More Cups

It was wonderful to be back at the wheel and make some yunomis. I'm hoping to have some of my pottery at a gallery in Mt. Holly in early December. Most of these have an indentation for the thumb... I kinda like that additional touch. This is still my favorite form.

Here are the same cups from a different angle. The one in the front is my favorite. I'll trim all of these tomorrow, plus maybe add some etching to the jar below.

The picture is crooked and the yunomi on the right is symmetrical.... Tomorrow we're having a Halloween party... actually a barrel-firing party at Clayworks. It will be a long, incredible day in the studio plus an extra hour of sleep. I'm really looking forward to it all.... :)

Wow... So Big!

It was wonderful to be back at class on Tuesday evening. The theme of the class was 'big' as Adrienne (class instruct0r) did a bunch of demos. She first threw this form and then took it off of the wheel and threw another form to add to the top of the first form. Hard to explain; easier to see in person.

Not the best picture, but this shows the height of the first form. She works fast, so one has to take pictures quickly!

This picture shows when she just added the second piece to the first. She used calipers to measure the diameter of the top part of the piece on the bottom. It was all pretty amazing to watch.

Next she smoothed out the part inbetween the two former pieces that are now one.

Then she shaped it into the form she wanted. This is at least 15 pounds in all, I think.

So I decided to start out with 7-8 pounds of clay and I made this jar. It's craggy crunch clay and I had some extra of that which has a bunch of grog, so that made for interesting throwing. Tomorrow I'll put handles on it.

As you can see, Adrienne was busy throughout the class. She made each of these forms in less than 2 1/2 hours.

It's Been Awhile

I've been away from the blogging world for awhile. Have spent some time at the studio, but not nearly enough. These pieces above have some white or brown slip on them after I etched some words or symbols into the clay. This was a longer and harder process than I thought. Will be interesting to see how these turn out.

Here's a close-up of the jar... it will be a gift.

One reason I haven't been blogging is that I've been traveling. Last week I was in Bethesda, MD for a conference and ate some absolutely incredible food!

This is lebanese. Hummus with boiled fava beans is hard to beat! Plus the seasoning on the chicken was incredible.

Also took a short trip to the Washington National Cathedral. I could've spent much longer there. Time went by too fast.

This is my favorite Indian restaurant in Bethesda. Naan plus lentils. Mmmm. This is hard to beat.

When I returned, I made two lids for a jar that I have on the shelf. I'll decide later which one to put on the jar.

Yesterday my shelf was quite full until this evening when I glazed a bunch of my pieces.

Decided to try completely new glazes. Most of these have a base coat of Haney's white and then have accents in Catherine's Oribe and/or Tom's Clear. Most also have accents of soda ash sprinkled somewhere on the piece.

I haven't used any of these glazes before. I was ready for a change. This should be interesting. This was the jar where I had etched some words around it on the outside. Also put a ring of soda ash. I'm really excited to see if the white slip etched words comes through the Tom's Clear glaze.

Here's half of the pieces I glazed. Not sure when they'll be fired.

Here's the other half of the pieces. A few are cereal bowls. The piece on the far right will be a flowerpot.

Here they all are, waiting for the gas kiln to be fired.

Long Time

Chalices really take a long time to make. Even so, here are four of them. Finished these on Sunday. Just returned from a two day conference in Winston-Salem, so I'm just now posting. Will see how they turn out after the bisque firing.
It's so good to be back home. How I missed having my hands in clay these past few days.

More Time

This was the best part of the day.... time in the studio, trimming the tops of chalices that I'll assemble tomorrow. Also made some tumblers. It was peaceful- a good part of the day!
I also stopped by the Barn Sale. Didn't stay long because in my time there, I was missing being in the studio, so I left soon. I did visit all of the booths and saw these interesting leaves. More than 50 booths in all. Lots of pottery!

I liked the black glaze in this, using the indentations from the leaves.

Lots of booths. I missed being a part. It's just too expensive for me these days. It takes awhile to recover after being out of work for several months. To participate in the Barn Sale, one needs to join the NC Guild ($60 a year, I think) and then pay for a booth. :( Oh well.... maybe next year.

It was great to see Elaine, Becky, and John in their booth. All seemed quite busy with sales.

Tomorrow's a busy day of work and I'm ready for it!

Gotta put some pots up on my etsy site. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow evening.

Onto reading other pottery blogs... :)

Barn Sale

The Barn Sale is this Saturday here in Charlotte-- I'm going for sure! Hope it doesn't rain. If you're in the area, please be sure to stop by. Perhaps next spring, I'll have some pots to sell at it. For now, it's too expensive to enter. Address: McAlpine Business Park: 8300 Monroe Rd. 10 am- 4 pm.

Jar Handles

Put handles on these two jars tonight. It's much harder than it looks to make the handles... and then attach them! One will be a gift; the other I will keep, I think...
Jar handles. Adrienne did demos for almost two hours tonight and it was amazing to watch her make lids and handles for various forms. Above is a casserole dish.

Here she's finally taking it off of the bat.. and the wheel.

Then she put a handle on a teapot and a spout too, plus trimmed the teapot. She does it all so fast, it's a bit hard to remember at times.

The finished casserole dish... The picture doesn't show it, but there are two handles on the sides... it's all pretty incredible.

Meanwhile, I made this jar before class-- and it has a flange (a ledge on the top to hold a lid), so it will get a lid at some point. :) A great class, except that I was hungry and tired towards the end and it is harder to make handles than I thought! I finally was able to make two sets of handles that I like. It's always good to escape to the pottery world. How I wish I spent more time in the studio...

Tumblers!

I've decided to work on a new form. Tumblers! Made the one on the left today and I really like the shape. Each has one indentation for one's thumb. I am certain that I'll experiment with this form more. I was tired, so I didn't stay at the studio for long.
Today we celebrated the life of St. Francis, one who cared for all God's creatures! Blessed a bunch of animals--- dogs to hamsters, to cats... it was all quite a zoo! :)

Ended the day with breakfast for dinner! Bacon from my uncle's business near my parent's house, good southern grits, homegrown potatoes (fingerlings and reds from my parent's garden!), and eggs with blue cheese. A good way to end the day.

Tomorrow it's back to work. How I wish there were more clay days!

Circle of Eight Sale

First of two posts. Went to the Circle of Eight sale yesterday. Was certain to not take my checkbook as I easily could have purchased a pot from each of the artists. I really like the handles in these two jugs... that are made by Adrienne Dellinger.

Simply amazing forms, too. She digs her own clay and makes her own glazes.

Jen's pieces always catch my eye. The bright blue....

plus, the gentle, grace filled forms.

Someday, I'll purchase a cup of hers like one of these. Her use of the black stain is simply beautiful!

It was good to see Ron Philbeck there and his pots too. They've changed a bit.... good, light work!

Then I went to the studio and did a bit of etching on this piece. Also managed to throw this new form...

A tumbler! Check out the next post for an updated photo of it. I think I'll be making more of these.

And threw these too... these will be the top parts of soon to be chalices. Check out the second post for more!