Studio day: 4/11/10

Today was a very good day in the studio. Last week I threw these pieces, two taller vases with the last of my balcones white clay and then the four tumblers with gruene butter. 

I haven't worked with that very supple, darker body clay in about two years and as soon as I started centering the first ball of clay, I was reminded how different a groggy clay can be from these softer bodies. I found myself using too much force as I was building my wall...and what do you do when you're struggling to get the feel of a new clay?

You go back to basics. I'll probably use the rest of this bag to make some cups and smaller items until I resume my comfort level with the soft, grog-free bodies. 

Fun tumblers though, huh? 

Grog: bisque-fired clay that has been pulverized and re-added to clay to minimize shrinkage in firing. Very "groggy" clays feel a bit like mud with granules of sand in it. Gruene has virtual;y no grog. Porcelain is a clay body that also has no grog and handles like practically melted butter. 

Back to the wheel again.

This past weekend, I started some additional work on the pieces I threw the week before. 

I wasn't feeling all that hot and my mind was all over the place having been pulled in 5,000 directions working on everyone else's initiatives except my own. So when I'm like that, I find the best way to unravel my mind is carving and etching. 

It chewed up about 4 hours of my studio time, but when it was done I felt a lot better about some things and a lot clearer about everything else. 

Life has thrown me so many curve balls lately I've been struggling to regain a routine.  Once upon a time, I was in the studio on Sundays, plugged into my ear buds and focused on the meditation that clay afford me. I didn't put my head up until I was physically exhausted. It was cleansing, all that mud...and I was creatively sharper than I feel now. 

I think when you are living your life reactively (which I have been doing so heavily for the past year), it can be so hard to switch gears and get into the productive practice of creating. Other than the big turn I made in creating lidded pieces, I felt a bit stunted. 

It's time to start challenging myself again. Life should be moving back into a more steady existence in the next few months...at least, I really hope it is. I'm looking to ratchet up my skill level. I'm thinking tea pots, the aromatic diffusers my cousin suggested, some dish sets and finally some bigger better functional designs. 

So I've got 4 pieces with varying carved and chattered designs, drying on my shelf. We'll set them up for bisque fire and hopefully I'll be sharing the results with you soon.