Moving on to stoneware...

 A clean wheel and tools.

 Fresh bag of stoneware clay from my local purveyor. I ran holes into the block of clay maybe two weeks ago and poured water into them and over the clay then resealed it. Now after a little wedging it is softer and easier to work with than what comes right out of the bag. I'm looking for natural local clay to experiment with. More on that after the ground thaws.

Lumps for the wheel, waiting for me to get off the computer.

Reconstituting earthenware clay..

Last of the earthenware for now...

Gravity and Breath, Yoga in Pottery

 It took three tries to get this much clay to stand up. Holding the different throwing positions necessary to pull larger forms is very much like doing yoga, and like practicing yoga i find the hardest part is controlling the breath,  or actually, remembering to breathe at all.

 It's not feather light but it's still standing.

 I'm happy with the lid but the handles are clunky.

 I was shooting for a form I saw in Phil Rogers book when I threw this last night...it's not quite what I wanted but it was the first time I had a premeditated goal for a larger form...that's something of an evolution. 

Out of sequence...earlier attempts. The bulbs at the bottom of the two taller forms are from sagging not forming...the concequences of uneven pulling...but they survived and will clean up fine. At this point I will fire anything that stands up!

Inner potter meets inner rover!

http://www.marcusomahony.com/wood-fire.html

Yesterday

Most of these want handles right about now...

Finally.. plaster batts for wedging

So this was an attempt at reconstituting some clay from a bucket load of failed pots I soaked and mixed into mud with a drill mounted paint mixer. Plastic is likely the worst drying substrate but I really thought air drying the surface would work. It was out for the better part of a week with little improvement (drying).

 

 This is what I have been wedging on  (leftover drywall). It's not long before the paper facing starts to shed into the clay. It would last longer with canvas stretched over it but plaster works best. The plaster batt at the top of the picture was the failed first attempt at casting a batt. I used warm water and the plaster set up faster than I could get it leveled in the frame I had built for it. It was like leveling cookie dough and the final surface shed plaster bits into the clay. Rather than discard it I have skim coated it with fresh plaster and will use it for drying reconstituted clay. 

 The second attempt proved successful!

A proper wedging table...goodbye drywall!

Dreaming of pitches of beer...

            

Handling jugs today...

@%*#

Today I drove 300 miles round trip for naught! I was hoping to pick up a used kiln. The price and the vintage was reasonable and it was almost the exact model I have been thinking about. At the last minute be for I set off I realized that the kiln had the wrong voltage (208) which is intended for use where the power supply is 3 Phase...look it up for clarity. Three phase offers three hot wires and if just one of the wires is used it can be treated as single phase but the voltage is somewhat lower than residential 240volt single phase. So the kiln is set up for 208volt and if I wired it at home I would fry it because of the increased voltage potential. Interestingly I learned from the manufacturer that I could replace the elements of the kiln with elements rated for 240 and merrily fire away. I had to consider the 4-6 hours the process would have taken and added $300 for new elements. Anyway, what really killed the deal for me today were the big cracks in the kiln floor and the obvious abuse the refractory brick kiln walls had obviously seen.

pots are back

I picked up my first bisque firing yesterday from Portland Pottery. Nothing was lost in firing or in transit and that's auspicious. I also bought some glazing materials and some plastic containers for mixing them in. I may have to put off the glazing for a couple of days as the shop was out of reds. I had red, brown, black in my mind for these first experiments.

Leather hard (unfired) on the left, Bisque fired on the right. The clay I am working with is an earthenware. I'm going to have to check if 'Terra Cotta' refers to anything more than the color. Earthenware clay colors vary browns and buffs. Earthenware clays are fired at relatively low temperatures, somewhere in the vicinity of 2100 º F. Earthenware clays will not vitrify like higher firing clays which means that they are still rather porous after bisque firing and therefore earthenware objects must be glazed if they are intended to become functional vessels.

and these went off to the kiln last week...

So here are some recent attempts..

Here it is...a beginning...