Back to the Indoor Sports. . .

 

New favorite mug

The weather is quite cold, but crisp. We've had our fair share of cloudy days, but the sun has been kind for the past few days giving us lovely morning walks. The kids visited for a few days, and I'm figuring they brought the cold and the warmth.(!)

But I have been Making Stuff this winter, too. I keep forgetting to photograph, so I took a little time a few days ago, and this is the best and the worst of the batch. Glazing remains a torture for me. I so love making the forms, and my wheel work is more reliable than it was a year ago. However, every time I open the kiln from a glaze firing, I gird my loins.

The mug to the left is my new favorite. The green color is a coyote matt finish, while the brown drippy stuff is our old friend Ancient Jasper. A small success!

a tale of two disasters

But to be fair, it's not all sunshine and roses. These were mugs that I really like for their form, but the glaze is a near disaster. The one on the right developed bubbles. . .it's a terrible functional problem, because the bubbles feel uncomfortable in one's hand. And I haven't found any cure for it. I may text my ceramics expert friend to see if he has any suggestions. The mug on the right could have been lovely, but the black (usually a matt finish) is unattractive, and the color combination trulyl terrible. What was I thinking? Note to self: I really need to write these failures down so as to not repeat them.

Small and sweet

Getting back to the "Not Bad" category, these are two very small bowls. . .about 3 1/2" in diameter when fired. I really love making these little bowls. They come about then I have a very small piece of clay left over from other throwing or hand-building, and I wedge it, and put it on the wheel. It takes about 3 minutes to make the little bowl (I don't trim the bottoms), and they just make me smile. . . on those occasions when I don't screw up the glaze! I put these in the good-not-great category. The interior glaze is a pistachio, and the outside was the same matt black as in the mug above, but I dipped the rim in Emeraude. . . a known runner, and it really heightened the green and didn't do the black any harm. Ha. Do No Harm. A new potter's motto.

Soup Bowls

The "okay" category holds these three soup-sized bowls (5-6 inches in diameter). I dipped, rather than sprayed the glaze, and boy do I like the ease of that. But the rims were dipped in Ancient Jasper again, with uninspired results. And there were also some glaze bubbles in the bottom of the bowl. These aren't dangerous like the ones on the outside of the mugs, but they are disturbing to scrape your spoon over as you finish up your lovely bowl of soup.

John's tumbler

These last 2 hand-built pieces were "quite useful" and "just goofy". I'm ok with both. The tumbler is one I made for John using a brown speckled sculptural clay. It is quite thin, especially given that it's hand-built, and the texture was nicely highlighted. Texture was from a bisque stamp I made using leaves, grasses, other stuff. I love using tools that I make.

useful and goofy

The little bud vase to the right was just a fun left-over-clay piece as well. "I have a little clay and I don't want to re-open the bag to put it back in" kind of piece. It's 9" tall. I find these little vases quite useful in the summer. . .a single leaf and flower? 

Life has been pleasantly busy. I always feel like I'm forgetting something, or I'm a step behind, but the good thing about winter is that being a step behind isn't a biological disaster. We won't lose a tomato crop because I forgot to send an email. Ha. Terrible example. Anyway, while I'm always in the outdoors at least twice a day (Thank you, Jasper), I'm also particularly appreciative of our snug warm house.

I hate it when they catch me with my tongue out