Off the hump

The name for this blog comes from a pottery technique of producing several items from one large mound of clay on the wheel. This technique appeals to me a lot for some reason although I'm not using it much yet. Its main advantage is for the repeated production of several small items since you don't need to centre a ball of clay for each item, small amounts are fiddly to centre on the wheel. More interesting is the extra freedom it gives you, you can take as much clay as you need for the item, even change your mind and take a bit more by working downwards. This video is a pretty inspiring example of the technique being used by a Spanish potter.

First pots sold

I've been displaying some work at an exhibition of local arts and crafts at the village where I take pottery classes. I wasn't that keen to part with so many items just yet so I only offered 2 for sale which have both sold. I think I underpriced them to be honest. Here they are amongst some other much more interesting pots.

Throwing vases, bottles and jugs

Mel came along to Upwey with me today and got to see me throw some pots for the first time. She took a few decent action shots. The last few sessions I've been concentrating on throwing good cylinders and making bottle or vase shapes. Made 4 today and 8 yesterday.

Another raku firing

It was very windy and some of the items being fired were fragile so the sawdust was added directly to the kiln shelf and the cover replaced with a dustbin. The vase that came out has some really nice crazing lines, they seem to follow a spiral fault in the pot that resulted from how it was thrown.

A small carved vase

Wasn't too happy with this vase when I'd thrown it so I thought I might as well experiment with a bit of carved decoration on it. I finished this with a shino glaze.

Glazing bowls

Had 6 of these rolled rim bowls to glaze tonight as well as a couple of other items. I'm very bad at glazing still, I spend a lot of time cleaning up stray glaze with a sponge, but I gradually made some progress this evening I think. We'll see on Wednesday when I get these back from the kiln.

Yixing teapot making

Great series of 3 videos showing the process of creating a Yixing Zisha teapot. I don't know if this technique, which seems like a highly refined form of slab building, is exclusive to Yixing. I had no idea a shape made from a slab of clay could be deformed in this way to create rounded shapes.

Coiled jug

I had a go at coil building the other day since I was frustrated at not having a room for a wheel at home. This turned out to be a lot of fun to do, when I have some more clay I'll be giving it another go.

Some of the results from my first stoneware firing. I'd used a combination of an oatmeal and a blue/grey glaze which I seem to have applied to thinly although that sometimes seems to work OK. These are the first mugs I've made and seem to be quite usable, they've already replaced the mass-produced ones in my cupboard.