Yunomis, facets and spikes

I had a good week in the studio. One of the potters brought a Japanese friend to the studio, and I had a nice chat with her. (In English though, coz I forgot almost all the Japanese that I learned. The only two times I spoke in Jap were "Hajimemashite" and "ni-jiu-nana" when she asked for my age.) She did pottery many years ago in Japan, but she wants to pick it up again. So she will be joining us next semester. I am excited! I really love Japanese pottery and it will be great to actually see it done by a native Japanese.

Coincidentally, I was planning to throw some Japanese tea bowls on that very day. They are handle-less mugs, which a lot of my previous mugs unwittingly become anyway. I thought tea bowls were called "chawans" (茶碗) in Jap, so I told the Jap lady I was going to throw some "chawans". She saw my mug and corrected me. "For rice, we call it "gohan chawan". This is a yunomi (湯のみ)." Ooh, I can't wait to learn more about Japanese pottery from her.

So here are my three yunomis, freshly thrown. Going to trim them next week.

I am still trying to make a pot with a wide body and a really narrow opening. This is as far as I got. As you can see, the opening can still be so much smaller.

Next pot: My first attempt at faceting. I left the walls really thick, just in case I cut too deep when I use the cheese slicer to slice off the edges of the pot. Then I made the pot rounder on the wheel my pushing out the walls using my trusty rib tool. Unfortunately, when I tried to trim the pot, I realized that the facets made it hard for me to center my pot to trim it. I couldn't use the Giffin Grip nor the chuck, which means that I have to center it all on my own. I didn't manage to do a very good job at trimming it, so this pot is going to be smashed and thrown into my bag of scraps.

I went to YouTube to check out some videos by Simon Leach, and decided that I shall trim my pot before I facet it for my next attempt. I believe it will be easier, although the effect will be slightly different.

Another experiment: Using coloured clay to make tiny spikes, then bisque firing them. These will then be attached/poked into to our unfired pots, for an interesting look. Here are some spikes made by the class. It is interesting how everyone has a different idea of how spikes should be.