Leaf Bowls-Phase Three

The first set of leaf bowls turned out nice. The second set warped as they dried and then rocked after they were glaze fired and were generally a pretty motley bunch. With this third set I've made the dart cuts even deeper and the impressed foot smaller to try and make them more of a bowl than a deep plate. Turned them upside down on a flat surface and paddled the foot in hopes that gives them a good non-wacky start to drying.

...feeling like a potter again

It's time to do a glaze firing when the pink pots fill up every shelf and are getting stacked on the floor...All OVER the floor, with no room to walk.

Thanks to a dinner set order that came in during busy Showcase production, I've made more pots in the past month than I have in a long time. Orders make us get into the studio to make things! The thing with handformed plates is that you always need to make many more than the 8 piece place setting to ensure you get 8 that are passable. I know enough not to expect a miracle, but hope no disasters! Hopefully 6 of everything will be excellent and only 2 with flaws but only that I see. Or maybe all the plates will be ok and the bowls iffy. Anyways, the complete set is all in that pepto-bismal stage that we potters detest. "Put some Glaze on us, would you!" they're all crying out.

8 piece place setting - $1000-ish.
8 dinner, salad and bread plates
8 triangular plates
8 leaf bowls
1 leaf serving bowl set
1 pedestal bowl

What inspires us?

This kiln shelf has all the color, drama and element of surprise that I would cherish on any pot of mine should it turn out looking like this. And it just happened that way in the firing through nothing we did, and we will grind off all of this beautiful decoration for the next firing. The marks are left from wads that keep our pottery from sticking to the shelf and from flame and ash that swirled all around.

Beautiful shelf. Hope the pots I'm making for spring woodfire turn out half as good.

New Webpage

Alas, this web page has taken a hit from my getting a new catalog site up and running, "workinclay.wordpress.com."

Here is a piece from my last firing, already a month ago. These leaf boat bowls have been getting more and more refined but still have a bit of funkiness left to them as each one differs from the template and warps in its own way. The inside bowl of this set reminds me of lily pad flower petals for some reason.

Now need to crank up production for Ceramic Showcase, only two months away. April 30, May 1-2.

Back to Drawing Board?

Finally got a couple of the new covered dishes glazed and fired this week. The lid fits great on the second one, but the one on top is the one I liked better in the green stage. It is just still on the funky side when it comes to fit AND to feel....precarious and the raw clay showing isn't pretty. I guess the flange overhang is the way to go if I can figure out how to do it right...and add enough of a rim to feel like a good handle.

These two will get to be seconds at the spring garden sale...

Better?

Here is my day two attempt at a lidded vessel. The fit won't be tight but for a serving dish type thing, possibly ok. Think I need to get the slump a bit taller to make up for the sides of the pot being so high... This piece has a goofy smile.

On the drawing board...

These photos show my beginning attempts to make a lidded serving vessel via slabs of clay. Over the holidays I realized I didn't have any nice lidded serving ware to set on the table. The metal pot I'd cooked the dish in wasn't very handsome.

The top photo shows first attempt at modifying another form I make. The lid needed a flange on the inside to secure it on the pot. This pot has modest lump handles on the side that were an afterthought, so wasn't too happy with them. The first rolled handles looked clunky and the extra time it took to make handles more incorporated with the pot was too much.

In the second attempt I made a shape that should be fairly easy to pick up without true handles. I draped the slab lid into the pot to get a nice custom shape and left more 'overhang'. I'm hoping that the overhang will grip the shape of the vessel enough to forego a pesky flange on the inside. Wet, it fit snug enough without feeling like it was going to slide off. After the greenware drying stage it still fits nicely. We'll see how it goes after bisque firing. And, I'll have to make a couple more to get them a little less clunky. You can see I couldn't cut a straight line on this one.