New Tools

I try to throw on bats as little as possible. Between us, Jeff and I have a large number of bats both big and small. The problem with bats is that when you throw on them they take up a lot of room. Small bats are a pain because there is the extra step of throwing a pad of clay to adhere them to. A couple of months ago Jeff bought a set of bats with a remove-able center. We have both been giving a them a go.

The bats are really thick and I hope that will prevent warping in the future. Only time will tell. The space saving feature is a big plus. I am not thrilled with the way I can feel the "finger" notches when I am centering. While it bothers me, Jeff doesn't mind it. If they hold up, we will invest in some more center pieces.
I haven't done a whole lot of studio work in the past week, it seems paperwork, and shipping have been at the top of the "must do" list. What little wheel work I have done has been in porcelain. Bowls, plates, and mugs. Stamped with flowers and destined for black underglaze and finished with celadon.

Geesh, do I hate pulling handles with porcelain. The constant battle with cracking :-/.

Oops!

When the last bunch mugs came out of the bisque kiln all I could say was, "Oh Sh$%t!". The slip trailed dots were supposed to be white and everyone of them was blue. I had even emptied my slip trail bottle and refilled it with the fresh batch of white that I had mixed the day before. The mistake came because I had also just slip trailed an order of blue dotted flower mugs and left that bottle next to the white. They were even LABELED and I still screwed up. In the end I decided I like the dark blue against the lighter blue underglaze.
Some mistakes do turn out ok.