december 2014

this is one of my favorite places anywhere,  The Clay Spot! 

i went for a few hours on Monday to construct some bowls, and then again Wednesday to decorate,

There are six bowls and two plates. i used a variiety of screen prints, some mishima and a bit of slip trailing.  It has been so long since I did any clay that The decorating didnt really all come together the way it sometimes does.  however, it was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the process a lot.

The clay is Helios porcelain so the final colors should be quite clear and the clay body a beautiful white.    we'll see... 

But sometimes plates

The other thing I like to make is little slab plates, 

We have a stack of them in use, and I like them for snacks,

This week I intended to make a small matching set

But I seem to have forgotten my goal partway through the decorating phase

Here the undersides do match..

Also made a couple of vases, 

This one I think the decoration is a bit off, it's too small scale or something

The pinkish areas were also too flat, so I scratched them a bit.  Also, perhaps I needed another color in it, 

Mostly Mugs

It seems that mugs are what I like to make.

When I say I like to make, that means getting them to the decorated stage, not necessarily to the glazed and finished stage

I like to use underglaze, and I like to do slip trailing,

I like to work in small groups, and use one color one day and use another color on another day

Although mostly the mugs I make  are about 4 inches tall, the other day I tried some taller ones, the ones decorated in pink, above.  The walls are quite thin and seem like they might be a bit fragile.  But I like the way they feel.

At the Art Institute

This is a pot I saw at the Art Institute in Chicago, 

It is quite large, about 20 inches high, by a contemporary Korean potter, I think.  Sorry I didn't take a photo of the information card.

Also, this is an an American Indian pot with a woven pattern decoration, 

It too was quite large.  

Both pots are very graceful, and have nice "lift" from their bases, 

Slowpoke

I have been so slow in making new work, 

These are some small slab plates that I started in September and glazed in December.  

I left spaces to put flower decals, so I hope to do that in the next few weeks,

These are some mugs I made at the same time.  The front one is handbuilt, the others are thrown.

These lovely dishes were made by my son and his girlfriend in September when Lisa ( at the Clay Spot in Savannah) gave them an introduction to throwing!  She is such a good teacher!  

The colors all coordinate so well!  And the gorgeous textile was a Christmas gift from Dierdre.  It is an Indian cloth covered in rows of stitching!