Another slow walk

Very small dish (about 4 x 4 inches)

Things are still moving slowly enough in my healing process that I'm looking to catch up on writing. Note that I finally got the video on the last post to work. It seems I have to YouTube-ify it before I can get blogger to show it to you. That's ok. I just need to remember.

Found items and impressed slab

I thought I'd catch up on a pottery project that was conceived when we were in Kitty Hawk, NC this past March. I tend to pocket things on our many walks. Nuts, shells, skeletons. . .anything with interesting texture. In the back of my mind is that I'll make a bisque stamp from these collected items, and then use them to make a clay series that remembers the place. That's an odd way of putting it, I know, but clay is said to have a memory. If we extend that concept, maybe we can think of the final object as one that remembers an event. A piece of experience and time. That may be the pain killers at work. But bear with me. I started this project a couple of months ago, and between kiln problems, and the onset of spring, I'm just pulling it together now.

Roller stamp, still wet

 

Above are some of the objects I found in my pockets, along with the raw clay that I've pressed them into to make a stamp. These can be simple shells, pine needles (the needles are from the Loblolly Pine, a favorite tree of mine. . .the needles are long and arranged in 3-needle fascicles. The trees are Very Tall and Very Straight). That little skull was really interesting, but I couldn't get it to yield a very interesting texture. 

3 roller stamps to remember Kitty Hawk

One can make small stamps with little handles on them, or roll the length of clay up like the one pictured above and to the right to make a "roller" bisque stamp. They are then fired only to the bisque stage (not fired higher to full vitrification), and can then be used as tools to roll onto objects as they're being made.  The bisque-only firing means that they won't stick to the fresh clay.

Same stamps, fired to bisque

The bisque rolls are used to decorate hand-built objects, including the tumbler, mug and vase below. 

Kitty Hawk budvase

Note that the tumbler is still unfired. The texture from the bisque stamps is really clear on it, but as firing first to bisque, and then glazing, and refiring, the texture gets much subtler.

 

Kitty Hawk tumbler, green

The lesson learned on this is that the next piece I make with these textures, I'll use a much lighter colored glaze, such as that on the featured piece above. I think that may bring more focus to the textures, which after all, were the inspiration for the work. 

And for the record, the mug, below, is a wonderful piece through the camera's eye. In Real Life, though, the colors are much more muted, even muddy. Sorry Guy. My screw up.

Kitty Hawk mug