearl and pearl/shino.  Some of the dk reddish/brown areas are unglazed bare clay which also add visual interest to the piece.

Two bowls - wheel thrown

Thrown from recycled clay and trimmed to texture the outside surface.  Woo yellow interior, clear over woo exterior.  A nice light bowl with good size for eating soup, stews, rice, etc.  Reduction fired recycled clay.

Thrown from Dundee red, oxidation fired.  The bowl is unfortunately quite heavy.  Glaze is celadon interior - the thicker areas become a nice snowflake blue.  Exterior glaze is satin cream over green crystal - a nice combination in contrasting colors and texture.

Pitcher - horsley clay, oxidation fired, wheel thrown and altered, soda ash over choxils

This pitcher was faceted after the spout was added with a wire immediately after throwing when the clay was still soft and wet. The handle was paddled to add a faceted appearance to match the pitcher.  I used choxils (underglaze pencils) to shade the facets to create a pen/ink drawing aesthetic.  I wanted to highlight the facet shapes and this technique is good for that.  Brushing a few layers of soda ash solution over the choxil gives a soft gloss / glassy finish to the piece.  It also softens the roughness of the choxil marks on the bisque surface.  The attachment points of this handle is lower than others (near the rim of the pitcher).  It seems to work / feel ok for those pitchers smaller in size.

Pitchers - thrown, recycled clay, reduction fired

 The handle for this pitcher is tooooo long!  The apex is too far from the wall of the pitcher and too small to grasp with three or four fingers comfortably and makes the jug too heavy when lifted.  I do like how the texturing of the pitcher surface turned out - I used a trimming tool to produce this scalloped look, and also used the same tool to texture the handle as well.  Glaze is woo interior with clear and pearl over woo exterior.  Waxed over the pearl/woo area and then dipped in clear.

 This was the first pitcher that I threw and I knew it was too heavy with thicker walls near the base so I used a coiled spring to scrape out textured facets in the walls of the pitcher.  It gives it an interesting geometric shape, but unfortunately the pitcher is still too heavy.  I stained the exterior with iron oxide and then dipped in spodumene white which gives it an aged look - the thin areas are brown and aged, while thicker areas are white and matte.  The interior is bermuda.

Jugs - reduction fired, wheel thrown and altered, pulled handles

 More practice pulling handles - by making jugs / pitchers!  The shape of the pitcher is really important and you need to kind of visualize how it will look with the spout and handle.  Before adding the spout and handle, the jug looks like a odd / boring vase.  I need to work on throwing the walls and base thinner since you don't trim the base to add a foot.  I find it difficult to get the walls thin because throwing too thin a cylinder will not give enough integrity to stretch and collar in to shape the vase.  So I end up throwing too thick to allow for that - more practice of course to get a better sense of this - it will depend on the type of clay too!  This first pitcher was my first piece throwing with Dundee dark red clay - this clay has a nice rich red color (cherry red) and leaves your hands stained reddish!  The spout is added by pulling it out with wet fingers immediately after throwing.  It's difficult to get the spout symmetrical since your fingers are all different lengths.  The handle is pulled and attached once the pitcher is leather hard.  You need to time all these steps so that the pulled handle dries to approximately the same wetness as the pot when attaching.

The glaze is bermuda outer and sky celadon interior - both these glazes show the dark clay color underneath which is nice.

The bottom pitcher is thrown from recycled clay.  I had forgotten to add the spout after throwing and the piece dried so I had to cut a V in the neck and add a hand-built spout.  This proved more difficult than anticipated since the 3-D geometry of the spout is actually quite a complex, especially when you want to fit it to the neck of the pot.  Anyhow after a bit of fiddling I got the knack of it and it looks decent - like a penguin beak.

The glaze for this pitcher didn't quite come out as I expected - I was trying to use the glaze tests of a fellow student who had gotten brilliant results with layering turquoise and other glazes.  Unfortunately the recycled clay seemed to dull and make these glazes more earthy - which is still nice, just not what I expected.    The interior is turquoise with toffee brush strokes around the rim.  Exterior is temmoku / turquoise (rear), turquoise/temmoku (middle) and  turquoise (front).  The drippy thick turq/temmoku glaze border contrasting with the rough thin layer of turquoise is quite interesting.

Set of Cups - Horsley clay, oxidation fired, wheel thrown off hump, pulled handles

More throwing off the hump!  This time a set of teacups.  They are semi-close to being identical.  Throwing off the hump goes so fast so it helps to use your fingers and hands as measures for the dimensions of the piece as you are throwing, rather than take out calipers which slows down the whole process and defeats the purpose from throwing off the hump - well still need to practice more.  I also learned to pull handles from clay and attach them after trimming the pieces when leather hard.  The glazing is green with toffee over rim inside and temmoku outside with green crystal and toffee brush work.  The brush work was supposed to be spring blossoms, but needs to be more delicate.

Someone said it more resembles fungus  - haha.  I'll get better.   Anyway the cups are good size and I like how the interior color turned out.

Bowl Glaze Test 4 - Horsley clay, Oxidation Fired, Thrown off the hump

 This bowl was also thrown off the hump in the same series but it ended up a bit bigger than the rest.  The glaze testing, Inside: Glossy white center, brushed woo, green crystal, slate, blue; Clear OVER.  Outside:   brushed slate, drizzled Barnard Slip, Clear and Oxblood over.  Bottom Oxblood x 2...the Barnard slip is a nice dark brown, thick coating results in a raised surface.

