Adventures in Hand-building

Hand-built turtles and snails for Chime #1

I've still been throwing pots on the wheel, but I've also been doing a little hand-building with friends in the studio. We put together some wind chimes. The first step was hand-building turtles and snails.  I seemed to be a step behind my friends, but it gave me time to think about how to construct this.

Off to the wheel I went! I made two closed forms, one for the upper bell to hold everything and another for an actual bell. I tried a little mishima to adorn the upper bell with a dragonfly.

When constructing the chime, I decided I wanted to add a touch of macrame (which I've never done before), so I went to the internet and found an easy stitch--the half-knot. I am pleased with the result and would like to make another! (Pardon the poor quality of the photo.)

Completed chime

We then started on another chime, making hand-built sections of a fish body. Originally I wanted to use jute to string the sections together, but knowing it's a natural fiber and would rot out in the elements, I chose to use the cord with a percentage of nylon and the macrame half-knot. The jute would have fit perfectly in the holes; however, I was not using the jute. But as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. I begged some wooden beads from my daughter--problem solved!

The neat thing about these projects--and this is really a no-brainer--is that we all three had a slightly different take on the look of the components and how we constructed the chimes.

I still prefer the wheel, but I'm finding a few hand-building projects that I really like and would like to repeat. They also provide a diversion from making wheel-thrown pieces and all the measuring that goes into fitting lids and butter crock pieces. In fact, I'm looking forward to making another tall, hand-built vase!

Fish chime

To Hand-Build or Not To Hand-Build; That is My Question

Fern Platter–My initiation to hand-building

When I took my first pottery lesson, I was encouraged to try hand-building THEN throwing, but I wanted on the wheel. Until this year, I said I would get around to hand-building, but I didn't want to sacrifice time at the wheel for fear I would forget how to throw! But, it was time, so I made hand-building one of my pottery goals for the year, and I've been very slow to start.

My first project was a platter brought about by necessity. My darling husband broke our one large platter that we use each Thanksgiving for the turkey; he neglected to mention this until I noticed it was missing. So, when some friends were about to build platters earlier in the year, I decided it was a good time to work on my goal. Debbie still talks about how I complained through the project! It was the glazing that was so time-consuming. I swore I'd never do another (and I haven't done another platter).

Hand-built Button Vase

I often use a little hand-building to form decorative accents to my wheel-thrown pottery, but I just couldn't seem to commit to the art for its own sake. Other potters I know who are primarily hand-builders do beautiful work, but I didn't have the patience to join them.

Recently, I was unable to use the wheel one night, so I decided to hand-build a vase. This is definitely one hand-building project I'll repeat! Originally, I wanted to use a fig motif, but this particular vase wanted to be something else. As I was adding ruffled edges, I thought about a woman's blouse and used the stamp I had just made to add "buttons". Overall, I'm pleased with the result (Debbie says I'm never 100 percent pleased with anything; I just see where improvements could be made).

Button detail

I am thinking about making more vases using botanical themes following the seasons. I still want to do a vase with the fig motif, and my figs are not yet ripe, so now would be a good time to make one. These vases are a nice little diversion when fitting lids to honey pots and butter crocks becomes too tiresome.

I'm also working on a wind chime with hand-built turtles and snails. The turtles are adorable! I'm trying to think of more reasons to make more turtles! The snails are in the kiln; I hope they come out as cute. Sometime this week, I'll have to construct it. I'll post a picture when I figure it out!

Honey Pots--How Sweet!

First round of honey pots

I've said before that I love when customers makes suggestions on what they would like to see on my market table, and these little gems are a result of their suggestions. There was a fourth, but it didn't dry in time to be fired with the other pots, so I'll likely only have these three to take to market Saturday--if it doesn't rain. There's a 60 percent chance of rain, but I'm hoping the weather man will be wrong!

Other customer-suggested pots are in the bisque kiln and should come out today; I'm excited! Two of the three French butter crocks, one with scraffito and one plain, should be ready to glaze today. They may also make an appearance at the market--it all depends on the final firing. While working on decorating one at the market last week, I had plenty of opportunity to talk about them to people visiting my table, and two people said they definitely want one. My husband's been talking to everyone about them, and he has said a couple of folks sound interested in purchasing one, so I need to get busy! A good problem to have, I'd say.

Happy Hump Day!

Playing Around

I feel as though I wasn't as productive as I could have been this week in the studio, but I did get a second round of French butter crocks thrown (an observable improvement from the last batch, but more on that in another post), threw five mugs, and hand built a tall vase. I also played with some surface decorating techniques, namely slip trailing and scraffito.

Dunk and go is not my preferred style of decorating pots, but it is quick. I've made several attempts at shellac resist with mixed results, but the last pot was so disappointing that I decided to try something else.

Shellac resist with Spearmint glaze; below, the
underwhelming pot with underglazes.

The only glaze that I've really liked with this technique has been spearmint on a dark clay body. It breaks nicely and shows the depth of the design, but really, how many people are going to love this glaze. Plus, I don't like having too many of the same thing floating around out in the world.

The most recent pot, a vase, was less than pleasing to me. I tried highlighting the design with underglazes and covering everything with a matte clear glaze. Everything disappeared. It looks like random splotches of color with the subtlest of subtle designs. Hmm. Maybe this June is the month of disappointing firings.

