Jeanette Harris on fri 6 oct 06
Well, Hello there Beth,
Yup, I make both the French butter dishes and salt shakers. I don't
know the name of the salt shakers, but I can give you a website for a
glass maker who has an example of a Caduggan teapot, which is
essentially the same construction. Take a look at
www.kleinbottle.com, then select tantalus.html. You will see a
transparent teapot with an inner cone. Take away the handle and
spout and you have a salt shaker form. Of course, you can take this
form and interpret it into lots of other things like a piece of
sculpture or, as I make them, pears. I can email you some jpegs if
you're interested, but you'd better be quick. I'm on my way out of
town on Monday for a month.
For the butter dishes, I use two sets of bamboo skewers to measure
the base that holds the water and the butter-holder top that inverts
into the water reservoir. I tie two skewers together with a twist-tab
to form an X. They are tied loose enough to slide both vertically and
horizontally. Best to mark this measuring piece with a line from a
sharpie or something so that you don't get the two measures mixed up.
I use two because one should be for the top/butter half and the other
for the water/base half. (You want to have the bottom deep enough to
allow water to touch the inverted top and create an airless seal to
preserve the butter.) I throw the bottom first, measure using one
set of skewers by putting the pointy end lightly at the center of the
bottom, sliding the horizontal part down to the rim and adjusting the
pointy horizontal piece to the measure the inside top edge. I don't
touch the rim, just eye it. That way, you will be able to keep a
record of the base and throw uniform pieces.
Next, throw the top and, using the second base measure sticks, line
up the center and the inside edge, but don't move the sticks. Eye
these to see that 1) the insert is shorter than the depth of the
base, and 2) that the inner flange where the butter goes is about
3/8-1/4 inch smaller on the outside than the inner edge of the base.
This way, the butter top will slide in easily and allow for just a
bit of water to slide up between the top and bottom to maintain the
seal. Now take your second set of sticks and create the top measure.
Each time you throw a butter dish, you will be able to use these
measures instead of trying to get each top to match up with each
bottom.
It's a bit trickey, but after a few, you will get a good idea of the
tolerances.
If you're good at eyeing small measures, you can just use the bottom
as an all around reference and make sure the tops are smaller than
what you read on the bottom-measuring sticks. And you can just add
marks to the bottom sticks that tell you where the top should measure
to.
I hope this isn't too confusing. If I've put your head on a rotating
spin, email me and I'll go into it with more detail or maybe I can
just mail you an info sheet I have as a hand-out for customers who
have bought the butter keepers. It has a diagram of how the piece is
constructed and how to use them.
Do people use toast racks? I know the Brits do, but I haven't seen
anyone around here use or even ask for one.
We have a silver one in the house, but use it as an incoming-bill holder. heh
> Hey there,
> Would like to know who makes french butter dishes out there in
>clayartland and also those salt shakers that are one piece with the
>hole in the bottom? The salt dishes have some kind of special name
>I think?
>And toast racks? Anyone make those and would care to share/advise
>on how to make them?
>
>I have a fondness for tableware accessories and would like to start
>making matching sets of them.
>Would appreciate your help. Thought maybe new-to-clay people might
>be interested in these items as well.
--
Jeanette Harris
Clay Engineer
Poulsbo WA
Jeanette Harris on fri 6 oct 06
> Hey there,
> Would like to know who makes french butter dishes out there in
>clayartland and also those salt shakers that are one piece with the
>hole in the bottom? The salt dishes have some kind of special name
>I think?
>And toast racks? Anyone make those and would care to share/advise
>on how to make them?
Hi again, Beth,
If you have had a chance to look at the website I sent you to, you
will see how the salt shaker is constructed by throwing a hollow cone
first. Open about 3/4 lb of clay all the way down to the wheel
creating a doughnut shape. Make a cone by bringing a small bit of the
clay from the center up into a cone and leave a hole at the top that
is about the size of a hole in a piece of notepaper for a binder.
Remember the clay will shrink, so be sure to take that into account.
It will take making a few and seeing what size does best--make it too
small and the shaker is difficult to fill and dispense; make it too
large and the sale/pepper will pour out. After you have made the
cone, create the reservoir by bowing out the bottom. Be sure to keep
the walls thick so that there will be enough clay to raise the form
to the top. Throw an even wall, gently bringing it up and closing as
you go until you have the top totally closed in. I leave my shakers
on the batt until they are leather hard, then remove and smooth up
the bottoms and sign them. Don't let them go too long because the
air inside will be compressed because of the clay shrinkage.
You can decorate the form as you wish. Bisque and then glaze. I wax
the bottom and stick my finger into the funnel and hold the piece
with two other fingers while I dip them in the glaze.
Good luck!
--
Jeanette Harris
Clay Engineer
Poulsbo WA
Jane Murray-Smith on fri 6 oct 06
French butter dishes are just a cylinder for the bottom, and the top is just
a flat lid with a very long flange that goes to about1/2 inch from the
bottom on the cylinder. The butter is squished up inside the flange of
lid, and the bottom of the cylinder has just enough water to make seal.
What I haven't tried yet, altho I think it might be a good idea, is to
slighly taper the flange in, just in case the butter is a little soft...(the
narrower opening would hold it in..?.)
Experiment with sizes..I like the weight and feel of them being narrower
than they are tall..
The salt shaker is just an enclosed form , but at the beginning, put your
finger through to the bat, and pull up a short, narrow tube in the centre.
