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!