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Thursday, 22 March 2012

More Throwing

Having finished a load of slip decorating, I went straight into more throwing this week.

I was enjoying revisiting the thrown oval. A wide bottomless dish, manipulated when still pliable and pressed onto a slabbed base. The rolled rim gave it a sturdy edge which lent support to the sides, preventing them from being too floppy. I did need an extra pair of hands to lift it off it's board and onto the slab safely.


Tomorrow's delight will be to add some handles and possibly feet.


An order for a teapot prompted me to get some thrown. Although I love making teapots, I make them only rarely on account of them taking so long. The throwing of these went very smoothly and satisfyingly the lids plopped home perfectly first time. Years ago I remember asking Mick Arnup how he got his lids to fit so beautifully. He just smiled and said one word, (with perhaps a note of pity in his voice, or maybe I'm inventing that bit), 'Calipers'! It's just taken me ages to be able to use them properly.

Freshly thrown pasta dishes which were slipped this afternoon.

So I have lots on the go, thrown pots are covering every shelf and table.

I have put my boats on one side for the time being. I don't want to rush the glazing of them and I will enjoy thinking about them more when I feel I have a good couple of kiln loads of slipped pots under my belt.

Wednesday, 14 March 2012

A Passionate Cat and an Angel Potter


I've been doing a fair bit of throwing over the last few weeks. I need to replenish essentials. I always seem to have mugs on my 'To Make list', but I never have many in the stockroom. They seem to disappear as fast as I can make them. In some ways I would like to stop making them, but I do love to please, and actually there is something very satisfying by a board of freshly thrown mugs.


She really did not help me with my throwing last week. Passionate cat that she is, I am her favourite person at the moment.


Lucky I was only throwing stoppers.


The 'Spring Fling Taster' Open Studio exhibition opened at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries earlier this month.


To help raise funds for this event we were asked if we would make a small figure to represent our medium, to be sold by silent auction. There were some really great takes on the theme, all nicely mounted in small frames, apart from my contribution 'The Angel Potter', displayed on it's own little shelf. I decided to use some of my very old gold lustre on the wings. The top of the tiny bottle was so stuck that the bottle broke in my hands, and I ended up using rather an overdose of it - so much so that it dribbled down from the wings. This angel is worth bidding for!


I have had a couple of bisc firing in the big kiln, so all my boats are through and waiting to be glazed. I had an unfortunate mishap with one of the big dishes though. I thought that it had JUST squeezed into the kiln, corner to corner but closing the door was just too much for it and it's handle fell to bits when I opened it to unpack. Oops!


The Directional dish was fired on a sloping shelf and this was fine.It's a pity I didn't do the same for the shelf above. I must really stop guessing and start Measuring!