The basics - types of clay, which we'll get to know all too well, in their raw and biscuit-fired states: crank (with grog, for texture); terracotta; St Thomas; and at the front, Draycotts white. The saw-like implement is called a harp.
We started by making pinch pots - make a ball of clay, stick in your thumb, shape the inside bottom, then work up the sides. You quickly find there are quite a few variations (Elspeth Owen has been making pinch pots for 30 years, and still finds new things, Robert told us) - and the different types of clay behave differently.To keep the bottom round, store them on their rim. The bottom row are waiting to be reassembled, harlequin-style. I started working quite large, but soon preferred smaller pots -
You can mix the different types of clay to get colour variations; or marble the clays; or inlay to make patterns, beating them together and thereby making the walls thin -
After lunch, the AHA moment. An accidental breakthrough. And some non-accidental breakthroughs. Lots of them....
This series has a different colour clay inside -
By next week they'll be fired. I'm thinking about whether to dip the bases in slip, or glaze the whole thing, or........
2 comments:
Whouah ! I continu to love, love, love ceramics.
On my blog, Mane, You can see some animals that Rita Muller from Geneva had done fot a collectiv exibition in José Campo galery in Jouxtens Mezery outside Lausanne.
Béatrice.
I love organic looking pottery with the look of ancient burial finds. Your shards look like broken eggshells or exotic fungi - intriguing.
I own an Elsbeth Owen sphere, bought ( when I could ill afford it ) from Galerie Besson in the 90's - the colours and textures even in such a small piece are so subtle yet varied.
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