I have set myself some targets for the month of October, to make the most of my time in the workshop. My overall aims are to make vessels to provide surfaces for colour applications, I can use these as a link between test tiles and final vessels. A secondary aim is to practice joining slabs.
(Blog post updated with images when they become available.)
Try Interlocking pots
I want to try to make interlocking pots, to see whether that is a potential way to make larger pieces.
Try wavy pot for printing
So far I have made pots with a lot of angles, and only occasional curves. I would like to try a wavy pot, which should be much quicker and a lot easier, as there are fewer joins. A smooth surface should also prove useful as a surface for printing.
Porcelain
I have a little grogged porcelain kindly donated by Patricia, and also my own Audrey Blackman porcelain from the last clay order. I will build a simple shape and see how the porcelain behaves in a slab pot.
Try water etching on larger scale
I like the idea of incorporating weathering as a texture, and have taken some photos of weathered stone on the steps of the Holy Name on Oxford Road. I tried this in a limited way in practice 2, and want to try it a bit more on a couple of cylindrical slab pots. Once made I will use them for glaze testing.
Test glaze on boxes
I'm going to make a box to test the Yo Thom glazes that I tried on the bulb form. I liked to see the brush marks, and the tones from white to black with all sorts of grey in between. I am not sure how this will look on the crisp corners, perhaps as it is a thick slip I will soften the edges, that may be ok if it suggests a wearing away with age, but I will have to see. Making a box will give me a further chance to work on mitring the joints, but as the corners are 90 degrees, it should be a bit easier and quicker to make than my recent pots.
I didn't like the lid on the first piece so decided to make a second box with a gallery so that the lid was level with the top edge. I preferred the second lid, but not the square on top. The corners of the gallery had small cracks, I need to be more careful if I make another box.
Hexagon pot
I think I will make a hexagon shape to present more of a challenge for slab joining, then use it to test glazes. There is a very nice hexagonal chimney at Macintosh Mills in Manchester. I am going to test whether mitring the base will work with six sides, and whether it is better to make the pot slab by slab, or whether to make it in two halves then join them together. I might try an Anna Lambert base on a hexagon base if time allows.
I went a bit mad and made four pots, one was not good enough so I decided to cut it in half to examine the joins, before recycling it. The other three are going to be used for glaze testing.
Finally, I will continue to make and glaze test tiles using recipes I have gathered from books and online. I have some earthenware clay and will make some test tiles for this, as well as making some of the glazy stoneware recipes I have collected recently.
Image above shows earthenware glazes on the new test earthenware tiles, there are some nice effects over the texture.
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