picked up my pieces today from class. Strangely, the bud vase and one of my teadust mugs had fused together in one spot during the firing, but I was able to snap them apart without much trouble. The teadust sure does run!
I couldn't find one piece... the little goblet that had broken while glazing. Zach found it in back with a note saying the tech didn't feel good about putting it in the kiln, if the top fell off while firing, it could totally ruin another piece or the kiln shelf... I guess I understand. I went ahead and threw it away. sad.
I spent about 30 minutes at the grinder making the places where the teadust actually had stuck to the shelf look less terrible... and then I packed up my stuff and came home!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
Hana's last class: pit fire!!
The last class of the quarter. As you know, we've been leading up to this class for a while, when we decided to do a pit firing. Really great idea, actually, since otherwise the last class would just consist of picking up our finished pieces.
I stopped by the studio on my way to Gary's house. I was able to find all my finished glazed things, I think (and with Jackie's help), and will follow up in another post with pictures of those.
Then, to Gary's. I showed up about ten minutes late, with my two pieces, a camping chair, and a bottle of wine. Other people were also starting to show up, and they brought all sorts of food and lots of wood. We each stuck our pieces into a pit at the end of the yard (next to a chicken coop!) which was filled with sawdust. Then we filled it in with a layer of kindling.
We all stood around a bit awkwardly for a few minutes, then Gary asked who would like to start the fire. No one really did anything, so Gary went and got a flaming piece of wood out of the little oven thing that he had made a while back and stuck it into the pit. Suddenly I found myself at the edge of the pit, blowing on the flames and sticking bits of kindling around, and basically all in charge. It was funny. It was a large pit, so a couple other people joined me, but I'm proud to say that my third of the pit was up and roaring first. Hehe.
Here's a picture of all of us building the fire. Strangely enough, the three of us (I'm not pictured) are also the least talkative of the group, and I think having something constructive to do was a relief for us.
While we were building, everyone else got all the food set up, and there was sake and glugg warming up inside on the stove.
Once the fire was really going, (see the second picture) I started wandering around, snacking, and attempting to chat with the others.
I found Gary's pottery shed, which was filled with great pieces and also, is that... yes! Our group project was all lined up on the shelves in there. All the little sake cups, each one completely unique, and no one could tell which ones they had thrown. Gary told us all to take one, and use it to drink the sake. So we did.
For a while, I stood around and looked at the fire, sipping sake, then a little glugg, and finally a few little cups worth of the wine I'd brought. The sake cup I'd chosen was so small (maybe one ounce?), that I was sure I'd only had about a glass or two worth of wine by the end of the night. Tell that to my hangover today though, hoo-boy.
Occasionally throughout the night, Gary would call out, "Round Two!" or "Round Three!" and we'd all rush into the little pottery shed and pick out another little sake cup from our group collection. By the end of the night, we each had at least four little cups to take home.
After we had run out of wood, several hours later, the pit looked like the third picture. You could see all of our pieces hidden about in there, glowing white. I had to leave at this point, but after this, Gary and whoever was left were going to fill in the pit with sand and leave it for a couple days to cool. I guess if the pieces cool too fast, they can crack. I'll be going back Saturday morning to dig through the ashes to find my pieces.
I stopped by the studio on my way to Gary's house. I was able to find all my finished glazed things, I think (and with Jackie's help), and will follow up in another post with pictures of those.
Then, to Gary's. I showed up about ten minutes late, with my two pieces, a camping chair, and a bottle of wine. Other people were also starting to show up, and they brought all sorts of food and lots of wood. We each stuck our pieces into a pit at the end of the yard (next to a chicken coop!) which was filled with sawdust. Then we filled it in with a layer of kindling.
We all stood around a bit awkwardly for a few minutes, then Gary asked who would like to start the fire. No one really did anything, so Gary went and got a flaming piece of wood out of the little oven thing that he had made a while back and stuck it into the pit. Suddenly I found myself at the edge of the pit, blowing on the flames and sticking bits of kindling around, and basically all in charge. It was funny. It was a large pit, so a couple other people joined me, but I'm proud to say that my third of the pit was up and roaring first. Hehe.
