Muscle building

It appears that I have not been taking this whole wheel throwing thing seriously at all for the last eighteen months. I attempted (successfully I might add) a Larger Piece Of Clay yesterday. Twice actually. My arms are sore today. I even used my stomach muscles which can't be a bad thing. These bowls/pots I have been making all this time now look like they belong in a doll's house. (Ok, I'm exaggerating now.) The two bowls I threw yesterday are certainly not fruit bowl size, but they are bigger than a breakfast bowl. I might glaze them in my new favourite combination of double dipped tenmoku/hyacinth blue just like these two smaller affairs that just came out of the kiln...

Don't you just love spectacular glaze effects?
In other news, the pottery club now has Running Water in the studio. Running Water! I was so excited I took a photo.

A few new things

So here is an addition to the "collection" of clear glazed bowls. I'm quite pleased with it. I really like the colour combination of the orange and green. And my throwing is getting better! Thinking of attempting larger pieces soon.

Also, I made a much improved Cat 2.0 for a cat loving friend. The tail actually broke off during the first firing due to another potter's creation exploding. But I added lots of clear glaze over the underglaze and it seems to have done the trick.

Finally, the saga of the Christmas decorations. These take much more time than you would think. There is the sanding and the painstaking process of colouring the letters. The star on the left is clear glazed which I prefer. The one on the right is white underglaze which is a fail. Dipping in white glaze rather than painting with underglaze may give a better result but I don't know how to approach the colouring of the letters. I like the natural effect of the clear glaze anyway.