Shambling Towards Perfection

Yesterday I finished my flower holder. I cleaned it up, then burnished it with the back of a metal spoon. Then I painted it with terra sigillata and burnished it with a plastic bag (apparently blue Walmart bags are the best for this, but I made do with a generic grocery bag). It now has a shiny, smooth finish, which is required for horse hair. You can kind of see the shininess in the picture; this piece looks lighter than others I've photographed because it's reflecting more light. The piece will be bisqued and then fired in a raku kiln; it won't have any glaze applied. Next I started on a small sculpture of a rose, which will hopefully be part of a soda firing that will be done during the last week of classes. Soda firing is accomplished by blowing baking soda or soda ash into a hot kiln; this results in the pieces within essentially being glazed on all their surfaces. The pieces are propped on raw clay in order to prevent their sticking to the kiln shelves. White ...

Last night was the third pottery class of the summer. I finished up my teapot by cleaning it up a bit, paring down the excess clay on the bottom, and embiggening the hole in the spout, as I was a little paranoid about how small it'd be after the clay shrinks and glaze is applied. I tried to model the shape of the spout hole after an electric kettle I have which pours magnificently. The spout hole in that kettle is slightly oval, flat across the top, and doesn't spill even a drop of water. Whether or not my teapot will pour well remains to be seen, of course... Next I started on a majigger for my grandma. It's a silk flower holder (doesn't that sound nicer than "fake flower holder"? One of the other students came up with that ;) ) and will be finished with the horse hair technique . This means I'll have to burnish the clay and paint it with terra sigillata, then it will be bisqued and later fired in the raku kiln. Then I'll put horsehair or other org...