Here's a picture of all of us building the fire. Strangely enough, the three of us (I'm not pictured) are also the least talkative of the group, and I think having something constructive to do was a relief for us.While we were building, everyone else got all the food set up, and there was sake and glugg warming up inside on the stove.
Once the fire was really going, (see the second picture) I started wandering around, snacking, and attempting to chat with the others.
I found Gary's pottery shed, which was filled with great pieces and also, is that... yes! Our group project was all lined up on the shelves in there. All the little sake cups, each one completely unique, and no one could tell which ones they had thrown. Gary told us all to take one, and use it to drink the sake. So we did.
For a while, I stood around and looked at the fire, sipping sake, then a little glugg, and finally a few little cups worth of the wine I'd brought. The sake cup I'd chosen was so small (maybe one ounce?), that I was sure I'd only had about a glass or two worth of wine by the end of the night. Tell that to my hangover today though, hoo-boy.Occasionally throughout the night, Gary would call out, "Round Two!" or "Round Three!" and we'd all rush into the little pottery shed and pick out another little sake cup from our group collection. By the end of the night, we each had at least four little cups to take home.
After we had run out of wood, several hours later, the pit looked like the third picture. You could see all of our pieces hidden about in there, glowing white. I had to leave at this point, but after this, Gary and whoever was left were going to fill in the pit with sand and leave it for a couple days to cool. I guess if the pieces cool too fast, they can crack. I'll be going back Saturday morning to dig through the ashes to find my pieces.
Monday, December 3, 2007
j's 9th class (oh, the many things to glaze!)
right. Showed up to class pretty much on time. It was snowing gently on my way into class... coffee in hand. I hate to say this, but it really is kinda magical to be in a starbucks getting coffee while it's snowing outside. Everyone in there feels special when that happens.
I arrived first to class (after Zach ofcourse). Judy and 2 other students wandered in later.
I started rooting around in the bisque shelves. Kept finding things I forgot I made while looking for something I had the derndest time trying to find (a little sake pitcher was hiding inside a pot by another artist). FINALLY I had all my pieces.
The instructors of the ceramics lab had covered a couple of the canvas-topped tables with plastic so people could glaze out in the main room. Since no one was really in my class, and the radio (playing NPR's saturday morning favorites) was in the main room, I went ahead and filled a couple plastic bowls full of the various glazes I was interested in, and set myself up in the main room to glaze.
I sat and glazed and glazed and sat.
At some point other students came in to use the open lab hours (I was annoyed that they started showing up early actually, THEIR open lab didn't start till 1:30pm, but they started showing up around 11:30am... blah). And Zach teased me for using all the measuring cups from the glaze room at one time. I guess these other students needed them. I went ahead and washed up the ones I was done with (luckily I was done with a couple of the glazes at this time) while mock-grumping about how I was having fun by myself before other people showed up.
I think I ended up glazing 5 mugs, 3 trays, 6 little cups, 2 sake pitchers, 1 bottle-like thing, a bud vase, 2 small goblets (one of them broke while I was glazing it actually! I decided to try and glaze it back together tho, so we'll see how that goes), and a small assortment of other hand-built things.
Anyway, I finished up around 2:30... and was hungry and sleepy.
And, that's that. I have nothing left to work on. I guess next class I pickup my stuff! Here's hoping they come out!!!
I arrived first to class (after Zach ofcourse). Judy and 2 other students wandered in later.
I started rooting around in the bisque shelves. Kept finding things I forgot I made while looking for something I had the derndest time trying to find (a little sake pitcher was hiding inside a pot by another artist). FINALLY I had all my pieces.
The instructors of the ceramics lab had covered a couple of the canvas-topped tables with plastic so people could glaze out in the main room. Since no one was really in my class, and the radio (playing NPR's saturday morning favorites) was in the main room, I went ahead and filled a couple plastic bowls full of the various glazes I was interested in, and set myself up in the main room to glaze.
I sat and glazed and glazed and sat.
