The Spiderwoman platter and more on my latest sculpture

I realized that I hardly ever post pictures of my finished work. So, finally, you can see what one of my underglazed platters looks like when completely fired. I like this design. I think I'll have to carve it into a slab of porcelain and add some underglaze to it. That will happen after I finish my latest bunch of plates.

So, on Tuesday, I added a head to my latest sculpture. The face was kind of fun to make, but I still need to work on getting faster and better at making heads.

Here's a close up. I've decided that I wanted to keep playing with expressions on my sculptures. Blank faces don't interest me as much anymore. Can't wait to get started on the rest of her details.

Surprisingly, my office will be closed for the Labor Day holiday on Friday as well as Monday. As my weekend is all filled up, I get to 'play' on Friday. Yay! Will post photos of how it turns out.

Latest Sculpture

August was not a very productive month for me, mostly because I was in Hawaii for the first two weeks of the month. However, I came back inspired and ready to make more stuff!

The Knitting Room was running out of yarn bowls, so I made about 2 and a half bags worth of stock. Unfortunately, of the 14 I made, I've lost 3. Ah me...

I've also been accepted into the Alternative Press Expo, so I made a few more plates to paint. Egad, where does the time go?

I threw 6 plates, one squared bowl and 3 more yarn bowls. Unfortunately, they were too wet to trim today, so I got to sculpt. Yay!

I threw the body of this sculpture almost 3 weeks ago and today was the first time I got to work on it. I'm using the Dark Brown clay and will add a celadon glaze over it once it's done. For the face, I think I might use a different clay (BHC which is kind of a warm honey colored clay body when completely fired). Should be fun.

I have really enjoyed making the folds of the dress look like the trunk of the banyan tree, so I'm continuing with that sort of look. I'm looking forward to adding some interesting details on this one.

For my next sculpture, I'm actually going to branch out and try to make a male figure. My aunt would like a Gandalf like sculpture, so that is what I am going to go for.

More painted plates

I got tired of painting small plates, so I decided to mix it up a bit and make bigger plates (around 9 inches wide) and paint bigger scenes. Originally, the Catwoman above (no, I do not own the rights to the character. She belongs to DC... just had to say that) did not have the tiger stripes around it. But, she really needed something. And, if I'm going to charge a certain amount of money for the plate, it really needs to have the detail worth the price. So, I painted tiger stripes and it really worked well.

Next up is the SpiderWoman. No, not the Marvel character, but one of my own. She's kind of like one of the Three Fates. This was a fun drawing that I did years ago and finally am putting it to use. I shall have to make more plates to paint this character on. I am also thinking of slabbing out some porcelain and carving her onto that slab. Then, I'll add the underglaze.

Both of these plates have underglazes that make it to cone 10. They don't burn out. The color will shift (like the purple on the Catwoman will turn bluish), but the reds, purple/blue, and black show up fine. This way, I can use the regular cone 10 glaze instead of the cone 5 glaze I plan to use on all my other plates. It's easier this way... though, I am tempted to just go cone 5 with this. (Cone 5 is a lower temperature than cone 10).
Finally, we have Kergie, based on Kerrigan from Starcraft. No, I haven't played that game. At any rate, I decided that since I had a fantasy/metaphysical character and a superhero/villain, I really needed an alien. So, here you go. After I drew her, I realized that Kergie needed a good background and something more. So, I added an alien 'puppy' along with some other background bits. We'll see how I paint this one.

of ashtrays and vases

The friend who ordered an ashtray showed the last photo I took to his friends. Now, another friend wants one. Sigh... the only consolation is that these can be squared off bowls/plates as well as ashtrays.

I've been trying to push myself to throw taller and lighter with larger amounts of clay. The vases above were thrown from around 6.75 - 7lbs of clay. By the time they are done, they should be about 11-11.75 inches tall. Not bad. And they're not too heavy either. Happy!

