tennis, life and a few things in between

All my potter mates are artistic and creative. Me? Practical, making plates and bowls … as if I don’t have too many of them already. I’m just a lazy bone, don’t even want to use my brain to imagine.

One of my mates Amy purchased pottery glaze squeeze bottles from Amazon and teacher showed us how to use it. She did say that it will look totally different once it has been fired. The under glaze won’t bleed – will stay as painted – but not as shiny and colorful as the clear glaze. It’s a two step process but you don’t need to fire in between.

Wait and See.

I made three of the Four ¼ for my 24″ lazy susan turntable Saturday.  Today I finished the last 1/4 pie, with imprint. I inscribed the wrong date tho 11.26 – should be 11.27. Many of them are on the molds, should take off after about a day or two.

3 pieces from this one clay dough: white square bowl hump; push plate and rectangle tray

Boxing day: how to make a box, with the cover. Many classmates made 1/4″ clay ahead of the time, so it would be leather hard. I used Smokey’s leftover – thanks!

A few tools we used: cutter, beveler to cut 45° edges, and a wooden flat stick to smooth out the insider corners – not really but better than finger tip.

I also mapped out my lazy susan tray. We also discussed Sax ceramic glaze, which is truer to its color, as Amaro’s Potter’s Choice glaze.

Repair the crack: I used Amaco’s Bisque Fix ($28 for 4 oz can).

Pottery lesson #7 (the first lesson after the six-week session): push plate. What’s the different from the slump mold? I thought I could find answer easily online but I haven’t. Will ask the teacher next time.

Push is the key here

We also picked up the finished projects that were made over the past few weeks. The piece I like the most: cylinder/vase that was made/formed during our second lesson on Oct 16.

Today is our final day, of six Mondays session. To conclude it, we’re glazing again, on the pieces we made in the previous sessions.

We got our first session‘s creations back: flowers, turtles, mini plate, etc. My little turtle was broken.

We learnt to pour the glaze into skinny jars where you can’t get to it with a fan brush.

I’m dutifully recording each layer of glaze in the ClayLab app.

Ya, we’re glazing, finally! With so many colors (Amaco), the fun part begins.

It’s the week 5 of our six weeks session. The teacher suggests the app Clay Lab to keep truck of our pieces.

Glazing in pottery, I feel is a part of science and part of art: two shades mixing up will turn into totally different colors, when you apply differently – like this one: the top is obsidian under white, and the bottom under grey. The result is so drastic.

… Sax’s color is truer

I glazed three pieces: my flower and mini sauce dish. My turtle is missing a leg and pumpkin was broken into pieces. This pumpkin is made by a classmate who’s not coming back – I’m practicing on it.

The fourth lesson is moulding (predominately used by the Brit -:).

There are two kinds of molding: slump (the inside) and hump (outside).

I used one of the potteries made by my kid -:)

We got our glazes … to share! Next week, we will learn how to glaze.

Our third class is all about slab cylinders texture mug / vase.

The little turtle, flower, etc we made on our first class, are dried, waiting to be burned.

Before we leave, the pottery master talked about glazing materials – the colors!

A classmate placed order for us – we all get two basic colors, plus an additional third (all different), so we can all share and experiment.

We glaze this one during our 5th and 6th class; afterward it went to the kiln. I picked up the finished product on Nov 13.

Glazing:

• inside: pour Celadon
• outside:
  • 1. celadon
  • smokey merlot
  • blue rustile

Week 2: a coil pot. Homework: make 10 coils at home, to bring to the second class.

We will be creating our coil pots tomorrow. Please bring your coils, some clay, tools, slip and a fork to class. See you tomorrow.

I forgot to bring a fork.

This will be my third time starting on pottery. The first time was in Hong Kong, in the early 1980s. The second time was a few years ago in New York. Neither had last.

^{My gadgets: apron, tools and clays, which came mixed from Amazon.}  

This popular class is taught by Lady Di, who was a schoolteacher. It runs for five Mondays.

Week 1: Our first creation is a flower. Then a pumpkin, then moved on to a turtle: the standing one is from the teacher and mine is tired and flattened out -:), and eventually lost one leg.

These creatures need to be room dried then, glazed before going into the kiln, the final step.

Our weekly sessions, six Mondays, from Oct 2 to Nov 6:

• Week 2: a coil pot
• Week 3: slab cylinders
• Week 4: moulds
• Week 5: glazing
• Week 6: glazing II

ConEd – continue education -:)

1. squeeze bottles, lazy susan
2. box
3. push plate