Finished bird bowls

Out of the kiln this week...

The pottery club will be having a stall on Easter Saturday. I'm happy enough with my bowls now to actually put some up for sale. I'm going to put up these two plus the cockatiel bowl which should come out of the kiln this week.

Mixed bag

A variety of finished and unfinished projects to showcase. First up, a new necklace with a leaf...

Then the experimental bowls which all began with me accidentally poking a hole in a freshly turned bowl and having to decide what to do with it...

I really like the one with the flowers, which was the one I put my finger through. There are a number of flaws with the other bowl. It is too thick at the base and doesn't look so great inside, as the little circles I inserted don't sit perfectly due to the cut out circles in the bowl being narrow at the top and thick at the lower part. If that makes sense.
Finally, an unfired item I'm super happy with...

I think it must be the biggest bowl I've thrown yet, great shape, not too heavy. And I've managed to create a parrot that is much more in proportion than anything I've attempted before. Call it a cockatiel if you like. That's what I was aiming for. I find I have much more success by looking at a cartoon character of a bird than by looking at my actual real life birds. My goal is to come up with the "idea" of an animal rather than getting all the details into the clay.

Improvements

Ron Philbeck's cute little birds on some of his work inspired me to get back into putting birds on my bowls. These bowls are much improved from the bowls I was making when I added birds previously. I am so happy with the shape and they are even lighter in weight, especially the base which is often too heavy. The custom made wooden rib tools by Troy Bungart make shaping the inside of the bowls a delight. And Jayne's guidance in turning the edge of the base has done wonders for the outside of the bowl. A bit of underglaze on the birds and into the kiln next week!

Mistake to masterpiece

Last week I threw two roundish pots and as I was closing the tub, my thumb slipped off the catch and into one of the pots. Disaster you might think. No, I had a week to think about it and came up with a cunning plan. Jayne wasn't quite sure what I was up to today but I just said ah wait and see. So I turned the base on the wheel then flipped over the pot. I surveyed last week's damage and sourced a suitable cutting tool. I cut a hole in the side of the pot where the mistake was, rolled out some other clay on the slab roller and used my cake icing plungers to make two sizes of flowers. I used these to fill the hole. Mistake no more. I prefer masterpiece. I headed out into the 45 degrees Celcius heat and after a fifteen minute drive arrived home just in time to avoid a wild dust storm.

Acquisition..a Jayne Bawden original

You know when you see a painting or a piece of ceramics and you MUST have it? Well it was one of those moments when I saw Jayne's raku pot. Check it out...

It's so gorgeous! One day I hope to try out the raku process although not on this scale. This pot is 21cm high by 19cm wide to give you an idea of its size. I'm nowhere near making pots that large. I'm satisfied admiring my new acquisition.

Glazes, frangipani and a forgotten bunny

So finally I have new pottery to display here and I realise I have neglected to show this bunny bowl from a while ago. At least I think I forgot. I can't find it anyway.

I was inspired by the bunny stamp I bought some time back.
Meanwhile more recently out of the kiln are a few bowls I used as glaze experiments, reason being that the bowls themselves were so ugly and I couldn't believe I even let them go in the kiln.
Firstly, copper rust glaze in two thicknesses:

I prefer the darker shade.
Next up, as seen on Jayne's blog, tenmoku/satin white and tenmoku/hyacinth blue/satin white:

Really interesting effects.

I love the variations you can get with the tenmoku/hyacinth combination. Here is an older bowl and a newer bowl with the same glazes but quite different results:

I have always liked to make a hollowed out base but I thought I would try a flat finish for a change. In the process Jayne has helped me improve my turning so that the shape continues on rather than stopping abruptly. You might see the difference here:

Off topic, I have always loved frangipani flowers and recently we planted some cuttings which look like they will be successful. I am fascinated by the development of the growth and decided to document it.
1. Tips of branches turn green and pointy things appear. (excuse lack of technical language)

2. Pointy things turn out to be leaves!

3. Something unusual starts to appear amongst the leaves.

4. It gets taller.

5. Look closely as it grows and I'm fairly confident that each of these twirly things is a flower bud!!!

Practical pottery

Hasn't been much to report. It's been a bit cold to head into the studio. Did pop in and pick up a sugar bowl fresh out of the kiln. I love the beauty of pottery but it's great when it becomes functional. I noticed a stem of orchids hanging down in one of my pot plants and it was in a spot where it hardly gets noticed or appreciated. So I cut the stem and brought it inside. It now has pride of place in my Gary Rith vase.