Mugs @ 4ORTY5 SOUTHSIDE

A new shape mug that I feel happy will sell successfully. Reworked my number 10 tenmoku glaze and put it on really thickly. Works well with the speckled blue and the reactive tan/brown. I delivered a box of them to 45 Southside this morning.

Open Studio – Jack Welbourne Roath Cardiff

It was really enjoyable to visit Jack’s open studio today. He has a great set up, which he has worked really hard at developing. His studio is above his workshop, simple well laid out good light and full of people buying his pots while we were there.

He has a wide range of work on sale based around domestic forms, decorated with slips and ash based glazes. Things are really happening for Jack, he is about to move into a new workshop space which will give him the opportunity develop his work further.

Throwing a Charger

I was taught this technique by Mark Griffiths, two segments. A four pound flat base on a bat and a 6 pound doughnut also on a bat.

I have mastered the throwing but  have a high failure rate when it comes to firing them. Cracking and sticking to the kiln shelves are the most common faults.

Great fun however.

Happy potting.

Turning

There is something very therapeutic about this activity. The bye product always reminds me of strips of chocolate.

Bowls need a foot and although turning generates waste that then needs to be recycled, the end of the process is a more attractive and up lifted form.

My throwing guru when at college, Barry Gabbot said that on a large scale it was not viable to turn on any scale because of the reclaim issue, its however great fun to rework the form upside down.

I have modified my technique over the years. The standard practice is to hold the pot in place with a collar of clay, I simply wet the rim and let slight suction do the rest. You can see at the end of the video what an effort it is to release the bowl.

Happy potting.

I Could have Cried

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The gas kiln is finally working and I now have several pieces that have been in the kiln for about 5 months. The piece I was most looking forward to seeing is this charger. IT HAS A COOLING CRACK IN IT! The failure is not a construction one which is a comfort. Of all the work I’ve made over the last year this is one that I would have happily sold or lived with. I made 5 of these, four I managed to blow up one very expensive weekend trying to bisque fire in my kiln in the garage. This is the only one to survive because I took it into college to do the first firing. Such a pity. The glaze has worked really well with the form and the pattern I like a lot. You probably can’t see from the photograph but its about 50cm across, I made it as a centre piece for the dinning room table. I will however perceiver as I have learnt the technique and proved that I can do it.

Back to College – Advanced Throwing a Pot

Back to college and throwing pots on Thursday evenings this term. When I sat down on a wonkying wheel and started throwing I realised how much I had learnt during the summer. The basics have improved significantly, centring and coning, I had a really good go at both making the teapot spouts. The wheel I used was very uncomfortable to sit on and rocked slightly because the floor was uneven. I will have to arrive in time to get onto my old friend from last term. The pots I sprayed with glaze are some of Jack’s out put from his week with us in the summer with one or two of my pieces. I used EC 167 matt white as a base layer and dusted EC 452 over them quite thinly. It will be very interesting to see how the iron content of the Tenmoku reacts with the white matt. Glad to be back being creative, going back to work sucks the energy out of me and make regular creativity much harder. I took in two large bowls for bisque firing, hope they come out next week as I can’t wait to try some of the glaze patterning I saw on Mark Griffiths’s work during the summer. Great fun!