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.

Just thrown bowl.

After months away from the studio, this is the First bowl thrown. 1st day of Summer for 2013, a great way to cool of with hands constantly dripping with cold water. andrew widdis 1st of Dec. 2013.

Beaker.

Vorto beaker
Porcelain, clear glaze.

Today; last day of Winter
Firing the kiln.
Taking photo's.
Playing with light.
Anticipating Spring tomorrow.

Shot at night.

Shot at night using a torch.

Bowls.

Bowls with spirals from the side of my thumb, made during the last movement to define the shape of the bowl.
I love the daring involved in making these lines. The clay is compressed tightly between my fingers on the inside and the edge of my thumb on the outside; one wrong move of either hand and it can go pear shape (almost literally).

The curve of the foot is also shaped by my thumb. I do not trim, I hate the mess it makes.

Big foot.

Hand thrown bowl with thrown foot.
Gloss and satin glazes.
Oxidation fired to ^10.

Bowl, dots and a line or two.

It's the curve/line of the bowl that pushes me to make the next bowl. It's the glaze and layering that has me eager to open the kiln after an agonising wait of a 48 hour firing process. The dots, I think, focus the eye.

Bowl.

A new bowl with some minimal decoration adornment of ash and iron spots on a satin glaze.

I'm enjoying this, but it's hard to get myself into the studio on these cold winter days. Zero degrees overnight now.

http://www.andrewwiddis.com

http://www.facebook.com/andrewwiddis.potter

White coffee cup.

Coffee tastes better in a plain white cup. Of course it needs to be a hand thrown white coffee cup with a personality formed from fingers on soft clay.

A winters saturday by the fire.

It's Saturday, it's cold and wet outside; what better way to spend the day than making ash for glaze.
Fascinated by the most beautiful blue on this charred log.

Of course the sound of crackling, the warmth and smell of a fire on any Winter day is a wonderful occasion in itself.
As a potter, I have the wonderful bye product of ash to use.
Just need to find the courage to go to a very cold kitchen at some point for food supplies.

Platter for change.

I've now put more than a few of these platters through the kiln; I've learnt something about my kiln as a result.
My bottom shelf sits flat on the bottom of the kiln, no props underneath. I've learnt that a platter with such a wide flat base suffers from thermal shock as a result. Obviously the heat is retained in the base and walls of the kiln longer than in the atmosphere, as a result the base of the platter is hotter than the wall of the platter and as the wall of the platter changes from α-quartz to β-quartz the base has not changed at the same time. The result is thermal shock during quarts inversion. (α-quartz separates from β-quartz) This is interesting stuff, until you find a large platter at the bottom of the kiln with a massive crack through it after days of waiting and anticipating as it slowly goes through its firing.

This little platter is my favourite, so I'm keeping it. It has pride of place at the moment and receives coin donations every time I come home from shopping.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_inversion

Platter.

Love pushing a freshly thrown vessel about with a piece of bamboo.

Footed bowl/greenware.

It's Tuesday, pots are dry and ready for a bisque firing tonight.