Sunday, November 13, 2016

Definitely a win

This weekend goes down in the books as a success. Went into the studio for about a half an hour before heading to Ellensburg for the day to get a few mugs ready for bisquing, and was pleasantly surprised to find my test batch turned out pretty well! Hands down, the ocean mug tester was far-and-away the winner, but I definitely learned a bit about some of the glazes different characteristics, which was definitely helpful. The brown mug would have been green and all kinds of drippy if I’d dunked it one more time, but now I know for next time!
Testers
New babies - all ready for firing!
In other news, the prototype has been waxed, and after fearing it was ruined followed by about an hour in the dryer, I’d say it was a modest success. I definitely need to work on applying the wax evenly, but I’m not totally sold on what I used…maybe I’ll try making my own. But for now, I’m calling it a win J

Now I just need to work on sewing straight...


Friday, November 4, 2016

Garbage

In my quest to be a real potter, I've been trying to work on shapes, handles, textures, etc. I've been trying to not get in a rut of making one made vessel shape, one style of handle, and risk end up feeling like a human machine pumping out the same s*it all the time. That being said, we should probably acknowledge that -despite my efforts to challenge myself with the actual form- I am garbage when it comes to glazing. I don't know what it is, but something about that final stage just loses me. And I know that just like a handle can make or break a mug, so can glazes! And yet I turn into an impatient four year-old every time it's time to glaze and just want it to be over. Let's take a minute to marvel at garbage glazing.


I'm hoping the texture makes up for the lack of creativity in my glazing. That's one thing I've found I really do enjoy: experimenting with textures. I love carving on pieces, making weird designs, adding with stuff that I think maybe looks like coral or an anemone. I guess I should just quite fighting it and realize that while glazing is a weak point for me, textures aren't.

Here we have some new babies just begging for handles, carving, and coral