Art of the Pot!!

This week is going to be crazy!!  I've thrown 6 tumblers, and I havn't gotten a chance to trim any of them, and I really want to throw 2 more, but I don't think I'm going to get a chance until next week.  I hope they stay wet enough to trim and carve until I get a chance :P  We are cleaning cleaning cleaning at the studio!  I ran by today to finish glazing my stuff for the firing this week (so excited to see how it turns out!), and moved some clay and stuff around for Ryan.  Madaline and his sister also got some of the grunge off the walls :P  Tomorrow will be a day of cleaning!

Lots of stuff

Worked on the last bottle today!  I have to admit, I sort of cheated; it's only half done :P I didn't have time to finish before work, but I wanted to post it. A new rectalinear design! (I think that would be the word).  I was thinking about carving the top a bit too, but I like the way it looks now.  I will finish it up asap, because the clay is almost too hard to carve by now.

Sat I brought my 'little' brother to the studio to give him his first ever throwing lesson! He is taking an art class and wanted to try it out as an out-of-class project.  I think my wheel is a teensy bit too small for him!

He actually did remarkably well!  His first one was going great until it completely died; something I remember all too well.. (haha, like it never happens now...).  But the second one was impressive! He managed a nice little straight-sided cylinder with a pretty even wall thickness.  The top was only a little lopsided from a thin spot he got at the bottom of the walls.

I'd say its a passing grade for his 2nd pot ever :)  Hopefully he won't get too good... I can't have him be good at science AND art.

Lastly, a good random picture.  Today I came home and found Fidget, our old ferret (the sweetist, most awesome ferret we have ever had) laying on the couch like this.  I almost thought she was dead (and I have to admit I took a picture before I poked her...how morbid would it have been if she really was?) she was laying so weird.  But I poked her and she was still alive :P  I swear, ferrets sleep deeper than any other creature.

Milk 3

Another! I like this one better than the last.  So far I really prefer the ones with straight lines, I'm still not a huge fan of the eliptical wedge things.  It just looks too blank I suppose.

Milk bottle 2

Milk bottle 2 today! I still need to clean it up, but I finished the carving about 2 minutes before I needed to run off to work, so that will happen later (I hope).  I put two pictures up so you can tell that the slits are two different lenths, rather than me just carving them super uneven. 

Hopefully I will get the other two done tomorrow, or at least by Sat, then I can get some throwing done before April starts! Its going to be a little crazy since we will be getting ready for Art of the Pot, which will involve a lot of cleaning, organizing, and probably helping Ryan make some of the stuff for the show.

It will probably be busy and crazy and tiring, but I am really excited to see how putting together something like this works.  Maybe someday I will get to be a part of it :P

Milk can #1

Started carving the milk cans/bottles today! I brought all 4 home from the studio today; only carved one so far because I got distracted shopping at Target :P  Maybe I will be industrious and get 2 done tomorrow.  I should get back to throwing soon, but Ethan ('little' brother) wants me to give him a lesson on Sat, so that will put it off till Sun or Mon.  I have the feeling that I will probably keep working in a cycle like this, 1 week throwing, 1-2 weeks carving, so I don't get overwhelmed by stuff I need to finish.  I suppose I could just leave some pots blank, but I like carving! We will see.

Getting ready to fire

I've started carving on the jugs, and I am pretty happy with the way they are turning out.  I really love the contrast in textures between the smooth surfaces and the carved.

Lorraine let me take a picture of her since I was holding a treat, normally she runs away when I hold my phone out. She is a complete sweetheart, but very shy.

These are some of Ryans pieces that went into the firing today. I got to sand all of the tumblers and then wipe them down :) The big barrel thing had too much glaze on it, so I got to wipe it all off; super fun :P

Here is the kiln mostly loaded up. I got a few cups in, mostly just to test out Ryans glazes on my carvings. They are all stoneware though, so I will need to throw some b-mix tests too.

Milk bottles and bisqued pots

Here are the bottles with their handles :) I am pretty happy with them.  I feel like they are a little thin compaired with the fairly thick rims, but they would also be somewhat bulky if I made them any thicker.

Here are all my carved pots bisqued!  Who knows when I will get a chance to get them glazed fired, not sure if I will be doing them in Ryans kiln or not. 

Handles!

Today I put on lots of handles!  Here are the same pots I used my photoshop skills to put imaginary handles on, but now they have real ones! Huzzah :) I am pretty happy with the way the bottles are turning out; I forgot to take a picture of the b-mix ones, but they are nice also.  I ended up putting three lugs on the wide-mouthed pot rather than two. 

These are the little milk bottles I made the other day, pre-handles. I actually put the handles on today, two small ones on each bottle, but I also forgot to take a picture of those :P 

Milk bottles/things

 Today I forgot to take a picture of my pots :(   But I made some sketches afterward trying to figure out how the handles should be so you get the general idea.  It took me a while to find a picture of the sort of milk can I was thinking about, and at first I couldn't get the handles right, but I eventually found a good picture and realized the handles need to be horizontal not vertical :)  Then I was playing around with some possible designs to carve.  

I will post a picture of the pots the next time I go back to the studio.

 Also, some design ideas for the jugs.

Bottles

I decided to make some bottles yesterday, mostly just because the bottle shape really appeals to me.  Unless I have something specific in my head when I start to throw, I like to start out by sketching different shapes, most of these I found online.










These are some bottles Chris has made, I particularly like the little ones with the spouts. I might try out something like that in the future.  It could be useful for something or another.

I ended up with these three. They are more jugs than bottles, and I plan on putting a little handle/loop near the top of each.  I think the first one I made turned out the best, its the front one on the right. I just liked its shape the best. The one in the back has too tall of a neck, though hopefully it will look more balanced with its handle.  The one on the left I was happy to end up with anything. It almost died on me early on, so I was proud that I managed to keep it together.  I'm going to try to concentrate on throwing more than carving for the next week or two, so we will see what comes next! (I think I'm going to switch to B-mix...).