clay updates 🔥🥣

I've taken a break from throwing practice on the wheel - last time I went to the clay studio I worked on some slab building and coil pots...

I started working on a dosing cup as requested by Charlie. I rolled a slab of clay and cut out a circle from the base, and then used the offcuts from the slab to form some of the walls. After that I used coils (clay sausages) to build up the rest of the walls. I'm not sure if this is Forbidden behaviour in pottery or perhaps Inadvisable, but we will find out when I revisit the pot and see how it's been drying... It's a little lumpy and bumpy and textured, but that's ok. I've decided that I make Cursed Pots and this one is called Affront to God (below).

This pot below is a pinch pot, after a few pinch pot bowls I think I got a better handle on it - not great, but not 'beginner from absolute zero'. I also trimmed the top (poorly) to try and make it a bit more regular shaped. 

Lastly here's a work in progress. This one is a Proper Coil Pot, well - at least, I didn't secretly use leftover slabs for this one! Just lots and lots of sausages. I think I'm getting more used to rolling out clay sausages... I think I'm making them a bit too thin, and the walls of this coil pot are thin... we will see how they hold out!

What else can I say - when I learned to make a coil pot for the very first time (at least as far as I remember), I just rolled sausages and smooshed them together, smoothing and smearing the inside (then outside) of the pot in a downward motion. I don't think I did any scoring (and addition of slip for adhesion) to the bottom edge of the sausage and the surface it was being applied to - I don't know if I'm meant to or not? I saw someone else doing this, but then again in my clay book it isn't mentioned at all. So I'm just going to call this an experiment as well, and see whether we have any cracks or breakages lately.

Anyway, those are my three ongoing pots. I have a couple heading to the kiln at some point, one very cursed circular tray thing (small, misshapen, somewhat embarrassing sitting next to the other makers' pots on the drying area) and a simple pinch pot (inoffensive, will make a good surface for trying out fun decorations). Looking forward to playing with surface design when they're ready!

General Other Updates

• I've been drawing at least 5 minutes every night - this is a big deal for me, trying to just get a daily practice in that I can build on later. I want to be able to paint and such again. Or do I want to want to paint but don't actually want to do it? We will find out.
• I've been spinning yarn so much lately; I have at least 2 sheep fleeces (one now partially spun up) to get through. I want to get to a place where I only have 1 outstanding spinning project or so, rather than at least 2 giant spinning projects. Fleeces take me like over a year!

First trimming on the 2nd hand wheel (bit of a fail)

 So - I tried trimming/turning on my wheel the other day and it was kinda a fail - but still a good learning experience. After throwing the pots I left them out for a couple days; but because it's summer I think they dried too much, which made trimming them later on the wheel quite difficult - maybe it was impossible  to do a good job, because they were too dry?

I still don't hate it though so I don't consider this a complete failure! And of course it was a learning experience in terms of how long to leave pots out in summer and how it makes trimming feel.

In one of them I assume the dryness/hardness is what caused this funky effects below.

What also probably didn't help was that my centering probably wasn't perfect either. Oh well! Better luck next time.

---> There was a next time, by the way. I made 3 pots at the clay studio one day and then when I realised I wouldn't get back to the studio in time to trim them due to the summer weather, I went and picked up the 3 pots. And then dropped the bag on the way home, resulting in 3 manky dented pots. 1 of them got carved into to make a faceted pot and the other two I attempted to trim, and failed, and promptly smooshed them, ripped them up and stuck them in the reclaim bucket!

I'll try and add a picture of the faceted pot later on in another post. Now I have 3 pots just taking their time, drying away, while I figure out how to fire them at home - possibly in an incinerator bin or chiminea.

Hobbies & climate change

 Hey so-

A bit of background info before my big blog post - I'm an artist working in games, and I have a lot of craft related hobbies such as knitting, spinning yarn, ceramics, etc.

This isn't something I expect that the majority of people think about - although hopefully I'm wrong - but I've just been considering the impact of my hobbies and lifestyle on the environment.

It's all felt a bit climate-changey lately (along with the general shite feeling with the whole genocide being live streamed on social media) in the UK - summer is the gift that keeps giving with various mini and normal sized heatwaves/droughts since, what was it, May or possibly even April?

By the way, you can email your MP about what's happening in Palestine via this website.

As an aside, I can't wait for autumnal temperatures 🍁 🍂 

So anyway, I start thinking about my individual actions and things that I could do to help; yes, I know that one private jet flight would basically nullify a lifetime of me avoiding buying plastic bottles, but I still want to do what I can because it feels right to me.

A little disclaimer, these are just my personal thoughts/opinions, this is not a researched piece! If you have any relevant information you'd like to share on this or even just your own thoughts on your hobbies/practices then I'd love to hear about it in the comments. 

Oop

 Oups -

I spat in the face of my previous blog -

And, when payday rolled around, I picked up a few bits from my clay wishlist;

I got:

• Clay - cheap, grogged terracotta
• 1 large sponge for cleaning
• 1 cutting wire
• 1 large bucket for reclaim
• 1 wooden rib
• 1 metal flexible kidney rib

Not only that, though! While I can happily report that I did not shop at amazon for a cheap wheel or buy one off Vevor (for a start it looks like their pottery wheels don't deliver to the UK as I had to view the item on the Irish store), I did discover a 2nd hand cheap amazon-esque wheel on eBay for £80 - so that happened.

A couple of fellow clay studio folks were talking about the beginner wheels they'd acquired, and another had one of these cheaper wheels; and another had shared a video of a ceramicist reviewing one - as sufficient enough for a newbie - so I felt fairly safe in my punt.

It's arrived and appears to be working so I will give it a go. If it's awful, at least I haven't bought it new for upwards of £150, and if it satisfies someone else's needs then I can pass it along.

The next steps for me include trying to find a window of time to figure out a working setup in the conservatory, outdoors, or the summer house. I don't really have a suitable place to wedge at the moment, if needed. I know there's a big piece of wood I had knocking about somewhere pre-moving house, so if I can find that, I can use it on the floor and kneel down for the time being. We'll see!

Updates to follow, and I suppose you can see some of my janky pots I made at the last class I attended.

Dreaming of doing ceramics at home

Hey all!

An episode of me convincing myself to not buy things.

I think I mentioned in my first post that I've been doing pottery lately. I got started by taking a tester session at my local pottery studio, and then did 3 short weekly courses over the past few months. Now, after finishing up on the third course, I have joined the studio as a member, starting in August. There's been a bit of time in between finishing the course and until August, so I find myself dreaming as usual about being able to do pottery at home...

I know I'm a beginner and will be for a while, and I know I shouldn't commit large amounts of money to buying expensive equipment... Anyway, it doesn't stop me planning and dreaming; I don't have to enact any of these plans!