Wednesday 8 February 2012

As Harry Redknapp would say " It's a game of two halves".

This large Pancheon had slumped overnight,
so to try and find out where I'm going wrong
I decided to cut it in half.
 18lbs of clay
 Much to my surprise it looked pretty good
 but where you can see my finger prints
there is a slight crease in the clay, and that's where it slumped.
I turned 40 ramekins and then slipped them
I pour the slip in the pot, then pour it back in the jug then wipe off
the excess slip off the rim. 
This is a time consuming job, so I thought I would pour the slip
into the next ramekin to save time.
This works OK if you can stay focused and don't get distracted. 
So naturally I reverted back to pouring it into the jug. 
This is the floor where I shake off the excess. 
and here they are drying on the kiln as it cools down from
a glaze firing.
It's a nightmare trying to dry pots in the workshop
at the moment, I've had two Pancheons crack in the base this week alone.
I can't wait until the spring comes.

3 comments:

Tracey Broome said...

I'm with you! I just came in to get warmed up with some hot tea, cold and rainy here today.
When I see your blogs about cutting your pieces in half it reminds me of when I taught pottery classes. I would tell my students to cut their work in half to see where they needed improvement. That was the hardest thing in the world to get them to do, as if their work was some prize piece that must be saved at all cost, ha!

Paul Jessop said...

I totally agree, cutting in half is the best way to learn, you can see just how thick or thin it is and learn from that. I'm starting new lessons in March and I'm going to be much stronger with people this year. so that they can improve quicker.

Alicia said...

Hi, I'm in the US. And I have been lurking around on your blog for some time now. I just love the style of your pottery. I have been teaching myself pottery for around a year now. Using the slip as you do I have never seen before and it is stunning. I was wondering do you color your slip then dip the piece and then dip the pottery in clear glaze? And the slip do you use the same clay as your body, and do you have to add anything to it? In our area there is no one that teaches pottery so I have been teaching myself through books and you tube videos. I would love it if you ever found the time to throw up some videos!! (where you live the photos you put up are beautiful!) Have a good day!!

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