I went to pottery yesterday and threw 5 mug-sized pots and one very large pot and completely forgot to take any photographs at all. I also forgot to photograph my new teapot – currently in the kiln – which I painted with decorating slips last week. I painted it to match my colander so it is pale yellow with pineapples on the sides and I love it.
The pots I thrw this week are some of the best i’ve ever done. I don’t know what happened – whether it was having a break from throwing or whether the pottery force was just strong last night or what, but it was almost effortless. I want it that shape. Easy, done. Cant explain it. I intend to use the mug shaped pieces i’ve thrown to work out exactly how much clay I should be using to get the ideal sized mug for me, and to try throwing uniform pieces, which should be good discipline. Last week i tried with 408g of clay. I might try with around 420g next week.
Since I don’t have any photos of those things to show you (utter fail), here are some pictures of some other things I got back last week which were all glazed and finished.
Perfect size for hearty soups or stews.
Yeah, so that’s not a brilliant picture, but you get the idea. Ignore the mess on the table behind. This is one of the first things I successfully threw that was larger than a mug. It looks tiny next to some of the things i’ve thrown since, but I was very pleased with it at the time.
It looks like it has been filled with too much custard!
The drips were deliberately painted on, but I would love to glaze something with some lead glazes which do that drippy thing on their own accord. This is too big for soup, maybe a pasta bowl? Maybe just decorative.
Finally, I made this little head a while ago with some clay we had at work. My colleague and I were messing around with it one evening after work and this is what I came up with.
She looks quite 1920’s I think – I imagine her golfing or playing tennis or something like that.
She will never win any beauty awards, and the camera picks up every little flaw in the clay where it is not quite smooth enough, but apart from that, I was quite pleased with the general execution and detail. Less pleased now I see a photo, since one eye is definitely slightly lower than the other, but still pleased. Ah well, no one is completely symmetrical are they? I think the proportions / dimensions are pretty reasonable. I remember my pottery teacher at school saying that the eyes are actually half way down a head, so I aimed for that. It’s amazing the stuff you remember isn’t it? I gave her to Lisa who works downstairs, so she sits on a shelf above her desk, looking slightly aloof.
Hopefully i’ll get the teapot back next week to glaze, and will remember to take photos of mugs and pots in progress.
Little Miss Methodist 