I made these sea fan dishes a couple of years ago, in anticipation of doing a raku firing. We never got around to that firing and I was tired of looking at them on the shelf. I had Jeff take them to a wood firing he was doing with our friend Paul. The small one on the left came out okay. Of course the underside is beautiful. The one on the right was very "dry". We re-fired it in the gas kiln last weekend and it looks much better.

I might put the small one in the next gas firing to give it a little more juice on the surface.

I have a larger one that may be a lost cause. It suffered some significant warping, which didn't surprise me. 

Here in central North Carolina we were spared any real affects from hurricane Dorian. We were thankful for some rain, we really need it. Our gardens are a little happier today. Jeff brought in this yellow watermelon the other day. The last one didn't have much flavor. This one is a little bigger and we hope a little tastier. I'll cut it open today for an afternoon snack. I'll let you know how it goes!

Making Work For Raku

I am still making things for a raku firing. Switching to hand building is an adjustment for me. It seems like it takes for ever to finish things. I am sure if I had a slab roller, and hand built more often, I would become more efficient.

For now I continue to slog along. I will roll more slabs out tomorrow and there are always piggy banks to assemble while waiting.

On the home front, Jeff and I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and grill pizza. The crust came out amazing! I decided to finally take other baker's advice and buy King Arthur bread flour. Why didn't I listen to them years ago? It's more expensive, but not outrageuos, and definitely worth it. Now I can't wait to bake some more bread.

Leaving the wheel alone

It's been a weird week for me. I haven't been feeling the groove with wheel work so I decided to get out my hump molds and do some hand building. 

The square bowl has little feet to lift it up

Today I will add little feet to the bottom of this hexagonal plate. Yesterday it was too soft to support the feet. You may remember that I have had trouble in the past with this mold and a larger one. I have either had cracks, or they fired too flat and humped up in the middle. I wish that the mold was a little deeper. I think that would help eliminate the slumping.

Hand building is slow, maybe more so for me than others. If I had a slab roller it would speed up the process. I have to make slabs with a combination of throwing on the table and the old fashioned rolling pin. When I think of the time I put into just these two pieces, they should be priced at $100! I know I won't get that much for them, but I will be back at it today, knocking out a couple more of the square bowls.

Orb Making

Coiling and coiling, smoothing on the inside, as I go.

Looks more like a lumpy egg doesn't it?

Now that's looking better! After the form is closed I scrape it with a credit card and roll it around on my work table. It slowly become ball shaped. I set it on foam and the bottom flattens because it is still very soft. When making a closed form, remember to poke a hole in it with a needle tool.

This is a smaller one that I made the day before. I lightly covered it overnight and yesterday did more rolling and scraping. I left it uncovered all day and occasionally rolled and turned to keep it in a ball shape as it stiffened. Today I will do that to the larger orb and this one will get a coating of slip. Tomorrow the smaller one will be ready to carve.

 Here are a couple of finished orbs that were wood fired in Fred Johnston's kiln last month. The one above is about 6'' tall and the one below is 3" and is also a rattle. Both of the orbs I am working on this week will rattle, everyone likes that surprise when they pick them up.

I enjoy the meditative pace of making these and believe it or not they sell! It's not like anyone really needs an orb, they just like the way they feel and sound... meditative.

let's try this again

Slump molded plates. I have only made these a few times and have had issues with cracking, warping etc...

and yes the picture above is sideways... I rotated it before uploading it but blogger seems to like it this way. I also did a few small slab pieces with some extra clay. 

These plates are thicker than the last go around. I only made three of the large plates because if this doesn't solve the issues I am abandoning these slump forms. Part of the problem is that the mold is too shallow, which once fire, makes them a little flatter than I would like and then there is the humping up in the center issue. The square dish above should be fine. My friend Steve made those molds and I haven't had a problem with them. This one has little feet underneath as well. I enjoyed making these but throwing on the wheel goes so much faster!

rim detail on large square plate

So along with taking photos, and listing pots on Etsy, that's what I have been up too.