Photobucket

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Tri-pots, custom orders and tired clay...

Have some chilluns coming to visit and we are going to "paint" plates. I am going to cover time, labor and materials and momma is going to pay firing costs. This should be a super fun project. This is one of five personalized wheel thrown plates.

I've been working on these hand built vases with tripod feet.
Here we have a small crock for a friend to keep his sourdough starter in.

I will be mixing my own glazes from here on out so I have no idea how all these pots will look finished. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't ruin them all.

Speaking of "ruin"...my clay is getting over-pugged. The first batch that this happened to was clearly my fault for running the mixer too long. It got all hot and dog-eared. Couldn't throw it to save my life and it is rubbish for hand building too. I am letting it rest in a bucket for a couple of weeks in hopes that I can use it in the future. In my defense, I am still trying to figure out how to properly operate Boris. But with this second batch I have been super careful and barely have mixed at all and yet the clay seems to be going the same way and is just falling apart.

If there are any potters out there who have some words of wisdom for me concerning this problem, I would appreciate the enlightenment.

No comments: