Pots in progress

Here is an update on my pots!

This is the pot in my previous post, after it has been bisque fired. (It is now lighter in shade, and also lighter in weight, since all the water content has been burned off from the clay)

Before bisque firing, I have actually painted on a strip of turquoise velvet, and carved some spirals on it, so that the carved portions will show the colour of the original brown clay.

So now, I have to glaze the pot... I am not sure how the turquoise velvet will turn out under a layer of glaze, so I am planning to put something not too opaque and not too thick... maybe Moody Blue or Whip White...

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Next is my (sad sad) bowl...


What happened was that during trimming (where I "shave" off part of the bowl at high speeds), I trimmed too deep and the bottom of my bowl came off...

To remedy the situation, I made a base and stuck it back to the rest of the bowl... As there were fingerprints all around, I stamped the base with a spiral chop as a "cover-up"... Still quite upset that I made a big hole in my pot... but I guess it is bound to happen to me at least once...

And there is no guarantee that the base will stick throughout the rest of the steps... it can fall off during firing, or glazing... sigh, just hope for the best and be prepared for the worse!

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And here is a shapely pot!

(erm, come to think of it, it looks more and more like those spit urns our grandfather's generation used to have... awww shucks...)


Anyhow, I was just trying to practise shaping a pot. Now that I can pull up the walls to a decent height, I can play around with the profile of the pot.

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And today, I begin my adventures with white clay. (Coz I ran out of brown clay)

I haven't noticed any difference in handling white and brown clay yet, but I have been told that it dries up more easily on the wheel, so maybe have to add water more frequently.

I managed to pull up the walls on my first try (yipee!), and just made a simple shape with this. Next time, I should explore how to make nicer rims and more interesting profiles...

Oh and I need to learn how to work with larger amounts of clay too. Now, all my pots are small coz I can only manage to centre a small amount of clay (about the size of my hands). If I want to make something bigger, say something the size of a punch bowl, I will have to centre a larger amount of clay., which need lots of strength, and better techniques...

ahh, practise practise practise!!!