Wirerabbit Pots

Finished Saggared Pots

2010-02-08T20:13:00.000-08:00

I had time last week to finally fire my bisqued pots. I used the thin-shelled saggar method and was able to get some good color. Here is a link to my Flickr pictures. They are not great shots but they give you the idea.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirerabbit/sets/411951/

Pre-Saggared Pots

2010-01-29T17:18:00.000-08:00

Here are the few little pots I managed to make for February.

I'll post pictures once I saggar them. I hope you can tell from the picture how nice the terra sig surface came out. These are white earthenware pots bisqued to cone 012.

Back in the Saddle Again

2009-12-31T15:30:00.000-08:00

Well, I have stopped work on the garagio in anticipation of the February sale at Rockport's Bountiful Bowl Pottery Fair. I at least finished the framing corrections around the windows and the framing for the ac unit that will go in after I finish the show. Insulation and dry walling will have to wait.

As you can see I've finally broken in my new Shimpo Whisper. I love it even though it is too fast for me at full throttle. I probably throw at half or less than half speed of the current pedal settings. I'm trying throwing standing up and you should be able to make out the stick of wood I c-clamped to the pedal for a "shift" lever. Works great.

Garagio Remodel

2009-11-13T16:29:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some work on the garagio, trying to get the major things done soon so I can focus on making pots for the February pottery fair here in Rockport. At the end of everything I should have an insulated, air conditioned studio space with two external doors with windows, an extra window opening, and some reconfigured workbench space. I'm not there yet but I've started.

I needed to add a door to the back of the place, so I could easily get to my raku setup. I decided to replace the existing door with a 9 light door. The above shot is looking to the back of the garagio to the new door. I replace the existing door with a 9 light also.

I also decided to put in a small window that was left on the property when we came here. It was taken out of the other side of the building when an AC unit was put in. I kept it knowing I would use it somewhere. Here is the rough opening before I cut out the siding.

Next stage is to clear everything away from the long wall so I can insulate and hang wall board. That meant I had to remove my throwing platform and the built-in workbench that was here when we bought the place. Hard work but I've taken out the half you see here.

Those great shelves I put up will also have to come off the studs before I can hang the wall board.While I'm at it I'm fixing the framing mistakes the previous owner made when cutting out for the windows. No headers at all and the rough sills were devided by the partial stud that was cut to place the window. Oh boy.

Welcome Home Little Whisper

2009-03-16T12:40:00.001-07:00

Like any expectant father, I was rushing around getting things ready
for our new baby this weekend. First thing of course is to pick a spot for the
little tyke to live. I think just under the window is a lovely spot.
Once I get chickens again I can see them roaming the yard.

Next step is of course to whip out the reciprocating saw and start
surgically removing the parts of the work bench that were in the way.

Now to build a nice sturdy platform for ma baby. This is built with
nothing thinner than 2 by, and all of it is scrounged wood. I did have
to sacrifice my home made kick wheel frame but it is worth it to have
such a fine spot to stand and throw some pots.

Oo, whose the cuttie widdo googie googie?

A proud papa. Sniffle.

News Flash: WireRabbit Pottery Has New Arrival

2009-03-12T19:03:00.000-07:00

First things first, folks.

TA DA

A Trip Of A Thousand Miles Begins With Eight Feet of New Shelving

2009-03-08T17:57:00.001-07:00

Still adding more shelf space to the garagio. I had a nice wall for shelves going to waste because I had a filing cabinet, half finished kick wheel, and a small shelving unit in the way. Moved those things out of the way and bob's your uncle.

Now I have lots of room for pots. Now I need to think of a good use for that kick wheel frame.

Filling up the Walls

2009-03-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

One of my many shortcomings is a tendency to cover any horizontal surface with whatever I may happen to be holding in my hand at any given time. Tables are my favorite, but counter tops or work benches do just as well.

This becomes a problem in the garagio. Pottery needs flat work spaces for hand building, for fresh pots, for drying pots, for glazing pots, etc. As a consequence, one always feels an acute need for more flat spaces.

