Happy New Year.

A new style merging.
A new year coming. Hope it's a happy one for you.

Mug.

One of the benefits of being a potter is: being able to make really big coffee cups. 

Foot stamp.

The foot, a stamp. The final touch. Oh, there is the glaze bit I suppose...

Triple boxed.

Making boxes is FUN when you have a battery powered circular saw.

Triple boxed.

This box also has double thick cardboard 2cm squares on every corner (under the craft paper) to give it extra crumple zone spacing.

Floating inner box.

Inner box with foam lined canisters. A snug fit.

The canisters are glued in place with industrial wood glue.

The double thick cardboard is also glued as if it were wood.

I'm no longer comfortable double boxing after seeing those DHL, UPS, Fedex and TNT people throwing parcels.
We should only have to pay by weight of product being sent. Not fair that their slack attitude costs me heaps in time and money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaqJVtpyfVw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueT-CAGtiqk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM3SRG7D21Y

Pin holes on bowls.

At first I didn't like the pinholes.
This is a beautiful smooth glossy white glaze on any other ^10 clay, but on this red stoneware it pinholes. I assume the clay is releasing gas, but even with a 60 minute soak at top temp. it does not resolve the pinholes. I've learnt to like them now. Perhaps I will try a glaze with out whiting at some stage to see if I can help the glaze, but perhaps I'll just settle for this. It's not too bad.

Straight walled bowls, bevelled foot.

Spring footing.

Local potter.

Made with clay from my garden. Can't get more local than that!

Online shop coming.

www.olesine.com

This is where I'll have my direct from studio to you items.

Platter matter.

Glaze and form, abstract.

I have no words, it's just a visual day.

Glaze tests.

This is the exciting part of pottery for me.
Glaze testing.
Though in 48hrs. it's either tears of sadness or elation. They’re all attempting to be a clear gloss. The back two rows are a line test of a clear gloss I made up a few weeks ago; beautiful, but the melt point was just a little low. The 2nd front row is a high clay glaze w/stoneware and the front row is the same, but with porcelain (thanks Frida Birkic) as the clay.

Made for dipping.

I just had this though of a double walled platter for biscuits to fit around the outside. So this is what I just threw. Maybe the inside wall will have to be vertical. What do you think? The issue is that there is an awkward section on the inside that will be hard to extract the dip from with the biscuits. Perhaps that will be the reserve of the celery and carrot.

Yunomi.

This is a fairly large yunomi that I made to accommodate my coffee habit.
I like a big coffee, and at first this was more than adequate. But it's like a house. No matter how big it is, you end up filling it.

A thrown foot.

A freshly thrown foot.
Left in a "rough" state, awaiting to be cleaned up when a little (in a few hours) dryer.

The bowl has been finished in its "greenware" stage and it's now in a draft free cupboard to dry very slowly. With a different clay for the foot, it's likely that it will crack where it is joined. So all precautions are being taken.

Fresh clay.

I know your supposed to wait 3 Months, but I made this clay this morning.
Make clay, add yoghurt and wait 3 months for it to mature. The yoghurt feeds bacteria, bacteria eat the edges of the clay particles and let the water penetrate further.
This is fine if your not curious. I'm wanting to see what colour this fires too, and putting a little ball of it in the kiln doesn't cut it sometimes. I'm interested to see what the iron oxide fires like. I bought it from the local hardware store. Meant for colouring concrete it's not as refined as my usual source. I think this is why you can see it streaking.

The base will be narrowed a little when I throw a foot on. The clay gets pushed across to work in with the added foot clay and help it all meld together.

Bone dry, garden clay bowl.

The clay looks good.
No signs of cracking in the thrown body or where the thrown foot meets it.
So, fingers crossed as I head to the next stage: bisque fire.

If you want to support me, please look at the right hand column.
Consider BUYING one of the books. (I've read them all, and I do recommend all of them). Also at the bottom you can"join this site" to give me a warm fuzzy feeling that you are reading, looking and enjoying my adventures with clay..

Throwing clay from the garden.

This is clay from my garden.
It throws beautifully. And almost looks good enough to eat.

Vertical (vorto) hand thrown form.

I'm on a production footing now. The weather is just right in the studio, and I feel motivated.

I've also moved to category 2 :-)

Green pots.

This is what my bowls look like before firing.
The foot is thrown on the bowl and compressed with a bamboo flat tool to shape and avoid cracking.
I tend to like them at this stage almost as much as the final glazed form.
The line of this shape is just right for me. I enjoy this so much when the lines are working.

Clay from home.

I've started down the path of making my own clay again.
I've found some clay about 50cm down that is moist and plastic enough to roll into a ball (not damp enough to roll into a nice smooth round ball).
The photo shows this ball of clay after a ^10 ox. firing.
Today the clay I dug up was dry enough to add water to and delaminate. Tomorrow I will mix it and sieve it.
Looking forward to the next week when I get to test it on the wheel...

Stretching light + time.

The final act.

I often wonder, and suspect it true. That I really make vessels to photograph.

I have always enjoyed the process of arranging and framing a shot; and to come up with a new way to find interest in an inanimate object is quite exciting.

I guess the need for an interesting subject informs the need for development in the potters studio. So one informs the other.

Back at it.

It's been a while. It's been a fair while.
It's been a long cold Winter, but Spring is her and the studio looks inviting again.
Looking forward to converting the shapes I see in my minds eye, to clay, forming on the potters wheel.

Next.

Enough about me. You need to have a look at these 2 fine potters.

http://www.cone11.com.au/

Heatwave after heatwave.

Been a while, it's just too hot to go to the studio and be creative. One record heatwave after the other.
I am doing my best to keep the garden going and the native birds hydrated.