I'm thinking again about using wax resist to mask out the areas on my pots where there will be no slip. This will eliminate lots of scraping of slip and in turn eliminate much of the dust that I have to deal with.
Above is a pot that I waxed yesterday. I'll apply a white terra sig today and sgraffito out the details in the Owl, branches, and leaves.
This weekend I am heading up to Bakersville, NC for Cousins in Clay. I'm really excited to see all the pots but especially those by Sam Taylor. Looking forward to a good time and some fantastic pottery. If you love pots consider making the trip to the mountains this weekend. Click HERE for more info.
It was great to get back in the studio and start decorating pots today. I did the pencil layout on quite a few things and started etching too. I hope to get pots in the kiln by Sunday.
I had jars under plastic that I needed to finish today. They all needed animals/birds so I got those modeled and put on first thing.
I rushed the slipping by a few hours and due to the wet clay and thick slip things got ugly.
So I scalped him, wiped all the slip off his head and did some ear replacement. He'll get a new slip job from the neck up tomorrow.
I went to my first Clay Club meeting last night. The meeting was held at WPCC in Morganton. We had a good turnout and it was fun to hang out with a bunch of my fellow clay people. (you know what I mean)
I had been asked to give a talk on the whole Online/Etsy/Facebook/etc/etc thing and how I use it all in my business. It went really well and there were lots of contributions made by the group. I think everyone had a good night.
I mixed up new test glazes today for the next firing. I'm wanting to start using the amber glaze more often but I'd like to have a couple variations of it, one light and one dark. I'm also testing a new clear glaze based on Ferro Frit 3195. That frit is pretty much a cone 04 glaze all on its own. I'll let you know how these turn out.
I should have known better than to throw more pots today. I had 24 in waiting from yesterday and things are drying out pretty quickly. But I got inspired (obsessed) last night when I found the work of Johannes Peters on the internet. Here's a small pitcher, there are plenty of images on his website. (Link above)
I wasn't surprised to find that he had studied with Jean-Nicolas Gerard as their work has similar elements and approaches. Johanne's work is stoneware, Jean-Nicolas' earthenware. Both have very direct methods and their pots have a nice soft quality to them. They are a bit quirky, odd handles, abstract markings, most look like they are lifted right off the wheel head when finished. I also like the thick/thin application of slip that both use and the warm honey and amber glazes. Cobalt comes in to play in both men's decoration too. It's nice. It really speaks to me and I think I'll do a post on that later.
Anyway, today I decided to make some pots inspired by the two. I worked on the kickwheel to be sure that I wouldn't over work the pots and I picked them all off the wheel head...even the plates. I didn't get any pics of them but I will show them tomorrow. I did decide to put some playful handles and knobs on these two pots I made yesterday.
A little odd, but why not do this as opposed to the regular 'dime a dozen' handles and knobs that everyone does?
I'll leave you with a very short clip that I shot from the studio window this afternoon.
