Wool-Gathering

Yesterday's product of idle hands:

just hanging out in the studio,
watching clay -- figures and bowls -- dry . . .
I pulled out a bit of wet clay for play's sake,
and this fellow made himself apparent,
made himself present.

Reprise: Aegir, Sea-God

Body By The Numbers

Making: Clay in Process

 Wet clay: mask.  Feeling my way here . . . .

 Seals and mermaids: clay almost dry enough for the kiln.

 Bisqued whale with drying glaze.

 Motley assortment just glazed.

Quick session just to keep my hand in, you know?

Shy Octopus: Hello There!

Shy Octopus: sculpture mix; deep blue, denim, green, transparent brown, shino, and white glazing, layered.

Jaunty Creatures: Headed Back To The Kiln

Work In Progress: Clay, Glazing

Roundness

A Boat-Load Of Charm

In progress.

Land-Shark: Two Views

Shark: sculpture mix; floating blue and transparent brown glazing, layered.

Fox and Shark: In Progress

Rafting In The Studio

“Art has always been the raft onto which we climb to save our sanity. I don't see a different purpose for it now.” 

--Dorothea Tanning

I was tempted to title this entry "Anger Management," which is true to an extent, but art's aid to essential sanity is something that I favor and recommend.  I took my own advice and managed to fit the studio into my day.

Three bowls and some silly little figures: feeling fairly sane right now.

Water Bowl

Bowl: Stoneware/Navajo Wheel recycled clay-mix; floating blue, transparent brown, and denim glazing.

Kiln-Ready

I must admit I had been hoping these five pieces would be out of the kiln, finished, today.   Patience, patience, I tell myself, but I haven't glazed bowls in a year . . . .

And now a side view of those same two bowls:

Total work to be considered here: six bowls and a life-sized mask.  Not pictured: A duck-head, also glazed and ready.

(I'm also awaiting bisqueware: a pizza stone and two more duck-heads.  I use the duck-heads as markers for my work.  After being formed or thrown, the work is covered with plastic to slow the drying appropriately and to keep dust and debris off, so my duck-heads immediately signal what's mine.  Sometimes I recycle those markers instead of firing them, but sometimes I like to take them all the way to glazing.  Someday, I'll have a chess set's worth.)

Studio Check: Practical Spiral

Pizza stone in process; clayfish; assorted items.

Playing With Clay: Step By Step By Step

Now, while I can point out various flaws in these two bowls, I'd rather (today) be happy that I trimmed them before they dried out too much to work with.  The temperature and the drying times have seemed to fluctuate quick a bit in the studio this summer.

These bowls should be bone dry and ready for the first firing today.  In a while, I'll see, and such anticipating is always worthwhile.

Here's an odd mask that has been glazed and is waiting for the second trip to the kiln.  I should get this one out of the kiln today, and I'm hoping for a mix of blues, greens, and browns that will suit this particular face.  Anticipation.  Even if I don't like how the piece turns out, I'll be learning something about the way the glazes worked--or didn't work--together.

Here's hoping.

Bone Dry Fish

Sculpture mix: headed for the first firing.

Bowls: Today's Wet Clay

Three shots of the four bowls I made today on the wheel.  These are the first bowls since last Fall, and I feel happy to have done so well after all this time.  (I relearn how to throw on the wheel almost every summer, for I don't keep up my skills during the school year.)  

The bowls are medium to small in size, as you can see by comparison with the standard shop bucket and with my foot there.  (I wear a size 11, usually ; my foot is an actual foot in length.)

Now, three shots may seem excessive here.  I mean, it's just four bowls.  Not one shot seemed to convey the real shapes and sizes the way I wanted.  I'll have to consider composition and angles more closely next time.

Wet clay: the studio mix of recycled Navajo Wheel and Stoneware.  

Shelf-Life, Again

Therapeutic Goofery, With Clay