Ceramics week 9

Sunday and Monday involved making fabric structures (vessels? chimneys??) for dipping in class Monday evening. I'm aware that time is running out and have gone into a bit of a fluster, losing focus. 

 They're meant to be different ways of getting the fabric to drape - or droop! - combined with metal for keeping the shape and/or adding colour. Lots more to explore on this.... but I'm all over the place at the moment.

So - what came out of the kiln?

Two plain paperclay "vases" - about 10cm high - rolled out with a hexagonal pencil

Ditto, with snippets of metallic organza inside and outside

Gathering, reinforced by wire

Wire wrapped round and round - with metallic organza strips top and bottom

Too much metal and not enough sand! it stuck to the tray, but Robert heroically loosened it

Dripping in progress - the cardboard circles help keep the tops open (by spreading the strings); once the dripping is finished, I use a hairdryer to make the vessels firm enough to handle.

The two at the bottom were painted with glaze; dried; painted with slip; dried ... and then bits of everything started flaking off....

On the left, painted with slip over glaze; on the right, a gathered shape (boat??) painted with slip -

These will dry out for a week, so that sand doesn't stick to the bottom when they're fired -

And these have gone to the kiln -