At some point other students came in to use the open lab hours (I was annoyed that they started showing up early actually, THEIR open lab didn't start till 1:30pm, but they started showing up around 11:30am... blah). And Zach teased me for using all the measuring cups from the glaze room at one time. I guess these other students needed them. I went ahead and washed up the ones I was done with (luckily I was done with a couple of the glazes at this time) while mock-grumping about how I was having fun by myself before other people showed up.
I think I ended up glazing 5 mugs, 3 trays, 6 little cups, 2 sake pitchers, 1 bottle-like thing, a bud vase, 2 small goblets (one of them broke while I was glazing it actually! I decided to try and glaze it back together tho, so we'll see how that goes), and a small assortment of other hand-built things.
Anyway, I finished up around 2:30... and was hungry and sleepy.
And, that's that. I have nothing left to work on. I guess next class I pickup my stuff! Here's hoping they come out!!!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Hana's ninth class
This was our last class in the classroom. Our last class will be at Gary's house, doing a large pit firing. So, today was the last day to glaze and prepare our pit fire pieces.
First, I wandered around looking for all my bisque-fired pieces. I will take a moment to describe a scene from "Ozma of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. As summarized by Wikipedia:
The expedition journeys to the underground kingdom of the Nomes, where the Nome King reveals that he's turned the royal family into ornaments around his palace. The Oz people can guess which ornaments they are (he doesn't reveal that they are royal purple ones), but if they fail, they will also become ornaments. [When they are ready to guess, they touch the ornament and say "Oz".] Ozma, the twenty-seven soldiers of the Royal Army of Oz, the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and Tik-Tok all suffer this fate (Dorothy escapes it only by touching a purple ornament in one of her guesses).
Every time I'm confronted by a wall of bisque-fired pots, I think of this scene in the book. I scan the shelves, and hesitantly pick up one piece to check the signature on the bottom. I sometimes even think the word "Oz" to myself. It's silly.
Anyway, I found the four pieces I had bisque fired a long time ago, and then set out to find all the ones I'd finished in the eighth class. I only found 5. How many did I make? I feel like I didn't find them all, but I didn't remember what I had finished.
Then I went into the glazing room to do my first glazing of the quarter. I really don't like glazing. I don't feel very creative in that step, and it's so easy to mess a piece up. If you're unfamiliar with the studio's glazes, you don't know how thick to do it, how much it will run, etc. Oh well! I just dove in and dipped my pieces in various buckets. We'll see how they come out. I did two of my spherical pots in black, a couple in copper green, a couple in "maria's blue" (seems like a nice blue-green shiny one), a piece in the mottled brown with green flecks, and one in a dark blue. I did layering on two pieces. The wonky piece (the attempted round piece that squooshed on the wheel) has a base of I think blue and then maybe green around the rim and running down one side so that it pools in the wonkiness. I did another round piece in brown with black around the rim and running down the sides in three kind-of stripes.
Unfortunately, the first piece I tried to glaze, one of my first mugs, really came out poorly. The glaze was really lumpy and not very deep in the bucket, so it really stuck to the pot and looked awful. I decided to scrape a bunch of the glaze off (particularly the clumps, which could run badly) and then do a coating glaze in clear. Well, after that it never dried much, and then I made the bad mistake of setting it upside down to clean the bottom, and all the glaze came off the rim. Between that and the finger smudges and the likelihood of it not drying in time to try again, and it being the last class, I ended up just throwing the cup away in frustration.
Finally, I prepared my two pieces for the pit fire. They came out of the bisque looking really nice, though not nearly as shiny as some other people's. We were supposed to coat them sith stuff, and wrap them up in flammables, but I wasn't very energetic at this point. I put a bunch of powdery random things inside one (tea grounds, some spices) and then wrapped copper wire around the outside. The other I brushed a glue/water slip over it and sprinkled some herbs all over the outside. I then wrapped it with corn husk and a small branch of pine needles, and wrapped the whole thing in newspaper to keep it together. Now I just have to remember to take them to next week's pit fire at Gary's.
I got home feeling worn out and kind of frustrated. I love throwing on the wheel so much, but some of the other steps just feel like work.
