Painted Fish Plate

For a few weeks, I was obsessed with making big platters. Well, big for me. I was throwing platters made from half a bag of clay, ~12 lbs. Some were 15 lbs, most were around 12.

I did have a hard time controlling the sides and making sure things were even. In fact, I believe most of the platters were uneven. I shall have to revisit them one day.

At any rate, part of what I was doing was making canvases to underglaze. I wanted to make another fish plate, but I ran out of time to actually sculpt (it was summer and hot and things were drying too quickly). And so, I painted instead.

I used mostly Western underglazes and you can see some of it burned out. The white areas in the finish product (see below) were supposed to be a dark red. Ah well, I'm still quite happy with the finished result. When I pulled it out of the kiln and showed everyone, I got an incredible reaction. On facebook, one friend called it one of the best pieces I have ever produced.

Needless to say, I shall be pricing this plate quite high at the sale. It's worth it.

More wood fire results from the May 2014 firing

Here is what the kiln looked like after I helped break down the door. Oooh, so much shiny! I was a very happy potter. And you can see my dragon vase up in the corner. Perfect spot for him! I'll post about him later.

Here's my baby dragon. He was sitting by some lovely cups and just looks so sweet. He's going to be a part of my personal collection.

A better picture of the baby dragon.

Here's my fish. You might recall (or not) that I broke his fin off. Well, the magic of E6000 glue helped me reattach the fin. I think I'll add some gold leaf in the broken area. He'll also be a gift to a girl who gave me one of her pieces. Not sure how to display this guy. His hole for a stand got covered up too.

And a frog. I really like how both the fish and the frog look like they just came out of the water.

Fish Plate 2 and the Art of Letting Go

 A few months ago, a fellow potter who is much more experienced than I am and also much bigger in size, showed me how to throw large platters. He demonstrated with one whole bag of clay, 25 lbs. As for me, I decided to go with half a bag. I threw two platters and took about 3-4 days to recover physically haha. The platter above is about 11lbs of clay. Now, I did try to wire off the platter, but the wire rose up as I was trying to slide it along the bottom and I managed to slice up a bit of the bottom. I cursed aloud, slipped the wire along and then did my best to smooth out the damage. I thought I was successful... we shall see.

 I decided to sculpt a fish on it. A few weeks earlier, I sculpted a fish and used underglaze on it. It was successful and turned out quite nicely. So, I was eager to replicate the success and do another fish. This time, I decided to make the fins out of Pier porcelain (the platter is made of Smooth Sculpture clay). I know that Pier porcelain and Smooth Sculpture have different  shrink rates, but I figured,  "What the heck? Let's see what happens."

 Here's the completed sculpt. Body and face made of Smooth Sculpture.

 Detail... I loved how this turned out.

And then, I took the plate upstairs into my condo to let it dry there. I thought that it had dried enough that it wouldn't matter what I set it upon to dry... Since my cats like to walk on my dining room/work table, I decided to put it on my kitchen countertop. Wrong move... My countertop is made of Corian. I don't think it allows for 'movement'... So, the below happened.

A small crack that went right through the fish and the platter.

Which then became a large crack that went all the way through.

To the end result... cracked in half.

Now, I posted these photos on Facebook, and a number of well meaning friends gave me suggestions on how to fix it or how to finish it. And I did consider it for a while, but did not want to spend the time to finish it. I just wanted to toss it. I talked to the friend who originally taught me how to throw the platter and another potter friend what they thought I should do. Both agreed with my idea to just toss it and yes, they did tell me what I wanted to hear. Honestly, as a potter of many years, sometimes, it's just easier and faster to let go of your mistakes and start again. And that is what I did.

After a few days of mourning, I eventually tossed the plate into my recycled clay bucket. Bashed it to pieces and felt much much better.

Sometimes, it's just better to let it go.

No, I will not sing the song from the movie to anyone. Although, I might consider singing it in Japanese.

I am back! - Fish Plate #1

Well, actually, I never left. I just neglected to post on this blog since last June. So, let's catch everyone up.

The kiln I posted about in June was returned. It just wouldn't get to cone 6 as was advertised. So, I returned it.

In the fall, I started to make Minion mugs from Despicable Me and was busy making a ton of those for Christmas. Let's just say that I did not charge enough at the start. However, I was able to pay some bills and make over $300 on those mugs. I also made a number of Totoro mugs.

Thankfully, the number of Minion mugs has decreased. Also, thankfully, I received a number of commissions that kept me busy til about now. I still have a few left to fulfill, but they are not as numerous as before.

So, what have I been up to? There was a bout of naked raku pots with water color. I'll do a post about that later this week - and those were done last year. I do plan to make more and might have a new one by the end of this week. I've also been throwing platters... some have been really big. Unfortunately, my first big platter cracked in half. More about that later too.

Here's the one I'm proud of right now:

This platter was made from some left over clay. It was a bit wobbly, but around 12 inches wide at the time of throwing... I had been looking at some really pretty photos of colorful betta fish shot with black backgrounds. The photos were absolutely stunning and I decided to do a sculpt.

After I finished sculpting it, I really had no idea how to finish it. On the one hand, it is pretty much a decorative plate. I poked holes behind the tail of the fish to insert a wire for hanging the plate on the wall. I also wanted to make sure that the colors were really bright and contrasting with the black background. In the end, I decided to try underglazing the fish and see what would happen.

Here's the result. I hand painted the clear glaze on the fish and the glossy black glaze on the plate (over the black underglaze). I do need to practice the application of glazes to make it a bit more even. However, I do like how it turned out. The current price for this plate is $225. I do plan on raising the price if I put it on ETSY or take it to a show. But, for anyone reading this blog, if you want this plate, drop me a line. I'm happy to ship it anywhere (for the price of the plate and shipping/handling, of course).

Lots more to share in the upcoming weeks. To see work in progress, it's best to follow my facebook page : Spinning the Clay Fantastic.

See you soon!