Being Your Own Inspiration

Many times we go to workshops, seminars and conventions, listen to lectures, buy books, watch demonstrations, try our hand at new techniques and become inspired to create new works.

It's good to feed that creativity and sharpen skills,

But

Sometimes in all the flood of the new, the exciting, the dazzle, we can lose ourselves.

That's why it is a good idea to keep alive all the essence of what you and you alone can do.

Keep a good record of your work to remind yourself where you were going with a certain piece; make a note of construction, alterations, glazing and firing as well as what inspired you to make it or what your thoughts were while you were in the process.

I used to think I would make only one piece each time, but I have come to think that making two is better, at least for me.

 I also like to set the finished work in front of me and take a good look at it. I make notes about what problems I encountered, what surprises happened and what I would do if I made it again.

Those are written in the margins of my journal that I keep as I throw or construct work, through the glazing process and after firing. That way the whole history of a piece is located in one place. And I don't really care if it is messy or not. Sometimes fast is better than neat.

Being Loose

Sometimes, when it doesn't count, when there's no pressure, when it's "Let's just see what happens"....... wonderful things can happen.

That's just what happened with this little trivet.

I was busy teaching myself how to throw an upside-down trivet.

I made essentially a bowl with an exaggerated bottom that was thicker than usual. I extended bottom rim and brought up the sides and turned the top edge outward, making a convex shape.

I let it sit on the batt until it was dry enough to take off. I turned it over, trimmed the (now) top to recess the surface and create a slightly higher rolled edge.

Then I cut into the sides of the bowl to make 4 feet, rolled worms to support them and let the whole thing dry.

It warped slightly during the bisque firing, but I kept it for a test piece anyway.

I dipped it in white glaze, dipped a big brush into watered down cobalt stain and just let the brush dance. I was thinking Sandy Brown. http://www.sandybrownarts.com/sandybrownarts.htm

During the firing, the stain went nuts. It popped all over the place making a lightly dotted patterns all over the white glaze.

Lessons learned.

Give a piece strong enough legs so it won't warp in the bisque firing.

Don't use straight cobalt stain.

It's possible to throw a trivet upside down with little trimming and alteration.

Big brushes and a fast and loose application makes a piece that comes alive.

A Porcelain Pendent

This is a test of using porcelain to create a pendent as a centerpiece for a necklace.

I'm thinking multiple strands of seed beads, possibly blue, to flank both sides of the pendent. It would need to have a central anchor threaded through the top with discrete loops on both ends to support the addition of the beads. --Still a work in progress-- The thread is to remind me of an alternate way to attach the pendent.

This piece was made primarily to see how the particular clay I had would turn out and the firing technique would work. The piece is unglazed on the back.

The piece is glazed with a clear glaze and fired at a cone 5-6 oxidation.

I think it has potential.

A Spot of Tea

Just took this out of the kiln this morning--still naked clay--no glaze yet.
This baby is big. Fifteen inches tall; just under the lid on my shorty kiln.

Originally it had feet, but I had to take them off.

This is a new spout too. A bit more difficult to make, but I like it a lot. It's also hand formed, since I don't have a wheel here. Took much longer to make than a thrown one.

I worried that the handle might not make it, but it came through okay.
Several years ago, I cracked the code on how to make and dry these kinds of handles.

It's a secret not for sharing. It took a ton of blood, sweat and lots of smashed pots to get there.

The rest of the kiln contained lots of test tiles of terra cotta, B3 Brown and Hagi Porcelain. I made a tiny house of terra cotta, a small tumbler of the B3 Brown and a free-form vase of Hagi Porcelain.

The Hagi cracked on one end, but I'm going to test glaze it anyway. Very thin walls and a whole new handbuilt form for me and a radical departure from my previous work. The Terra cotta has a nice, interesting hand, but a bit sandy for me; the B3 Brown is lovely. Very responsive. I like it a lot. The Hagi is cranky, a bit short and completely different than the porcelain I've been using. But, oooh, what beauty when it is fired.

Holes

I heard something yesterday that just reached right into my skull and swiveled my brain.

I was talking to my local clay supplier and at the same time fitting plugs into the bottoms of a salt and pepper set when she said, "The holes don't shrink, you know, between when you make the piece and when you finish firing it."

"Whaaaaaa?" Brain said.

"Whaaaaa?" Mouth said.

"Yes. The hole doesn't get smaller; the clay shrinks, but the hole stays the same."


"Uaaaaggggg, Whaaaa?" Brain said.

Jeanette said to Brain,
"Call up that mental image of the hole in the bottom of the salt shaker.
Run the footage of the hole in bisque firing.
See the clay shrinking.
See the hole stay the same.
Run glaze firing footage.
Ask yourself, How can the hole shrink with glaze all over it?
(Milllisecond compiling)
Huh...... She must be right."

By golly, she must be right. I can't visualize the clay gathering up in the firing and shrinking the hole. I can visualize the clay platelets solidifying and the spaces between them changing and getting compressed or with glaze flowing over them, but I can't see them binding together to draw a hole up smaller.

Message to Brain:
Keep track of holes in things and measure after each firing to see if this is true.
File under Puzzle Section in Drawer Re: Screw-on lids and other mysteries. Could have a bearing on figuring out how to make these.

Que music from "Brazil".

Note: If I ever got locked up in stir, I could easily fill my time thinking about stuff like this.

