Spring Work

The plan was to have all of these ready for the July 4th weekend -- well, the operative word being "plan"!!!!  And as most plans are -- they go awry.  Let's back track a little.  There's a short 4-week interim session between Winter and Summer and I signed up for the Lemonade and Iced Tea set class.  Like I said earlier, the plan was to have all the pieces ready for the July 4th weekend BBQ.  Well, because it is an interim session, not many students sign up for class.  Add the beautiful weather during that time of the year and everyone much rather be outside than inside throwing pots.  So, long story short, the firing schedule was off.  I just now got most of my pieces back and my serving tray is still not fired yet.

This session I am working with Stoneware without Iron.  The fired bisque is a little grayish and not as white as B-Clay.  This first set is a pitcher with two tumbler.  The outside was treated with Sodium Silicate during throwing to create the crackled clay.  The tumblers mimicked the shape of the pitcher.  These pieces were all glazed on the inside with Josh Green over Shaner Clear and the outside is left unglazed (well, except for some organic drip marks).

The next set is a tall pitcher with an undulating surface treatment to give it some movement.  The tumblers were inspired by the disposable plastic punch cups.  The inside of this set is glazed with Celadon over Shaner Clear and, again, the outside is left bare.

The handle on the pitcher is glazed with Tenmoku over Share Clear.  I thought a glazed handle would be more comfortable for the user to grasp as opposed to "hopefully" the soda would hit it just enough.

This pitcher does not have any tumblers. I thought I should have a backup pitcher in case one of the others failed -- like how you make multiple lids and see which one fits the best?  Anyway, the outside is also treated with Sodium Silicate and I was trying to veer away from the pulled spout look so I attached a spout.  With the spout being so tall and prominent, a normal handle to the side of the piece would create an imbalance.  So, I attached a looped handle to balance the spout on the other side.  The inside and the rim is glazed with Shino over Shaner White.  If you look at the picture of the inside of the spout, you will see the blushing when you combine this two glaze -- I love that blushing.

Finally, I made a back-up tumbler (just in case) and the piece actually shows all the things I love about Soda firing (or vapour glazing -- however you want to call it).  The grayish color and orange peel effect is where the soda hit the piece and form a natural glaze with minerals in the clay body (I think it is Alumina and Silica in the clay body).  Below that is the flushing that shows where the flame "kissed" the piece.  And then after that it is just raw clay.

I'll post pictures of the serving tray when it is done.  Thanks for reading and feedbacks and questions are always welcomed.