Bowl Glaze Tests - Horsley clay, Oxidation Fired, Thrown off the hump

These bowls were thrown off the hump - a new skill learned this semester.  It makes throwing smaller pieces much easier since you don't have to recenter and rewedge a new piece of clay for every piece.   I decided to use these bowls for a bunch of glaze tests in oxidation since I hadn't had very satisfying glaze results in oxidation.  Starting from upper left, the glazes are: 1. Half turquoise and half pearl with glossy clear and blue over.  Dipped in Toffee around the rim. 2. Half woo yellow and half turquoise with green and blue over, dipped in toffee around rim. 3.  Half green crystal, half 2x oxblood with celadon and blue over.  Rim dipped in toffee...Some nice contrasts between colors and glossy/matte finishes.

Large bowl - wheel thrown, oxidation fired, recycled clay, textured with carving tools and coiled rope when leather hard, copper stain with phila glaze, oxblood over turquoise and dk red underglaze

Large bowl - wheel thrown, recycled clay, oxidation fired, green crystal over glossy white, oxblood with dk red underglaze, ribbed texture thrown with finger while leather hard

Large casserole - wheel thrown, recycled clay, oxidation fired, carbon transfered crane painted with dk red and black underglaze with celadon, temmoku under pearl, masked with tape, slate over green crystal interior

This is the first time tried making a lidded vessel.  I decided to make it as the piece took shape - I'll plan better next time.  You need to throw a slightly thicker rim so that you can throw a gallery for the lid.  I threw a couple of upside-down bowls for the lid, and the first one I trimmed worked out.  The main challenge is using the right amount of clay to get the lid the proper size and also to match the curves and shape of the lid to those of the body.  Both pieces need to integrate well together.  I was running out of time and so had to fashion the lugs in a short amt of time, hence they are not completely symmetrical nor very pretty to look at.

For the glazing, I traced the crane image from an illustration and transferred it to the pot on both sides and then painted with dk red and black underglaze.  Then I masked the area with tape and glazed the rest of the body interior and exterior.  Interior is slate over green? and outer is pearl over temmoku - the pearl went on thick, I think it was the bottom of the bucket which is why the piece is so white.  Then I waxed the body and removed the mask and dipped in celadon.  The brushwork turned out ok, although I could definitely refine my skills there!

Large bowl -wheel thrown, recycled clay, oxidation fired, green with toffee over rim, temmoku with green crystal outer and wax resist brushed

This is a pretty ordinary bowl, with some interesting glazing.  The interior is green with toffee over the rim.  The green pools nicely at the bottom of the bowl, where it becomes a beautiful bluish green in the thicker area.  The toffee rim is super smooth, almost giving the rim a burnished quality.  The exterior is green crystal over temmoku, I brushed on wax after the temmoku to give the patterned aesthetic.

Garlic and ginger jar - wheel thrown, recycled clay, oxidation fired, gerstley borate and alberta slip brushed, ox blood and woo yellow glazes

I started throwing the body for this piece and decided to put a gallery on the rim and then throw a matching lid.  As you can see the lid is a bit small in size with a chunky hand formed handle - but not bad for first try. I was hoping the glaze would be brighter, but the oxblood is too thin.  I brushed on some alberta and gerstley borate slip underneath - both show up rather faintly as well.  Inside is woo.  A functional piece...

3rd Semester

I am making some good progress this semester.  I've learned how to throw off the hump - throwing many small pieces from one large "hump" of clay.  This technique allows quick reproduction of smaller pieces by avoiding having to clean and recenter individual balls of clay for each piece.  I've also thrown some pieces with lids - this has been tricky since you have to throw two pieces that match in size to the pot's gallery and also in character to the pot's shape.  I also learned to pull handles for cups and thrown jugs.   I am continuing to experiment with glazing as well - layering glazes in oxidation, using slips and waxes to achieve different textures and patterns.

2 Rice bowls - wheel thrown, recycled clay, Oxidation fired, white slip, carved, dk red underglaze with oxblood, glossy white under green crystal interior

These bowls took a lot of time!  After throwing, I brushed the outer surfaces with white slip and carved in the patterns with a tool.  After bisque firing, I filled in the carved areas with red underglaze and then dipped in oxblood.  The inside of the bowls are green crystal over glossy white.    Application of the underglaze in all the grooves is the most time consuming step, since you need to use a small brush.  I tried this technique instead of using the shellac (previous post) - I think it is somewhat easier, but gives a much different aesthetic.

2 Rice Bowls - wheel thrown, recycled clay, Oxidation fired, shellacked surface, celadon glaze with iron oxide stain and dk red underglaze

A pair of rice bowls.  I shellacked the patterned areas after bone dry and then washed away leaving a raised pattern which was exposed after bisque firing.  I stained the exterior of both bowls with iron oxide and wiped off the raised areas and then dipped in celadon.  Because the color in the celadon glaze is from iron oxide the stain did not show.  I also brushed in some center decoration in the bowls with red underglaze.  I really like the surface texture and patterns of both these bowls, however the shellacking and washing take a lot of time and effort, especially with recycled clay.  I'm trying to think of other ways, less laborious to achieve this same aesthetic with less work.  Perhaps adding coils or stamping the patterns would be easier.