Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Ceramics

Hi there! Some of you have seen this pic on fb and have heard all about how much I love my ceramics class. Well, it's one of the best parts of my week! I get to zone out and let my hands tell me what to make. It's very meditative and a good way to stir up creativity in other aspects of ones work. Anyway, the picture above features hand built pieces that have been bisque fired, with various treatments of underglaze.
This is how they came out of the kiln with clear glaze! So amazing. I learned a good deal about glaze thickness and how very thick glaze can lift the details from underglaze painting. I prefer the glaze much thinner, almost wiped off in some areas. 
The only thing I don't like is that my octopus bowl wasn't on the finished shelves. There was a kiln filled with glazed goods still firing when I looked, so I'm trying to stay optimistic. Unfortunately, I've had loads of pieces disappear from classes I've taken over the years. Hopefully this one is just hiding, because I'm going to be really disgusted if someone walked off with the piece I put the most work into!
The evening class at the college finished up last week, so I started going to the instructors studio for lessons. It's always fun going to another artists studio and seeing how they organize (or don't!) and the tools they use. The advantage to taking classes from a private studio is that the curriculum is looser, so if I wanted to just make small dishes and doll faces, that's fine. The pieces in the picture above are from the new class, with dark clay coated with underglaze and carved. Hopefully the white stays opaque! I probably should have used white slip, since it has more covering power. I'm excited to see how these turn out! 

7 comments:

Andrew Thornton said...

That'll be a shame if my housewarming present went missing! I'll cut their faces!

mjsee said...

Fingers crossed that the octopus is just hiding. They can be very shy creatures, you know...
(Nice work!)

Unknown said...

These are all so lovely and fun to see. I think the octopus will be found! The little cat face in the last picture is amazing.

Gaea said...

Absolutely beautiful! Every piece! I hope the octopus bowl just wasn't finished firing and it didn't crawl away on it's own. I wouldn't blame someone for having sticky fingers though.

Unknown said...

Just Lovely!

KaVenne said...

Hey there
I'm only just seeing your blog after getting hold of your lovely book in the UK (October 17). I'd really love to know the outcome of your beautiful octopus bowl.

Cynthia Thornton said...

Hi there! It was eventually found! I asked around and had everyone looking and a few weeks later it appeared on the shelf. What a relief, since it was a lot of work. I use it all the time.