I have always been intrigued by ring jugs. I think it's the mystery of figuring out how they are made when you first see them. The other day I was getting bored with making casseroles and decided to give it a try...
I threw the ring form and THEN decided to do a little research on this form. What I found out was that the Moravian potters of North Carolina threw a fatter ring with a small circle, while others made them wide and thin, as I did. Of course mine just turned out that way because, as usual, I was just winging it!
I did however look at a gazillion images online to figure out what type of neck or handles that I wanted to add. I finished it off with some slip trailing. My plan is to bisque fire it and set it aside for a future wood and salt firing. It was a lot of fun to make and I might explore this form a little bit more.
The other thing I did this week was to throw a cake stand in one piece. This one is sort of small and low.
I am letting it dry slowly, upside down, to minimize warping. If this one is successful I will try throwing a larger one in one piece.
Sadly, with all this unseasonably warm weather, our daffodils are sporadically blooming. While seeing them makes you hopeful for real spring, it also means that come March, we won't have a yard full of blooms.
You said it gal! I'm reading Barbara Kingsolver's latest book, Flight Behavior, and your comment came right out of it. Global warming is happening, and maybe the question now should be, what to do to cope?
ReplyDeleteI just started reading the Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver... I love her books. Will have to remember to read Flight Behavior.
ReplyDeleteNice ring jug.I wonder if there would be a market with Civil War re-inactors as canteens??
ReplyDeleteI just finished Flight Behavior last night. It was pretty good, an entertaining way to learn about how we're killing our planet a few degrees at a time.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first learned how to make a ring jug I was in High School in a suburb of NYC, we called them bagel bottles because they were shaped like a bagel.
I can't imagine how a ring jar would be made, great job. What would a ring jar have been used for originally? A canteen as Dennis says?
ReplyDeleteYes Linda, they were used for canteens. A stick could be wedged into the mud of a stream, drop the ring over the stick, and the liquid stays cool in the water. The water cooled more quickly with the volume dispersed in the thin ring.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if the ring jug were unglazed and not fired to vitrification, the water would stay cool as evaporation took place. Not great, perhaps, if you were in a desert, but you wouldn't be cooling it in a stream then anyway.
ReplyDeleteDaffodils??!! ....What?? She says from upstate NY ;)
ReplyDeleteI also love Barbara Kingslove and have Flight Behavior on my Kindle waiting for me~