Rules were meant to be broken?

The "No Drying Pots In The House" rule has been broken once again...

These make me laugh. Don't they look like they are at the hair salon getting a color?

I ordered a bag of these elastacized platic bowl covers to see if they would work in the studio. We have been trying to keep rims from drying out too quickly. Jeff cut a whole out of the center to allow the bottom to dry. We really wanted them for larger platters and bowls but they don't stretch to size they were advertised to. They were less than four dollars. If we don't find them functional in the studio we will use the rest of them in the kitchen.

We have a lot of pots to get fired in the next three weeks. After that I am sure it will be the mad dash for last minute piggy bank orders.

Process

Jeff and I are getting our collaborative work done for the Piedmont Craftsmen's show next month. We will be exhhibiting our work in a group booth, the weekend before Thanksgiving... the same weekend as the Celebration of Seagrove Potters.

Last week Jeff threw a few large platters and shallow bowls. It was so humid that it took forever for them to get to the point of being trimmed, slipped, and carved.

Yesterday I was finally able to get my hands on them.

Jeff had brushed on the slip days before.

I lightly sketch my design with a pencil. It was a little softer than I like to draw on, but we really needed to get these platters done.

Next I carve the ginkgo leaf outline.

 Then I carve away the background. This is obviously the part that takes the longest. I usually like to turn on the radio and listen to whatever is on WUNC public radio while carving. Sometimes I am amazed at how much time has passed when I am finished. I often switch between standing and sitting while I carve. It's a little easier on my "getting old body" to move around a lot.

Done!

One more to go today and then it's back to the wheel.

Green and Shino

We unloaded the gas kiln on Saturday and I was really happy with a couple of green and shino bowls. I haven't done as much in this glaze combination this year, since I have become infatuated with ash glaze. This combination is time consuming because I have to wax the rims and then carefully pour out the green, without getting any drips onto the sides of bowl. Occasionally I have gotten some drips and have had some success with scraping off the green over the shino. This go around I had one drip that was problematic. I scraped it a little thin. Jeff hit on the idea of spraying a light coating of the ash glaze over the shino and it successfully covered the thin spot.

I had a lot of piggy banks in this firing. Many were orders but there were also some extras to have in stock in my Etsy shop. It would be good to be able to be ahead, the holiday rush will be upon us in no time.

Black and White

 These mugs came out of the kiln a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't sure how I felt about them and left them out on the shelves under the kiln shed for more than a week.

I finally decided to bring them in and photograph them. After spending some time with them, I decided they were OK. 

I think I would be more in love with them if I had a more transparent glaze. My next plan is to apply velvet under glaze onto the white stoneware and carve through it, instead of the slip. The velvet under glaze has a nice finish without any glaze over it. I will first do some tumblers or small cups. If wanted to do mugs I would have to wax over all of the under glaze in order glaze the handle too. I am open to suggestions!