Do whatever you can to increase horizontal surfaces in your studio. I like to think of shelving as narrow, floating tables. Yeah that is what they are -- narrow, floating tables that lean against the walls. I'm a genius.
Now that's done, on to the other side of the room. Charge!

One More Go Around

2009-02-08T18:41:00.000-08:00

Don't we all wish for one more go around? Well, I do. Here are a few pics of my experiments with various types of naked or sagar raku.

I only had a few naked raku pots. Here is a lidded one (left) next to a larger pot I fired with the clay slab resist, a kind of cave-man version of naked raku.

Sometimes you need to have a few reduction containers and there is no metal trash can in sight. Try using two sizes of flower pots. Fill the larger one with combustibles. I like to plug the drain hole with something that is smoke proof too like damp newspaper or moist clay ball. You can place your raku piece inside the larger pot and use a smaller, inverted pot to close off for the smoking. I like to use several pieces of newspaper in the bottom pot and a few folded pieces stuffed into the top pot. A wad of wet newspaper can plug the drain hole in the "lid" and a wet towel makes a great smoke gasket around the same lid.

Here are the two pieces I pictured in a previous post. In that picture you can see the clay slab with its cloth and wire ties that help to keep the slab in place while it drys and when it's in the kiln firing and again when it is pulled and put in the reduction chamber.

I'll post my tests with two raku glazes soon. I need to do some tweeking for sure, but I like the direction.

Bountiful Bowls 2009 has come and gone

2009-02-08T17:53:00.000-08:00

Well, we may be in an economic downturn globally, but I was seeing people walk out the door with packages under their arms. I think the word this year was "jewelry" and it was a very good word. Now I wish I made jewelry...no I don't.

Here are a few pics from the show. I took some pictures of just a few of the regular potters. This year there were many many good pots.

Here is a picture of Betty Shamel, holding the packing paper, and her booth. Betty is a local and is quite a good painter as well as a potter. Folks are always buying in her booth.

Didn't catch Charley Pritchard facing the camera but he's in the red shirt. Charley and his wife run Luling Icehouse Pottery in, you guessed it, Luling TX. Charley is a regular at the clay fest in Gruene.
I have always liked Ron Boling's pots. He has nice raku pieces that you can also see every year in Gruene, TX.
Ken and Brenda Barnett moved to the Coastal Bend several years ago and operate The Potters on Cotter in Port Aransas. I missed Brenda. She must have been at the other booths buying pottery when I took this picture.
Ken volunteers to demonstrate for the folks. Watch it, he throws barefoot.

I don't think you can get any more people in this booth!

Genie Mysorski is another local potter. She teaches art in the elementary school and shows pottery all over TX and OK. She operates Pottery by Genie. She's yucking it up with John Aasp, Director of Visual Arts at the Rockport Center for the Arts.

Here is a better shot of her work.

I caught Jim Bob Salizar checking out his own work. What up whidat? He makes great pots and is an Assistant Professor of Art at Sul Ross State U. in Alpine TX. It's a long haul for him to come every year but we are very glad that he does. This year his donated pot was Best in Show.

Oh, man, who is this dork? Nice pots but why are they still on the table?

I don't know about every potter in the show, but many of us sold enough to make "booth fees and gas money." Yeehaw.

Experimenting at the 11th hour

2009-02-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, I realize that experimenting just a week before your one and only sales event is not the smartest idea, especially when you are experimenting with you only pots. But I never said I was a smart potter.

I did fire about 10 saggar pots as backup pots, but they didn't have the pop that my saggar pots in the past had.

I'm trying my hand at some naked raku using some of my forms. I realize that many of them are not really good naked pots but they are all I have. Here are two pots that will be naked rakued a bit differently. Rather than putting on slip and a glaze layer that will crackle in the reduction bin, I have put color agents etc. onto a moist clay slab and wrapped the pot with the clay. I've used cloth and chicken wire to hold the clay onto the pot until after the reduction.

