Studio Saturday

The Saturday afternoon prior to the drawing course was a chance to catch up with the record-keeping for the pots dipped in the previous week - this also involved general tidying-up, like cutting the strings off and scratching ID numbers into the bases -

The other important thing, in advance of a stoneware firing at the end of the week that I'd be away, was to set out the pots in "high priority" and "other" groupings - hoping that some of the "other"s might make it into the kiln -

(There is also a third category, "later"; a dozen or more are waiting in shoeboxes.)

The "priority" pots are those for which problems or questions have arisen - how serious are the cracks inside, if there aren't any (or many) on the outside; what happens if threads stick out around the base; etc, etc.

The colours in the photo are due to the fabrics used; often the slip was thin enough for the colours to show through, especially on the organza ... it'll be interesting to see if they survive firing.

Any trace of metal threads - ie, surface pattern, the black lines - is buried, to be revealed by oxidation during firing. What comes out of the kiln would be a surprise in so many ways!

When I got back to the studio after the drawing course, this was waiting.......

All 27 pots that I'd set out had been fired, finding spaces between larger items. Three were shattered, and several more weren't quite intact, but the success rate was quite good. There's room for improvement in terms of small cracks and areas of crumble, but on the whole I was very pleased to have Real Pots at last.

Small pots

Larger pots

Better luck next time... lessons to be learned

Everything needed photographing and the pix of individual pots were printed out, ready to add to the documentation -

The afternoon sun was shining onto my desk at an advantageous angle, so I took some group shots as well. Each seems like a little drama waiting to happen -

Photography for documentation -

 Each photo is glued onto "the record", the pot is re-measured and closely examined and thought about and all that is written down. General points are noted on a separate sheet, for action (or perhaps oblivion). Gradually, order will arise from chaos....

 On to the next lot, then!

Some final touches to a batch of crochet pots, in the comfort of the sofa studio -

 Group photos -

 In the studio, these were to be dipped -

 but first, needed strings to help them keep their shape -

 and templates for their bases -

 Only three got dipped yesterday ... ran out of time ...

The crochet pots are usually stiff enough to stand up on their own, if not too tall.

The pot on the right looks a mess - it slumped in the middle and the clay got disturbed. It will be interesting to see what happens to it during firing. The silk-satin, closely woven (=disaster already!) was punctured with an endless number of tiny holes (via awl). And the thin rim could be another tricky spot.