Below are the two vases from last week. The shorter one is not bad. It's slightly off center at the top, but I can handle that. The one in the back had 'lumps', so I decided to start carving random streaks in it to help smooth those lumps out. I'm happy with the result, even if I did give another potter a 'heart attack' when I was madly carving. Sometimes, it's fun to just carve into these vases with no plan and no control (well, control enough not to break through the walls, but you get what I mean).

One plate, two vases and an ashtray

It's on to vases for me right now. I'm kind of tired of making little plates and painting them. I have a few weeks, and I need to keep the motivation up, so it's vase making time. The one above should be about 9.5 inches tall when it's done. Made from about 4lbs of clay. It's nice and light! Though, I'm not sure how good that is for a vase. It shouldn't tip over and all once you have it full of water. And to tell the truth, I had no idea I was going to make a vase when I was throwing this one. I thought I was going to throw a bowl, but as I was pulling the walls up, it ended up being a vase instead. Happy about that.

This vase is made from a platter whose rim flopped over when I was taking the bat off of the wheel. I started out with about 9.5 lbs of clay. I think that 9.5 lbs of clay is a bit more than I can really center right now. I'm going to have to build up to it. After taking the flopped platter off of the bat, I then re-wedged it (air bubbles galore!). Somehow I managed to take off about 2.5 lbs of clay when I made the platter, because this vase was made from about 7 lbs of clay. Now, usually, you can't throw tall items from clay that was just thrown and rewedged. It's too wet. However, because of the weather and because I am stubborn, I got this nice piece. Yes, there are air bubbles in it, but if it dries enough, no worries.

Between the vases, I made this plate. I really wasn't in the bowl-making frame of mind, but I thought it might be nice to have at least one more platter made that I can paint on. There's an annual fundraiser for the East Bay Humane Society in the autumn, so this might be a good one. I just need to figure out what sort of design to paint on it.

Finally, an ashtray. In all my years of pottery (12 years!), I have never once made an ashtray or have been asked to make one. And then... last week, I was asked. Sigh... And now, my friend who asked me to make one has shown this photo to his friends who might want one too. On the one hand, I'm happy to get my work promoted. On the other hand, IT'S AN ASHTRAY! This is almost as bad as the ginormous nose shaped egg separator... Ah well, the things you do to keep yourself busy and out of trouble.

Pasta bowls, yarn bowls, a bottle/vase and a strainer

Last night was a bit like Christmas. I got a lot out of the kiln. The bowls above are for a friend out in Texas. I wasn't too happy with all the gold specks that came out on them, but it is the nature of the glaze (when it cools down too slowly) and well, my friend likes them. Hooray!

My newest yarn bowls came out and for once, did not collapse. Yes, I have finally figured out how to make these things. I should be getting one more out in this week's firing.

Above is a big ole strainer for a friend who is moving to Austin. She gave me all of her left over clay, so I decided to use it to make something for her. She wanted a strainer for when she makes lasagna, so there you go. Big strainer.

Then, I decided to try to throw 7 lbs at one time. It was not easy and I'm not as happy with the final result. I think that I will continue to stack columns of clay when I want to throw big. It's easier on my body and for me, easier to control the clay.

A strainer and a vase/bottle

A friend in the pottery class is moving, and she gave me her clay. Not wanting the clay to go to waste, I made a few things for her that she wanted. Above is a rather large bowl made from about 6 lbs of clay. It will be a pasta strainer once it is trimmed and poked with holes.

Then, I made a bulby vase for her too. This is my effort to throw a little over 7 lbs at once. I prefer to stack my clay when I make big things. I get more height when I do that. Still, it's good to challenge myself on occasion.

I also threw 4 four pound plates for APE, a show in October. As much as I like my little plates, it is going to take a lot of plates to make up some value. So, I decided on a bit bigger plates and I will use a few main colors (black, blue, red and maybe some green) that I know won't burn out at cone 10. Yellows, pinks and such lose their brilliance at cone 10 (2345 degrees F). Small plates will be fired to cone 5 (2100-2200 degrees F).