New Year; New Clay

Today I went to my first class at the local community center. It's rather a strange feeling to be sitting in a classroom. I'm there just because I don't have any of my studio equipment here and haven't decided whether to get a wheel and a kiln and work out of the garage. Space is tight. So, for the time being, I'm in a low-fire hand building class and a cone 10 wheel class which meets day after tomorrow.

I've never worked with terra cotta before, but I found that this particular clay develops a very interesting texture if it is slabbed, then flung out on a canvas covered table top, turned and flung out again. I made a couple of three-sided salt/pepper shakers on pointy feet.

Also will experiment with a press-molded plate form, a little sculptured mouse and a plaster bowl form. We'll see how the clay reacts.

Pictures to follow.

From the British Museum

This is a surprising object. First of all, it looks quite old. And it is in the British Museum surrounded by unique, one-of-a-kind examples of Japanese art. I photographed it because I had never seen a ewer quite like it. I estimate it to be close to 9 inches long. It has a nice porportion and looks like it would serve it's owner well. The decoration fits the form and is beautifully executed.

Imagine how surprised I was to learn that this is a modern piece. It was made around 1990 by Soma Masakazu, an artist born in Okinawa in 1949. The information card reads:

"This ewer is designed for pouring alcoholic drinks. It has a typically Ryukyuan combination of clear, bright colours. The distinctive curved shape, called a dachibin, can be worn at the hip. Soma, the maker has given the traditional local style a modern twist."

The piece is stoneware and was donated by the artist. It would be a great form to experiment with.

Clay Jags

I'm on another 'clay jag'. It happens. I get all enthused about making a certain form--in this case, tumblers--then try and see how many different kinds I can make. Sometimes I have to race to get the ideas all down on paper before going merrily off on another 'jag'. This finished tumbler was made while taking a class by Jamie Walker some time ago at Pottery Northwest on painting on raw clay with underglazes. It's an experimental piece. (Pfuut! as if that was something new. Nearly everything I make is experimental.) The designs were lightly drawn in pencil on a slightly damp thrown piece then outlined and filled in with a brush and underglaze. I used a bit of scraffito on the wide band at the top just to see what would happen. (I love to use it because it holds a pint of liquid and has a very comfortable lip.)

So here's some tumblers in process on the current jag: They have been thrown on the wheel and altered, they are awaiting a complete dry-out before being put into the bisque kiln. The first series of 6 (really 7 just in case and to keep a reference piece) were what I'm calling Innies and Outties. They either have areas that are pronounced dents or bumpy bits added to the outside. It's amazing how interesting they are to hold. A hand diversion.

The second is pure class. I have a stamp which I used to make the center medalian. First, I stamped slabbed clay, then thought, "How can I make nice clean cuts around the shape? I know, where's my biscuit cutter!" There's an old cutter rattling around somewhere in my studio. (See, that's why you need all kinds of crap in your studio because when you need it you NEED it.) I made another set of 6 with this motif, but with more going on with the surface--nubs and dents. The one pictured here is sort of an 'out-take'.

And the final set of 6 are tumblers on small pedestals. These are thrown separately and will be bisqued as two pieces, then glazed and fused together in the final firing--another test to see if THAT will work. I'm seeing these in a reddish brown with dark chocolate brown interiors and bases. We'll see.........

I still have more designs to go. Another set of 6 with the flared lip and oriental-like stamps down one side, a set with a series of large dents and indented lines, and yet another set with an underglazed big, dark spot on one side.

Another Example of Appearance

This bowl is made with a basic white glaze and various glazes applied over the base coat.

This is a minuet, ballet music, pizzicato. It has a completely diffferent look than the second bowl--

The second bowl is only two glazes overlapped in different ways: A shino which breaks into a reddish color when thin; cream when thick and a satin black that reacts depending on which thickness it is over, how thick it is.
This is Wagner, trumpets and horns, drums and cymbals.

Form & Surface Treatment - What a difference

This is a bowl I made about a year ago using a 50's plastic salad bowl as a form for the bowl shape and cutting a newspaper pattern out to make the base. It is quite large and was absolute murder to put together. I had to form the base and bowl shapes, allow them to get leather hard, assemble the base and then mount the bowl form on top. Even though I thought I had estimated the curve, it still took quite a bit of twiddle to get the two forms to marry well. I added the side detail at the side of the base just off the top of the head as I was assembling the piece and manipulated the rim of the bowl to creat the undulations, then added the tendrals to finish it off. The whole thing is glazed in celadon. This form really encourages glaze run and I had difficulty after the firing with a stuck foot. (A previous piece which was just the base form only with an added bottom to make a square vessel did not work out well and the foot pulled away when I removed it from the kiln.)

What a difference between the top image and this one. The second piece has a Southwest feel because of the glaze. I love the variations of color on the base. This time I made the base a bit taller and the corners are joined at a different angle.
The second piece was constructed in exactly the same way, but appears to be very different because of the glaze. This is a shino from Cayote Glazes. And this time, I waxed the feet far up on the base to be sure that there would be no sticking this time to the kiln shelf. I also used lots of kiln wash which allows the piece to roll on tiny granules on the shelf surface as the piece expanded and contracted during the firing/cooling process.

The Wolf Tooth Necklace

Here's the Wolf Tooth Necklace just finished. I tried to replicate it from "300". I love the way the necklace threads through the movie as a symbol of courage and love. And the use of it as a symbol of legacy. I only have a few right now. They'are handformed, made of porcelain and fired three times. The necklace length is adjustable with the wooden bead.
Contact me through comments with an email address if you're interested.