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clay class and learning things

updated mon 16 apr 07

 

Deborah Thuman on sat 14 apr 07


I fired one of my not great mugs. Okay, it's a truly ugly mug with all
sorts of design and technique problems. Why is it on my blog? Because I
learned a lot from this ugly mug. I learned that the handle actually
feels good in my hand. I was surprised by this. Now I know that if it's
my mug, it needs a U-shaped handle. I learned that a wide handle isn't
always a problem. I learned that ghost ranch blue glaze really will run
on one of my pieces. I thought sure there would be just a narrow stripe
around the rim.

I painted ghost ranch blue inside a few odd-shaped bowls. Yes, I know
it looks brown in the photos. It looks brown in real life, too. No, I
don't know why the blue glaze turned brown on the inside of the bowl. I
wrote feelings on the outside of the bowl. I was thinking I could put
the hurt into the bowl, dump the bowl out, and that would be the end of
the hurt. This is some of the stuff that's been taking up room in my
psyche for too long.

Just posted all the cool stuff I brought home from class on the blog.
Thanks for looking.

Oh, yeah. Penis Envy is glazed and home. I'm not so sure it ought to go
on the blog. If you're curious, e-mail me off list and I'll send along
a photo.

Deb
http://debthumansblog.blogspot.com/

Leigh Whitaker on sun 15 apr 07


In a message dated 4/14/2007 9:04:53 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
debthuman@ZIANET.COM writes:

Just posted all the cool stuff I brought home from class on the blog.
Thanks for looking.


Hey Deb- I was looking at your stuff and I noticed your comments about the
bowl you made with the two colored clay, that you didn't like throwing it
because the two clays felt different. Don't give up on the idea yet. I gave
this a try the other day and had good success in this way: Mix bone dry chunks
of clay into a slurry. Divide it up into however many colors you want into
bowls or buckets (even if you are not adding colorant to a portion, still
allocate part of the clay for that). Wet your colorant and pour it into the
slurry and mix well. Turn the now colored portions out onto a plaster bat to
dry some. Turn them over when they get dry on bottom (just like reclaiming
clay if you do that). Once they are wedgeable, wedge them up and then wrap all
the lumps of clay with the same piece of plastic and let them sit overnight
or longer. That way the moisture content of all the clays evens out and
equalizes. Then you can smoosh them together and throw and it will be much more
pleasant to work with.

My experiments are being fired right now, or I'd show you. I have no idea
how the colors are going to turn out because I used iron oxide, cobalt oxide,
and copper carbonate rather than mason stains. I want to try Mason stains,
but I don't have any.

Take care,
Leigh





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