To the darkside.

V and O wedging.I've been working with light bodied clays for over a year now, from groggy and firm variations to the porcelain "slippiness" of b-mix. I gravitated to them because I like seeing how glazes come alive against whiter clay bodies. 

Lately though, I've been missing some of the subtle effects darker bodies contribute to glazing. My current instructor mentioned a clay body she was fond of during her pottery days in Saint Louis and shortly thereafter, the dark bodied, semi-groggy V and O came to our studio. 

Today was my first experience with the purchase of my first bag. I always have great luck with a freshly opened bag of clay, and even though this was softer than I anticipated, I had a pretty productive day. Seven mugs and one centerpiece bowl later, I think I'll be staying with this clay for awhile. 

Today I also saw how this clay fires (a nice toasty brown). I'm thinking of doing some clear glaze work with these, to get that natural brown. Maybe I'll play with some white slips too, and see where the road takes me. 

Brought home over 35 pieces today from the kiln. Most of them are clean and prepped and shot (for my portfolio and etsy). I'll finish cataloging them tomorrow, and sharing the results here - of course!

The dog ate my homework. No really, she ATE my homework.

Last week, while working diligently on my over seventy jewelry pieces, I crafted five new stamps to add to my collection of personal tools to add texture and pattern to some of my wheel thrown projects. 

Despite knowing better, I left my clay stamps drying at the foot of my fireplace while I was at the studio yesterday. I forgot to pick them up, even though I would not have expected my ever curious pit bull to do anything more than sniff them and inspect the quality of my craftsmanship. 

It was only when I watched her "eliminating" slate grey stools that I realized I was wrong. When I came in the house from our outdoor adventure, I found all of my new stamps were gone. 

Oh well. Back to the drawing board. 

And the wheel goes round and round.

For the first time in my relatively young ceramic arts existence, I've got holiday orders coming in at a pretty exciting pace!

Because my "real-life" career is very different from my "if I never had to worry about another bill in life" career, my work days are getting busier and busier. I am happy and grateful for that in this ugly economy, but as a result, my in-studio time has suffered. Whatever I'm working on has to be handled during the weekend, so this Sunday I spent 10 hours in my happy place to compensate for the loss.

We've introduced a lot of new glazes as well, so in between completing orders and learning some incredible new techniques (more on that later), I'm learning how to marry some of the amazing new colors and finishes we have to work with. 

I'm going back to texture, because it's my way of really adding a personal touch to more traditional items like bowls and lidded pieces. It's also a great way to test the depths and subtleties of some of the more iron laden glazes.

I'm also working on weights. Lately I've been obsessed with making items as light as I possibly can without sacrificing a piece's ability to withstand a bump, a trip through the dishwasher or a clink against another item. The bowl series I'm working on right now I'm happy to say is light as a feather, without sacrificing in form or accents. We'll see how they make it through glazing and firing. The set I'm working on already has a happy home, but I'm looking forward to some additional requests now that I've finally found what I think is the perfect combination. 

There's lots of work to be done in the next few weeks. Serving bowls, chalices, canisters and more. In the "cool technique" category, I recently learned interesting ways to blend light and dark bodied clays to get an incredible spiral or marbled look. If I can find some videos, I'll post them soon. 

Until then, happy wedging!

Weekly Photo: Three Little Jars

Flickr/Cherrie712Three little jars, waiting to dry to greenware status. I wanted to make a set, ranging sizes but same style. I also went back to carving, which is one of my favorite things to do. I like this set and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished result. 

Studio update

This past Sunday was a busy one and I'm still wondering how we're going to make out with all the pieces yet to be fired (bisque and glaze). 

We've got cool weather in Austin, so unloading one of the kilns was pretty easy; almost enjoyable. We have two large gas kilns in the back of the learning studio where I throw. Both kilns are about four feet wide and approximately 6 feet tall. Stocked with fired glaze or bisque work, unloading can be grueling in summer months when the temperature is 100+ degrees and you're standing in front of an oven that's been fired to over 2100 degrees. But in the fall and winter, unloading a kiln and heavy shelves holding up to 50 or so handmade pieces is merely a light workout. 

I trimmed the jars and bowl that coincide with the lids I shared earlier. Here they are, drying and about to be prepped for bisque fire:

The bowl has one of the biggest lids I've made to date, I'm hoping it makes through the firing process. 

I've got some bits of newspaper beneath the lids to give me leverage in case I need to adjust them during the drying process. 

I'll let these dry for a  week or so, then prep them for bisque fire. 

I bought some clay home as well to start working on the jewelry idea I had. I started working on some earrings and pendants which takes me away from the wheel throwing process and calls on more hand-building techniques.

I'll be working from some custom stamps I made earlier this year and modifying those for use in earing and pendant designs. I'm going to make some beads tonight to add to the earrings and shop around for inspiration until these go through the drying, firing and glazing processes: