Mug sketches

I haven't actually done anything useful at the studio this week, so here is a page from my sketchbook with lots of mug designs.  All of these are inspired by design elements from native american pottery. 

And because I dont have anything else pottery related... my dog.  Looking very silly.

And a ferret in a tupperware!  No I didnt keep her in there for very long, but she fit so perfectly!  She actually sat in it for a minute more when I took the lid off; ferrets love little spaces :P  Hopefully I will update soon with more awesome pottery!  I am thinking about making some more plates, and maybe a couple fountains!

Mugs

Mugs! Or they will be; for now they are just cylinders.   Mugs are wonderful and easy to throw, but next week I get to pull a ton of handles :P

While Ethan was home for the Christmas break he brought his girlfriend Ciara to the studio and they threw a couple things.  The little short cylinder was Ciaras first pot ever!  Ethan threw the little vase and the jar. 

Sketchbook page! The first in a while I know :)  Several of these have already shown up in earlier posts.

And some design ideas for the mugs once they are all assembled.  I will probably carve some of these, but I am really enjoying painting my bisqued pieces and will probably focus on that (in part because I think I threw most of the cylinders a little too thin to carve).

Birthday kitty taking a nap.

More tumblers and some fired pots

I like making tumblers, they are quick! ...Relatively so.  Its only been taking me 45 min or so to carve the stripe ones. I have been thinking about other designs, but they would all take longer to carve, so I am trying to think up other ideas.  I'm thinking about just altering the pots rather than carving, or keeping the designs, but painting them on or something like that.   Something so that I can produce them faster, and then charge less for them!

I got the last of the tumblers carved this afternoon.  There weer originally going to be 8, but I never got around to throwing the last two, so 6 it is.

Also, a few more things I got out of the kiln:  these cups got quite a bit more salt than the other one I took a picture of.  I don't really like how much orange peel these got (the bumpy look the glaze gets); and the carvings don't stand out quite as much.  But it's not terrible.

Another bottle, this one had a flashing slip on it.  Again, I'm not a huge fan of the parts that got a lot of salt, it makes it so much lighter.  But again, its alright.

B-mix jug #4

Here's the last jug! Next I need to carve the milk bottles, and then I have to throw some small cups to use for glaze tests, then a teapot for Hollen's bday.

After that, I think I want to make some planters! I want to plant my succulents in some nicer pots, and mayyybe make some to sell too :D

Sketches

Here was the sketch of two of my cats snuggling that I tried to carve on some of my mugs.  I ended up not very happy with the way they turned out (see earlier post), but I liked the sketch!

And more old sketchbook stuff! These were for a set I did that turned out pretty cool.  It was a dinner set that was a landscape: the horny toad was in the bowl, the plate was a harvest-ant mound, the tumbler had some native grasses carved on it, and the teacup had the horny toad eggs hidden in the center.  You can see pictures of the whole set on my flickr page.

This one was another from my senior show. It shows a great dane with bloat.  In the final piece (a large tray that I handbuilt with altered pieces) his ears stick up.

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.

Old Sketches

Today is for old sketch book pictures! Not too old, because I don't want to show you those :P  The two drawings ended up on actual pieces, and you can see the rhinos on flickr.  I sketched both the drawings from images I found online or in books; I seem to have a talent for reproducing images I see :P

This one is from a pot that sadly did not make it through the firing, which was very sad because I was really happy with the way it looked carved.  I threw a lidded casserole dish, and these little newborn bulldog puppies were on the side, along with some surgical tools.  The mother bulldog was on the lid, all laid out for her c-section.  The lid split in half during the firing, and I still have all the pieces, so maybe I will post a picture of it at some point.  Very disappointing. But the little puppies are still cute!

These guys were from a set of plates I did that turned out rather nicely.  These were actually pen sketches; I am always shocked and how well most of my pen sketches turn out :) Baby rhinos are very odd looking.

This page is from earlier than the other two, before I started to carve on the surfaces.  I was thinking about working with altered forms, and I was really interested in somehow incorporating plants in with the pots, and also dirt.  I am still intrigued by this idea, and now that I have more technical skill I may pursue it further.

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...).