First, I wandered around looking for all my bisque-fired pieces. I will take a moment to describe a scene from "Ozma of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. As summarized by Wikipedia:
The expedition journeys to the underground kingdom of the Nomes, where the Nome King reveals that he's turned the royal family into ornaments around his palace. The Oz people can guess which ornaments they are (he doesn't reveal that they are royal purple ones), but if they fail, they will also become ornaments. [When they are ready to guess, they touch the ornament and say "Oz".] Ozma, the twenty-seven soldiers of the Royal Army of Oz, the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and Tik-Tok all suffer this fate (Dorothy escapes it only by touching a purple ornament in one of her guesses).
Every time I'm confronted by a wall of bisque-fired pots, I think of this scene in the book. I scan the shelves, and hesitantly pick up one piece to check the signature on the bottom. I sometimes even think the word "Oz" to myself. It's silly.
Anyway, I found the four pieces I had bisque fired a long time ago, and then set out to find all the ones I'd finished in the eighth class. I only found 5. How many did I make? I feel like I didn't find them all, but I didn't remember what I had finished.
Then I went into the glazing room to do my first glazing of the quarter. I really don't like glazing. I don't feel very creative in that step, and it's so easy to mess a piece up. If you're unfamiliar with the studio's glazes, you don't know how thick to do it, how much it will run, etc. Oh well! I just dove in and dipped my pieces in various buckets. We'll see how they come out. I did two of my spherical pots in black, a couple in copper green, a couple in "maria's blue" (seems like a nice blue-green shiny one), a piece in the mottled brown with green flecks, and one in a dark blue. I did layering on two pieces. The wonky piece (the attempted round piece that squooshed on the wheel) has a base of I think blue and then maybe green around the rim and running down one side so that it pools in the wonkiness. I did another round piece in brown with black around the rim and running down the sides in three kind-of stripes.
Unfortunately, the first piece I tried to glaze, one of my first mugs, really came out poorly. The glaze was really lumpy and not very deep in the bucket, so it really stuck to the pot and looked awful. I decided to scrape a bunch of the glaze off (particularly the clumps, which could run badly) and then do a coating glaze in clear. Well, after that it never dried much, and then I made the bad mistake of setting it upside down to clean the bottom, and all the glaze came off the rim. Between that and the finger smudges and the likelihood of it not drying in time to try again, and it being the last class, I ended up just throwing the cup away in frustration.
Finally, I prepared my two pieces for the pit fire. They came out of the bisque looking really nice, though not nearly as shiny as some other people's. We were supposed to coat them sith stuff, and wrap them up in flammables, but I wasn't very energetic at this point. I put a bunch of powdery random things inside one (tea grounds, some spices) and then wrapped copper wire around the outside. The other I brushed a glue/water slip over it and sprinkled some herbs all over the outside. I then wrapped it with corn husk and a small branch of pine needles, and wrapped the whole thing in newspaper to keep it together. Now I just have to remember to take them to next week's pit fire at Gary's.
I got home feeling worn out and kind of frustrated. I love throwing on the wheel so much, but some of the other steps just feel like work.
Monday, November 26, 2007
j's fourth open lab
I didn't have soccer on Tuesday last week, so I went out to pottery from 6-8:30pm with an agenda I HAD to succeed with.
I trimmed 6 tiny cups, 2 small sake pitchers, 1 bottle-shaped thingie, 1 bud vase, 2 small goblets, and 1 mug, and assembled a goblet, and attached a handle to the mug in that amount of time successfully... just by the hairs of my chinny chin chin.
Man that was a busy open lab.
I will probably show up to the open lab tonight to move items from the class shelves to the bisque cart now that they are dry. The bisque firing deadline for this semester was 9pm tonight.
I trimmed 6 tiny cups, 2 small sake pitchers, 1 bottle-shaped thingie, 1 bud vase, 2 small goblets, and 1 mug, and assembled a goblet, and attached a handle to the mug in that amount of time successfully... just by the hairs of my chinny chin chin.
Man that was a busy open lab.
I will probably show up to the open lab tonight to move items from the class shelves to the bisque cart now that they are dry. The bisque firing deadline for this semester was 9pm tonight.
Monday, November 19, 2007
j's 8th class (hey look, my pottery!)
