I've been working on the top of this doughnut stool today. Great deliberations have been going on as to whether to fire it as one piece, or socket the top on afterwards. I went for one piece after three changes of mind, twice in the middle of the night! We had to lift the top on and off three scary times,(once to mark the position, once to compress the buffer sausages of soft clay and the third time for good. I 'm going to leave the outside support columns in situ for the firing whatever.
I can't believe how long these big pieces take to make. I thought that I would have finished these two by mid week. This four legged one feels fairly secure. Cutting through the central column has helped it to look less heavy. It's funny, but the bigger the scale the less in terms of decoration it seems to need. This doesn't go well with a compulsive graphic decorator like me so I am having to sit on my hands to stop them twitching. I've laid out the simplest lines of long legged birds up the stalks and two huge beaks on the seat.
I just can't wait to see these all fired.
ReplyDeleteexactly, so how are you firing such wonderfully massive pieces?
ReplyDeleteYes well...I'm not sure! The tall one is in 3 sections, but I think it will take three pairs of hands to slide them into the front loading kiln on sand. There's going to be a lot of expletives I should think....
ReplyDeleteHope all goes well with the firing, these are wonderful. Do you use the sand to allow them to expand and contract during firing? I used sand with my larger platters and it seemed to help with less warping.
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