teapots.

Here are some teapots I assembled today, there was a sixth but he didn't make the cut. I have a bunch of bowls to flute but I spent all my free time today assembling these guys, nearly 3 hours...way too long. My "standard" teapots take about 10 minutes each to assemble, these were about 25 minutes.


Well, off to pack up and ship some pots.

Cheers!

modified coil & throw

I'll take a video of this process another time when I can produce a piece start to finish. This will have to suffice for now.

Here is the base piece. The bottom up to the wide point was thrown in one piece and above that is a coil that I attached and threw yesterday.


The "coil," thrown on the wheel, it is thrown upside down and flipped onto the piece. This is about 5# which was too much but that's ok. Notice the flange on the rim, that will sit over the rim on the base to help make a better joint. Leave it attached to the bat.

The coil set on the piece and then cut off with a needle tool.

With the bat removed.

Smooth in the joint and start pulling.

If I wanted to make a vase it would start looking like this, I wanted a covered jar and had too much clay so I cut some of this off.

I learned a little trick from Willem Gebben: Adding these little ridges to where the joints are helps hide any irregularities in the joint and the form, it's also a nice decorative embellishment.

The finished piece(without lid.)

Voila! Cheers!

done with the big guys.

I've finished up all the big pots except for one. I'll get that one finished tomorrow. I'd really like to make more but I can only fit so many in my kiln and big pots don't exactly fly off the shelves, so I'm set for awhile.

Variations of an idea...these are in the 16" range. Not a clue if I'm going to slip and/or glaze these ones.

The tallest on the left is 23". The jug will get a nice tenmoku and I think the tall guy would look nice with amber...maybe? For the past 3 years I've been using predominantly one slip and 2 different glazes every once in awhile. That made choices easier, now I have to make more decisions.

Tomorrow I'm going to start back with some smaller items. I've wanted to make some one-person teapots so I'll do that, and maybe some new/regurgitated bowl shapes.

Cheers!

big 'uns.

I've been working on some "big" pots last night and today. I save these pots for when I teach the sectional/coil & throw methods to my advanced students. The two on the right that look finished are sectional pieces, the back two are pieces that have had a coil added to them. For reference the tall jugs there are about 16" and made from 12# of clay. All of these were made on my kickwheel...there was no way I could handle that much clay on my treadle wheel.


I finished up these butter dishes today as well. I really like these. I tend to stay away from what I call "use specific" pieces, meaning pieces that really only have one specific function. A lot of these types of items tend to be novelty items(french butter dishes, chicken bakers, etc.) and I've found that a lot of the time when people buy them they are buying the novelty and not the pot. Anyways, I don't mean to sound elitist, it's just my personal take on things. So yeah, butter dishes, pretty cool.

The inside of the butter dish.

That's all for now, cheers!

more work.

More pots! You may notice that most of this work isn't slipped, I'm going to do a "glaze" firing in my kiln this fall. I've been working mostly with slips since I've left college and while I will continue that work I want to try some new things.

stupid blogger.

I'm pleased with these feet.

These pots below are by my two second semester ceramics students. They've produced about 60-70 pieces each in the last 5 weeks. I push them pretty hard but the results speak for themselves. In the second semester we work a lot with repetition, not exact reproduction but rather exploring forms through multiple variations. That's why you see lots of the same thing. My philosophy is that you'll never learn anything by making just one or two of something(technically or formally.) Make 8, 20, or even 50, then give them an honest critique and toss the weak ones and move forward. The way I set their "quota" for an assignment is based on the amount of time they spend in the studio out of class. For cer.2 I expect 6-8 hours minimum per week out of class, and if I'm not getting that then I raise the amount of required work. In their third semester I expect double that. Fourth semester and beyond it's their full-time job. I ride them pretty hard but the goal of these two students in particular is to get into graduate school right after undergrad. Gotta instill that work ethic.

That's all I have for now, cheers!

texan clay storage

In true Texan fashion we have had an old refrigerator sitting in our carport for about a year and a half(at least it wasn't on the porch!) We got a new one awhile back and I'd been saving this guy to store clay in. After I took the university job and moved my studio up there it's just been sitting all alone unused. Now I have over 2000# of mixed clay with another 1200# on the way and not enough space to use barrels to store it all so I brought the fridge up to the school. I removed everything inside and sealed up all the little holes with silicone. I think it will hold about 8-900# and another 150-200 in the freezer. Classy.

Cheers!

pots for clunkers!?

Here are some jugs I just made a few minutes ago. 4# of clay. This is not a "standard" shape for me, I made a few like this several months ago and came across one I had set aside and really liked so I thought I'd make some more. It's a tough shape to make work, I made 8 but scrapped 3.


The original. This guy has a serious case of the dreaded slip cracking. I liked it too much to send off to the seconds table so it went into the studio to become a source of inspiration.

Here are a bunch of yunomi I've made for what is going to be my variation of the C.U.P. project.

I've had this idea for awhile to give pots away to people who might be interested in the whole handmade thing. I've struggled with the best way to go about doing it. My solution is to give away 2 cups to people who make purchases at our next 2 home sales(dec/may). The first is to give away to someone who is not yet a believer in all things handmade but might become one. The second is a gift to the purchaser for their continued patronage as well as helping to potentially further my customer base.

I could potentially be giving away a lot of product here but like lots of potters I can make waaay more pots than I can sell if I choose to. Mugs seem to be the better choice but I can make yunomi twice as fast as mugs and can squeeze more into the kiln. The longterm benefits may or may not be worth it...I'll let you know in a year or so.

My next brilliant idea? Pots for clunkers. Bring in your mass produced dinnerware set and get 40% off a new set from me. I've not worked out the kinks in this one yet, but be on the lookout.

Time to go drop my aesthetic biases on a group of aspiring potters ;)

Cheers!