I showed up ON TIME this class. Whoah!
And, on the shelves there were a bunch of finished pottery, so I rooted through them and found my test tiles, and all the pieces I've glazed to date! Reduction firing is SO COOL. I love the way everything turned out.
Here are the 2 bowls and the wonky hand-built cup I made on day 1:
And here are the "five handled pieces" I made:
neato.
After this, I found that the handles on the mugs that I attached last week had cracked. Zach suggested I take mac10 clay dust and use that with vinegar water to patch it up. I did as he suggested and it appeared to work. Then I went ahead and trimmed the cup part of the little goblet I was working on in open lab this last week... and then slipped, scored, and attached that to the conical base.
Then I set to work making balls out of my reclaimed mac10 clay to throw with. Today was my last day to "begin new wet clay projects." I went ahead and started goofing off (no agenda really), and created some kind of bottle-shape which reminds me of the old genesis smoothie bottles they used to sell at Reed. After this I made a second squat conical base and another goblet cup (I was pretty impressed how my attached little goblet was looking, so I decided to try a second one), and then, with my last bit of clay I slowly attempted a tall skinny cylinder, which I then transformed into another cone. I was starting to have issues with the cone and Zach came over and helped me get it back under control... now it's like a little 6" tall bud vase. Kinda cute.
I was out of ready-clay, but not out of class time, so I went ahead and went into my bag of reclaimed mac10 clay that I thought was too dry to use, and kneaded it thoroughly with the really wet clay I took off of the wheel until it was all a consistent good-wetness. I made one last ball.
At the wheel, I used this to make a tall cylinder, and then used a wooden rib to help angle the walls outwards, but as straight as I could manage. The form is REALLY controlled, and I couldn't believe I had made it (granted it did take me a long time). I thought the form would make an exciting coffee mug.
After this I cleaned up my wheel.
I've got like a load of things to trim, attach, and finish up at the open lab on Tuesday evening now. But I can move all the bone-dry items on to the bisque cart on Monday (Nov 26) evening before the final bisque firing of the semester. After that it's GLAZE MANIA!
And, on the shelves there were a bunch of finished pottery, so I rooted through them and found my test tiles, and all the pieces I've glazed to date! Reduction firing is SO COOL. I love the way everything turned out.
Here are the 2 bowls and the wonky hand-built cup I made on day 1:
And here are the "five handled pieces" I made:
neato.
After this, I found that the handles on the mugs that I attached last week had cracked. Zach suggested I take mac10 clay dust and use that with vinegar water to patch it up. I did as he suggested and it appeared to work. Then I went ahead and trimmed the cup part of the little goblet I was working on in open lab this last week... and then slipped, scored, and attached that to the conical base.
Then I set to work making balls out of my reclaimed mac10 clay to throw with. Today was my last day to "begin new wet clay projects." I went ahead and started goofing off (no agenda really), and created some kind of bottle-shape which reminds me of the old genesis smoothie bottles they used to sell at Reed. After this I made a second squat conical base and another goblet cup (I was pretty impressed how my attached little goblet was looking, so I decided to try a second one), and then, with my last bit of clay I slowly attempted a tall skinny cylinder, which I then transformed into another cone. I was starting to have issues with the cone and Zach came over and helped me get it back under control... now it's like a little 6" tall bud vase. Kinda cute.
I was out of ready-clay, but not out of class time, so I went ahead and went into my bag of reclaimed mac10 clay that I thought was too dry to use, and kneaded it thoroughly with the really wet clay I took off of the wheel until it was all a consistent good-wetness. I made one last ball.
At the wheel, I used this to make a tall cylinder, and then used a wooden rib to help angle the walls outwards, but as straight as I could manage. The form is REALLY controlled, and I couldn't believe I had made it (granted it did take me a long time). I thought the form would make an exciting coffee mug.
After this I cleaned up my wheel.
I've got like a load of things to trim, attach, and finish up at the open lab on Tuesday evening now. But I can move all the bone-dry items on to the bisque cart on Monday (Nov 26) evening before the final bisque firing of the semester. After that it's GLAZE MANIA!
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