Thursday, November 29, 2012

Horse Hair Pottery

During my mother and brothers visit last weekend I gave them a quick demonstration on horse hair pottery.
Start to finish was only about 40 minutes and both of them applied the horse hair to the pot and threw some granulated sugar on it.
Once at home I applied a thin layer of Johnson past wax to the pot and buffed it up with a cotton rag.
This pot had terra sig applied. My brother Scholl took the pot and celebrated the whole process and final result with a beer.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Cookie Jar

I didn't make this cookie jar. It was a slip-cast porcelain piece that was purchased years ago by my friend Lee. His wife would then glaze and fire the pieces. She passed away a couple years ago but Lee still had the jar and asked me if I would finish it for him
Well, I think it came out ok. I used store bought majolica glazes from Amaco and fired to cone 05.

Majolica Dishes

I fired my dishes on Monday and am pretty happy with the results. Amaco majolica glazes and a low-fire white clay body from Continental Clay.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Texture Stamps

Was hoping to fire up my raku kiln and do some horse hair pottery yesterday morning. Woke up to screaming winds and snow flurries.
While drinking my morning coffee and looking through pottery magazines I came across stamps. Figured that was a good way to spend a winters day.
I had made bunches of stamps while attending Viterbo college. Had a whole box of them but I left them there.
Fun to make and fun to use. I just rolled up small pieces of clay into ping pong-sized balls in the palms of my hands and used items I found around the house to create the textures. Once bisque-fired these will last ages.