Stoneware Tumblers

I haven't done much highfire stoneware in a while. These tumblers were thrown on the wheel, glazed with "Mammo White" on the inside and Temmoku on the outside. The little unglazed patches at the bottoms are my fingerprints.

When I glaze coffee mugs, tumblers, or other small forms, I pick up the piece (from the bottom) with my thumb and two fingers, and dunk it into the glaze bucket. The end result is that there is no glaze where I grasped the tumbler.

These were given to my friends Alex and Lyn Zee for helping me with my glaze data bases. Lynn Zee created PDF files for me and her husband Alex burned the data on to disks and printed nice photosof me on them as well.

Another Garden Sculpture

This bottle form was my first experience in "Working Big." It is about 42 inches tall, slab constructed, and made with terra cotta clay.

Using a slab roller I rolled out a bunch of clay about 3/4 of an inch thick and placed them on canvas covered drying boards. Next I measured out all the pieces I would need, such as front, back, sides, top and bottom, and then cut the slabs to size.

Once the clay had dried enough that I was able to handle the flat slabs I then assembled the form, scoring the edges, and used liquid clay slip as a glue to glue the pieces together.

more info coming.....

Garden Art

I made this dude about three years ago. I just realized I
didn't have a photo of it and thought I'd get it on my
blog.

This is actually only one of two "Big" pieces I've attempted. Right before this project I made a large slab-built bottle form.

I came up with the idea after browsing through the Sunday Paper Advertisements. I think it was just a little garden troll and I just made it BIG. First of all I wanted to work BIG, secondly I wanted to try my hand at sculpting, and finally I thought If I made it flat on top I could set our little weber grill on it.

The Garden Troll was made with terra cotta redart clay and was built-up using thick thick coils. Once the cylander shape was formed the coils were smoothed out using metal and wooden ribs. Small chunks of clay were then added to create the facial features and winding bark.

I glazed it with a low-fire glaze called "Lichen" and after the final firing it had shrunk just enough that the dang little weber wouldn't fit on it.

I probably should have taken the sculpture in each fall, as the winters have been pretty tough on the piece. But, I am kinda enjoying seeing the piece fade back into the earth.

As far as those little pieces of clay I talked about in my last post--I can't find them after bisque firing them. And, I'm working too much to be able to get my barrel kiln lit up. Maybe this weekend.