pinched, bisqued, glazed...

A quick rundown of how my pottery class has been.

Week 1: intro to very basic handbuilding, getting the feel for three different types of clay (porcelain, grey clay, brown clay). We produced about 3 little things per clay, as initial test pieces. They needed to dry for about a week, before getting fired, so on our shelves they stayed.

Week 2: transferred the now dry pieces onto the rack for bisque firing (that's the first of two firings the pieces go through). Learned the "coiling" technique. Created another piece or two. Placed one *in* instead of *under* a plastic bag, so instead of drying slowly, at Week 3, discovered it didn't even dry, LoL!

Week 3: intro to glazing. now THIS was fun! plunging most your arm into these buckets of creamy liquid, with colors that do NOT indicate the final color of the glaze. One of these days I'll need to remember to bring an apron, because it can get rather splashy and messy! Glazed pieces left on appropriate rack for the final firing.

Week 4: FINALLY get to see our finished pieces. Most came out pretty much as expected, one or two with a slight twist, overall cool and a good learning experience on color combinations and glaze behaviour. Also learned the "slab" technique. Kinda went wild with that!

Next week, "throwing", or, THE WHEEL!!! Whoohooo!

And now, some pix.

I wasn't kidding when I said I went kinda nuts - here's what I produced this week, all but one from "slabs".

The large pic is a textured slab (can you see that level of detail?), which should end up being a slightly curved serving dish.

Those coils you see on the bottom are just to prop the slab up so that it gets and keeps the curved shape while drying.

The clay looks rather dark because it's wet.

Here's how the clay looks a week later.

Fyi, this is my first attempt at anything big - Kosh had asked "when are you going to make somehthing we can throw our spare change into?" - hmmm, ya think this'll do? ;)

I built it up in Week 3 using coils, using a "bat" (a mold, essentially) that sat slightly lopsided, so, whaddaya know, this is lopsided too, LoL! In this pic, it's dry and awaiting its first (bisque) firing.

Still haven't decided how to color it. Matte vs glossy. Blue? Green? Mixed? Speckled? Decisions, decisions.

Here's an indication of the deceptiveness that is glaze.

This is my second coil attempt from Week 2. No idea what it is, really, so don't ask. As you can see, it's covered in something yellow. Not going to come out yellow tho. It should be a delicate light green.

I'll give you "after" pics another time, once it's ready.

And finally, here you have the assortment of test pieces made from the first class, now all glazed.

A motley crew of sizes and shapes, eh? Nothing really practical, I guess they'll all be dust-gatherers :p

Oh wait, the gift-giving season is coming up soon... maybe.... handmade gifts... hmmmmm.... ;-)