Pottery class #2
I spent 5 hours in the studio on Saturday, and came in to discover that Ashtray 2.0 had cracked while drying. I wasn't stunned, so it ended up in the reclaim bucket.
And then, from the Standard #295 raku clay, Ashtray 3.0 was born.
I don't know why I love the stubby little round feet on raku bowls, but I do!
It was done as a soft slab on a hump mold, and the feet were attached immediately.
Stupid me, I didn't get another pic after I added butt rests, but there are two in opposite corners that follow the curve.
Since I was so raku-oriented, I decided to try my hand at a saki set. I made a bottle-ish vessel, but the single coil method I love so much does NOT lend itself well to very tiny coils. The first one I made had a bit of a meltdown, and got watered down and rewedged into the coils for this:
Please disregard my big ole belly in the photo above! =)
I completed one cup, but will crank out at least 3 more and a serving tray next week. The pic of the cup was so blurry it made me seasick just looking at it, lol.
Here's a group shot of the raku work so far:
There is hope that if it warms up a bit next weekend, we'll fire up the raku kiln. As it's been about 20 degrees at most in the afternoons around here for the last few weeks, there's a serious risk of thermal shock between the kiln and the firebox, so we're still talking about what and when to do.
I wish I'd taken a pic, but the stoneware bowl I did last week - the round one - ended up getting ShurFormed level and smooth, and then I burnished the outside with a spoon. It's like silk it's so smooth!
Next week, I hope to do some work in the lighter stoneware - at least a coil bowl or 4, depending on how the day goes. I figure I've got two more sessions that I can work through before I need to have most everything ready for bisque, but I'm doing the second session of classes, too. That means that I have a 2 week break and then come back for 6 more weeks. I'm not overly worried about getting all my stoneware stuff done post haste, unless there's going to be a wood or soda firing I can horn in on. I'm so freaking tempted to do a scale bowl and get it into the anagama firing, but I would hate to take up space from someone working toward a degree.
Bad news for the week - my Stanley Mobile Workcenter died. The poor plastic clips that hold it together in the middle for rolling around are not intended to hoss 75 lbs of clay up a set of stairs. So now I'm on the hunt for a suitable replacement!