Then bring up the side wall and close it at the top. You can bang these
around when they are leatherhard so they look like stones. .
Hope this all made sense.
Have fun!
Jane
--- Original Message -----
From: "Beth Spindler"
To:
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 2:24 PM
Subject: french butter dish and salt shaker
> Hey there,
> Would like to know who makes french butter dishes out there in clayartland
> and also those salt shakers that are one piece with the hole in the
> bottom? The salt dishes have some kind of special name I think?
> And toast racks? Anyone make those and would care to share/advise on how
> to make them?
>
> I have a fondness for tableware accessories and would like to start making
> matching sets of them.
> Would appreciate your help. Thought maybe new-to-clay people might be
> interested in these items as well.
>
> Beth in foothills of Blue Ridge Mtns of VA - will it ever stop raining???
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security
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> free AOL Mail and more.
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
>
Beth Spindler on fri 6 oct 06
Hey there,
Would like to know who makes french butter dishes out there in clayartland and also those salt shakers that are one piece with the hole in the bottom? The salt dishes have some kind of special name I think?
And toast racks? Anyone make those and would care to share/advise on how to make them?
I have a fondness for tableware accessories and would like to start making matching sets of them.
Would appreciate your help. Thought maybe new-to-clay people might be interested in these items as well.
Beth in foothills of Blue Ridge Mtns of VA - will it ever stop raining???
________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.
Lynne Antone on sat 7 oct 06
Beth,
I have made both butter crocks and salt shakers and find that the salt shakers were a novelty, told lots of customers about them at shows but didn't sell well. I had a friend who made them in pig and cat shapes and he sold much better, so maybe they need a little extra. The French Butter Crocks are occasional sale, slacking off lately. Rice bowls with a notch to hold chopsticks have cooled off, too. I am discontinuing them for my sales, but they are good products to make.
The butter crocks esp. make you think more to make all of the pieces fit. A good design with them is for the inside cup that holds the butter; it should have a slight taper from the part that touches the lid to the opening where you scoop out the butter being smaller. I have had clients tell me they have tried others and sometimes the butter slides right out of the ones with straight sides. My crocks for the bottom part that holds the water is around 3.8" wide inside the pot and about 4" tall. The lid has to fit inside that and also not be too long and touch inside the bottom. Hope this helps. Oh, I use about 2 pounds of clay for the bottom.
Dannon Rhudy did a nice article on the salt shakers some years back, either in "PMI" or "Clay Times". Do a search in their archives for that. It's what I used when I made mine. It is a great article.
Lynne Antone
--
Beaver Creek Arts
Olympia WA
USA
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Beth Spindler
> Hey there,
> Would like to know who makes french butter dishes out there in clayartland and
> also those salt shakers that are one piece with the hole in the bottom? The
> salt dishes have some kind of special name I think?
> And toast racks? Anyone make those and would care to share/advise on how to
> make them?
>
> I have a fondness for tableware accessories and would like to start making
> matching sets of them.
> Would appreciate your help. Thought maybe new-to-clay people might be
> interested in these items as well.
>
> Beth in foothills of Blue Ridge Mtns of VA - will it ever stop raining???
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security
> tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free
> AOL Mail and more.
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
Cyndi Casemier Johnson on sat 7 oct 06
Please email to me your customer handout describing your french butter dish process. Thank you. I had a friend ask for one the other day. My email is mountainviewceramics@mac.com. Thank you.
take care,
Cyndi Casemier Johnson
2759 Crosstown Rd
Berlin, VT 05602
http://web.mac.com/mountainviewceramics
Dannon Rhudy on sat 7 oct 06
Beth, there is an absolute flood of information on
French butter dishes in the archives. In regard to the
salt shakers, I wrote a how-to article for Pottery Making Illustrated, maybe
a couple years or three ago. It's a
step-by-step, pretty clear.
regards
Dannon Rhudy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Beth Spindler"
To:
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 4:24 PM
Subject: french butter dish and salt shaker
> Hey there,
> Would like to know who makes french butter dishes out there in
clayartland and also those salt shakers that are one piece with the hole in
the bottom? The salt dishes have some kind of special name I think?
> And toast racks? Anyone make those and would care to share/advise on how
to make them?
>
> I have a fondness for tableware accessories and would like to start making
matching sets of them.
> Would appreciate your help. Thought maybe new-to-clay people might be
interested in these items as well.
>
> Beth in foothills of Blue Ridge Mtns of VA - will it ever stop raining???
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security
tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web,
free AOL Mail and more.
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
__
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
>
Jeanette Harris on sun 8 oct 06
Hi, Cyndi,
I tried to convert the info I have into a PDF, but my computer
bjoirked at the thought. heh
So, I'll mail you my hand-out on how they work. When you see that,
you'll also be able to see how they are made. I'll also include a
drawing of the measuring sticks (in Japan, they're called Timbo or
'dragonfly') It's really high tech!
Cheers,
--
Jeanette Harris
Clay Engineer
Poulsbo WA
Cyndi Casemier Johnson on sun 15 oct 06
Hi Jeannette;
Thank you for taking the time to mail me your butter dish information. It was helpful. I have three firing in my gas kiln today. We are about two hours from Bennington, VT. I grew up in Michigan and moved to Vermont about 13 years ago for my husband's job. Later, I found out that I too had family in Vermont who moved to the midwest in the mid 1800's.
Thanks again, Cyndi Johnson.
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