Studio Saturday

This week consisted of quite a lot of dipping, involving more experiments and feats of dering-do - such as the clip holding up a very saggy pot till it dries -

 These were next for dipping, kitted out in their strings and hoops -

 But when this lovely lacy one got into the clay......

 .........it was a stretch too far! I washed it off and will take it home and do something "exciting" to help it keep a rounded, open shape (it was so narrow that the sides were sticking together) -

Typical mid-flow workstation situation - photography and note-taking as each individual pot is dealt with -

 Two dipped and one ready for shape-shifting -

 Two days later (Monday), some have dried and are ready for cleaning up -

 and others are ready for dipping (and note-taking) -

 Oops more sagging -

That's the lot, blasted with the hairdryer to experiment with the effect of drying time on the appearance of small cracks -

The fine cracking is currently my main focus. It could be due to all sorts of things - substrate fabric, type of texture, type of thread used for embellishment, consistency of dip, drying time/humidity....

This was the scene in the "home workshop" on Wednesday morning - three fabric pots were quickly put together on the sewing machine, and various crochet pots are waiting to be made "interesting" with a bit of metal thread -

Ready to dip -

 Left to dry....

By Friday, more fabric pots were ready to take to the studio

... including one that had been gathered, steamed, and stitched with thin gold thread -

Before the dipping, a grand sort-out of dried-out pots, making notes, attaching photos, measuring, and giving them numbers for easy identification -

 These were ready to dip - each has metallic thread used somehow -

 And these are ready for the next firing -

They'll give information on the consistency of the slip and also about the receptiveness or retentiveness of various fabrics - another factor in how sturdy they'll be,

The small kiln has been ordered and will take about a month to be delivered.