Ceramics 3

On the final day of the pottery module, our glazed pieces greeted us, transformed by firing. Some people had been absent last time and hadn't glazed theirs. This is the stoneware firing, with a clear glaze and an opaque white, and various things happening in the nibbled-out bits - all experimentation -

And this is earthenware, with some oxides in various places. Brown isn't my favourite colour, but some of the browns show promise -

But the work of the day was to cut our sphere of clay into 5 pieces, reduce the volume by half, and put them together again. The prospect of changing it beyond recognition was appealing, but I had no plan at all. Liked the marks that appeared in the cut clay, though ...

Here are a couple of the pieces hollowed out and otherwise mutilated -

And from the shavings and parings, these appeared - But by the end of the day it was time to concentrate on putting at least two of the cut pieces together. We were encouraged to think of colours this might be, and that (plus being asked to consider if it was any better with one side tipped up at an angle) improved it for me - white, with an abalone-shell luster inside the top and a dark black inside the underneath. A bit predictable, maybe? Working title: Liberty's Grotto (because the top reminded me of the Statue of Liberty) -

But I preferred the "enigmatic shapes" that formed themselves from the waste material. Including the crawling monster, and the wishbone men.

Here's some of what other people were getting up to -And then it was time to tear up the work - this is my favourite piece of the day -