Anyway, I tried my hand at slip trailing for the second time. Previously, I used a 19-gauge tip and felt the lines were much too thin. I used a 15-gauge and 17-gauge tip this time with better results, I think. The pot is back in the studio and can't be shown just yet.

However, the scraffito pots, though firsts for me, show promise. It's early. The pots are still leather hard, so nothing is certain until the final glaze firing, but so far, I'm pleased.

I took one butter crock to the market to carve while I sat there. It helped to bring my salesman with me (my husband) because he kept prompting, "Tell them about the butter crock," so I did. Now I have two orders for butter crocks! I'm crossing all my fingers and toes until they make it out of the final firing!

Mugs and butter crock with simple scraffito designs.

Ideas, ideas

We went to Uptown Market Saturday, which didn't go as well as some Saturdays, but that's okay. It's always fun to talk to people and watch the parade of pooches prance by. A few people stopped to admire certain pieces, and while they visited, they made some suggestions of items they would like to see on my tables. I'll try my hand at yarn bowls, honey pots, bacon cookers, and yazamashi pots (Japanese water cooling vessels for delicate teas) this week in the studio.

Attempt #3 in French butter crocks

Hopefully my attempts at the above pieces will be easier than--or rather, more fruitful than my attempts at someone's suggestion that I make French butter crocks. About two weeks ago I sat down and threw three crocks as a first attempt. The first crock never made it to bisque as the inner cylinder was too big around and split the base when I tried forcing it apart. The second crock has been bisqued, but it's just too long to work properly, I think, and will probably end up in the garbage.


So here is the third one, which I think will be good enough for me to try out. I certainly have to think of a way to jazz these babies up--so boring as is. The lid is also a wonky fit because I couldn't get the groove quite right. The tube was a bit long while in greenware stage, so I tried cutting it down with my fettling knife. It fits but has a rather ragged edge. As I said, this will be good enough for me to test.

I may throw a few more of these this week to try and get it right.

My thanks to all who gave me new tasks to try. I really have enough berry bowls and sponge holders, so this gives me a break from some of the normal pieces I throw. Whenever I try something new, whether a new form or new decoration, it's like play time for me!

It's Time for Berry Bowls

Berry Bowls with Lady Bugs

 I had sworn that this year I would get a big batch of berry bowls ready for The Market at Blooming Colors and for the Uptown Market, but my execution of this plan went very slowly. I think, in part, it's because I wanted to try something new instead of sticking with last year's design (shown above) with a simple Heiner Render glaze and lady bug accents.

One of my goals for the year is to do more hand building, so I had decided I would hand build berry bowls using strawberry leaves to form the bowl, and I wanted to put strawberry feet on the bowls as a decoration instead of the lady bugs. It was a disaster! I didn't spray the forms, so the clay stuck fast to the forms, and the bowls were destroyed in the process of trying to remove them. Next, I thought perhaps I could throw the bowls and cut out the strawberry leaves. That didn't work very well either. Add slow firing last month to the mix, and the result is berry bowls delivered at the end of May.

Ruffled Berry Bowl with Strawberry Feet

But, my experimentation did lead to some different shapes, different glazing, and different decoration. I stayed with hand-sculpted berries for feet. These are going with me to the Uptown Market in Columbus Saturday, although it seems that people in Columbus are not familiar with berry bowls. I had one a couple of weeks ago, and everyone who picked it up asked what it was. One person must have thought it was to store berries in because he commented that he had more berries than the bowl would hold. Someone suggested I make ceramic strawberries to put in the bowls as display. I have noticed that props can be helpful when selling some items like my sponge holders.

We'll see what Saturday brings. I'm learning that certain markets are better for certain pieces, and it may be that Columbus is not the right market for berry bowls. Or, maybe I'm the only one who likes the berry feet.

Still Superstitious

Last month I wrote about breaking with superstition, but I'm afraid I'm still superstitious. In that post I wrote about my fear of photographing pieces before they complete the process; however, I was going to dare to break that superstitious thinking by posting a pair of carved candle lanterns-the third in the set was not available to photograph at the time.

Candle lantern with carved dogwoods and texture

The lantern that wasn't photographed came out beautifully and sold the very next market day. These are time-consuming but so much fun to make!

Another lantern carved in dogwood leaves somehow cracked in several places during bisque-firing. The studio director apologized, saying it was her fault, but in the back of my mind I thought, "I didn't expect this piece to make it." I tried to fix it during glazing, but there was not hope--it just fell apart in my hands; too many cracks. I can't imagine what she could have done that would've caused so much damage.

What should have been an easy fix in glaze firing wasn't.

The other lantern photographed at that same time was also damaged in the bisque fire, but it suffered only minor damage. The handle had broken from the saucer, but it appeared an easy fix. I "glued" it with glaze and sent it back. Still, I wasn't getting my hopes up; after all, I had photographed it in its raw stage. Sure enough, either in placement or during firing, the top shifted just a bit.

It's still a keeper!

That's okay, though. I love candles, and it's still a pretty piece despite its imperfection. Though it isn't fit for the market, it looks just fine on the bookshelf in our dining room. Maybe one day I'll have more than the imperfect pieces, but for now these will do.

I need to get busy making more of these as they seem to be popular!