I have completed my first sets of pots for this module.
I am reasonably happy with this set. I like the idea of a group of pots sitting together. I like the fact that they can be seen from either side or from above, and are different and quite interesting.They also look ok as individual pots which was my intention, and I like the idea of them standing alone as well as in a group. They are inspired by patterns on a street map, so have a connection to an area of the city I am interested in.
Form(s)
There are a few things that I would like to change.
The shape on the right in the top picture, is not quite right. This is partly a making error. The slab was almost a square, and I laid it over a pipe to get the curve. I made a mistake, and laid the vertical side horizontally on the pipe, this meant the piece was too slightly wider and shorter when I added it to the other pieces. I did my best to fix it, but there is a slight inward slope, it is slightly off. I want to remake it to see whether it would be better if I had made it correctly. Rob doesn't like this piece.
The piece next to it is slightly narrow in the middle, but I like the curve, as lots of buildings have an inward or outward curve towards the street. I am going to remake this. Maybe the curves should be convex, or on one side only, but a slight modification is needed.Rob doesn't like this piece.
Rob doesn't like the triangular piece on the left. I quite like this, there are a few triangular buildings in the city, built to fit a difficult plot. Some of them look square from the street, but reach a point at the back. I think this is a fairly common result of the density of the buildings in the town centre. I think I will make it a little wider to match the pot next to it, to see whether it suits him better. If I don't like it, I will keep it as it is.
The heights are uniform at present, but I will change this in the future. I have not yet decided what to do about the roofline. I have half a dozen ideas, so need more thinking time before I decide.
This set is made from quite thin slabs, which is a good thing, but I am worried about carving or water etching them, so I will make the next set slightly thicker. I will use oxides and glazes to colour the surfaces of this set. They are dry and are waiting to be bisque fired.
Clay body
I am not sure about the ES40 clay that I am using. There are a few issues with making and glazing.
The clay contains very white grog, and this is showing through the semi-transparent glazes that I am currently testing. Rob suggested I paint the pots with porcelain slip. These pots are too dry, but I will do that next time.
The clay is very wet in the bag, so needs to be rolled carefully on the slab roller. If the slab roller is not operated smoothly, the roller sinks and the slab is wavy. The clay is sticky and adheres to the cloth. When the final board is added the slab becomes much longer and because the clay sticks to the cloth this creates a fold line in the cloth. I think I need to let it dry a bit before rolling so that it glides over the cloth, rather than catches it.
Once the slabs are dry, they are quite firm and feel good for slab-building. However when I score and wet the edges before joining them the edge becomes very plastic again and loses its rigidity and shape. This helps to join the two sides, as they are sticky and merge well. However the sharpness is totally lost, and the corners need to be remade with a scaper or a stick. As it is so soft, a scraper can remove clay from the form. I discussed this with Rob and he thinks this can be overcome, by being less heavy handed with the joins and the scraper.
Next Steps
I am going to make a second set of three, so that I can tweak the shapes of the three pots as discussed above. I will keep the same height so that I can try them as substitutes in the first set and see whether the changes lead to an improvement. In the longer term I want to vary the height.
I will add porcelain slip to see what effect it has on covering the grog.
I intend to make the second set slightly thicker and carve a panel on each pot. I have not finalised the design for the carvings, so will use the street map pattern for now. Just to see how this clay is for carving.
I will make some lids, to see how they would look as boxes, I am not sure which might be best at the moment, so this set should help me decide. I want to just rest the lids on top, so that I can use the set as either vessels or boxes. I am not sure which might be best at the moment, so this set should help me decide.
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