My computer skills leave a lot to be desired. My first introduction to a computer was at the tail end of the punch card days. It left me with a bad impression. As the years went by, I only dealt with the mechanized thinking beast when forced to do so. Consequently I'm playing a tremendous game of catch up. All else fails, I call my comp techs... my sons who grew up "playing" on the things. Unfortunately for me, they are now college students and have bigger matters to attend to (studying, exams, partying... oh yes, college, I remind those days fondly... smile ).
Back to pottery... something I am getting good at manipulating is clay. With my mom being a professional artist, my brother and I always had something to do. Most of it messy... much to my dad's dismay, as by-products of our work would always end up on the green shag carpeting. (Gads, the colors of households in the late 1960's and early 70s! Avocado green, Autumn gold... yuck!) The worse of it was modeling clay which I adored. Ever tried getting smashed up modeling clay out of shag carpet? Ha! Can't be done.
I used to accompany Mom to her ceramics classes she taught Ashley Hall, then a girls boarding school in downtown Charleston, SC (now a private co-ed college-prep school). I got to play with real clay then and make all the mess I wanted. I sculpted my piece when I was 5 - a clown complete with bulbous nose and big feet. I eventually got to paint it after Mom fired it (takes two firings in the kiln to complete a finished piece - first to harden the clay so paints can applied and second to superheat the paint to make become glass-like to cover the piece permanently). I still have that clown somewhere... that was 44 years ago.
I got back into pottery nearly 5 years ago, working on the wheel. I took some classes to learn various methods and techniques. Classes only take you so far. The rest is simply doing it and experimenting with the clay. I've learned there are certain clay bodies which work well for me - mostly stonewares. I'm still learning how far and how long a clay will allow to work with it before it gets thin and collapses on me. I create pieces for functional purposes. All my glazes are lead free. The finished pieces are food safe and dishwasher safe. They can also be used in the microwave and oven.
Below is one of my stoneware platters. Approximate dimensions are 2 inches tall and 11 inches wide. I like to play with various glaze combinations to add a visual appeal. My finishing firing is at Cone 5 (nearly 2200 degrees F). The exterior (not seen obviously) is Walnut Brown. The interior was done pouring glazes and allowing for some overlapping of the colors to achieve varied affects. The glazes I used are Walnut Brown, Dark Red, and Layering (slightly yellowish in apperance) glazes. I name all my pieces. This one is called "Canyon Sunrise."
 Rhiannon2006 · Mon Jul 31, 2006 @ 11:00pm · 0 Comments |
