Ceramics course - so far

We have had four of the six classes in this short, Monday-evening course. I'm in a corner, dipping my pots, while the others do surface decoration.

The first week there was no porcelain casting slip. I didn't have much ready, anyway, so sat there and sewed up a couple of pots. 

The first batch for the kiln. Those in the centre contain no metal

The second week I purchased one of the new pots of slip (at an educational price) - not that I don't have similar at home (somewhere). And dipped five pots. And tried to get them dry enough to go into the kiln immediately, but no luck there. Better to leave them to dry properly.

Dipped and dry

The third week, I cleaned up the bottoms and put those with metal into sagars (new policy for city lit kilns). Then left the building.


The fourth week, I had spent quite a few hours making more pots. Which would get dipped and how many of those would be ready for the kiln?

The temporary studio!

The first of the new fabric pots - I especially liked the raffia(?) scrap and how
 it responded to bold stitching with a starchy thread

Some had come out of the kiln -

Two without metal, two with pins, one with staples

and others were about to get ready to go in -

Some yet to do...

Dipped and dripping. The crumpled newspaper spreads the threads and keeps the
tops of the pots from narrowing. Same idea with the thin slices of thick cardboard tube.
Both will be removed before firing; even if they were left, they would just burn away

Not dry enough, not cleaned up ... ready for the kiln next week

The circles are proving useful not just for keeping the tops open during dipping, but also for constraining the size of the pot (they are cut from a particularly rigid mailing tube). A few constraints would be useful at this point: I'm all over the place.

I like the ease of using staples, especially with the on-the-bias pieces

Two recent concoctions suggest further ways forward -

...the meandering line of gold against a plain background, and the lines of stitch following the folds in a pole-wrapped shibori piece. Both are polyester and have been steamed so that they'll hold their shape - I know from experience that the folds will stay in, but will the cylinder simply collapse or has the steaming made it "stiffer"?