I have also decided to raku some with nice alkaline glazes, copper, iron. I don't know how well they will all look but I did put one in a kiln today. It suffered a blowout on the rim (boo) but the color of the glaze is nice. I will need to make more so I can dip. This pot had the glaze brushed on and it was difficult to get it on thickly because it was so watery.

Tomorrow and during the week, I do my last firings. Wish me luck!

Gidderdun

2009-01-25T17:57:00.001-08:00

I never have time. Trust me, never. February 7th is the one show a year I do. One. And I always end up rushing to get things done in time. Here are the pots I'm going to be preparing for this year's sales. They represent perhaps 6 hours of throwing.

I wanted to throw some shapely pots with lids this year to learn the skills necessary for such pots. I found that an old chewed up wooden spoon made a pretty good throwing stick. Check out this bone dry pot as an example of the shape I was getting.

I like these forms and need to do some for glazing. Bigger, they would make nice teapot bodies, don't you think?

Texas Clay Festival 2008

2008-09-21T14:56:00.001-07:00

I love going to the Texas Clay Festival every year in Gruene, Texas. Lots of pot and lots of potters around. Excellent Texas potters the lot of 'em. Not only do I like seeing my favorite potters and their pots every year but I also like to sit in on several demonstrations. I often go to the Festival Website and look up the demo schedule and make a plan on who I'm going to see each year. Usually I cut and past the website schedule and rearrange it to my liking. This year I tried using various ways to blog my schedule for others who might want to use it, but they all failed. I have added two pics below which should print out alright. If you would prefer to have access to the google document go here.

Hope to see some of you there this year!

Tres Amigos

2008-07-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

Here are three of my good friends. Let me introduce you. On my right (your left) we have Mr. Almost Kick Wheel. He has a plywood wheel head with home made flange attached to a one inch cold rolled steel shaft which penetrates the bench top and spins securely in two bearings under the work surface: a pillow block just under the bench and a flange block near the floor. It is solid, stable, and turns pretty well. I took the parts from my almost finished home made kick wheel. Just never got around to pouring the flywheel. Sigh

There in the middle, looking all handsome and blue is Mr. Shimpo Banding Wheel. He's a beauty. That's solid metal there folks with enough mass to send it spinning almost forever. Not really.

The tall fellow on your right is Mr. Homemade Banding Wheel. You might have seen his birthday pictures in a previous post. He's all pipe nipples, flanges and a ball bearing. Though he is a bit wobbly, he stands up to quite a bit of pounding. I have secured him to the work bench so he doesn't wander off alone.

All three of my hombres are sporting the latest in bisqued hump mold head wear. Ole!

Mel's 10 Buck Burners

2008-07-13T14:23:00.001-07:00

I spent a few minutes putting together some simple burners from instructions posted by Mel Jacobson to the Clayart listserve and mirrored at Potters.org . In his design, Mel uses a simple lamp holder to center the orifice in the burner tube. Because the holder is tapped, fabrication of the gas tube is easy. Here is a cast iron burner on the left for comparison. Note that I have added a clamp to the burner tube so that I can later mount the burner on a stand of some kind. Between the two burners are the brass nipples you can get at the hardware store for attaching light fixtures to the lamp holders. I have several lengths.

I have turned the burner tube so you can see the lamp holder more clearly. Note that the ends of the lamp holder have been cold formed (bent) to 90 degree angles that just fit the outside of the pipe nipple. I used self tapping metal screws to attach the holder, making sure that I centered the threaded hole in the center of the pipe opening. You can see on the right the bell reducer that takes the small brass nipple at one end and the gas supply at the larger end. On the left you can see a brass pipe nipple with a pipe cap attached. I will drill through this cap using the properly sized bit to make the burner's orifice.

Another shot of the bracket attached with screws

When I finally have time to burn things, I will be sure and test these burners on the raku kiln. It will eventually happen, but don't hold your breath.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

2008-02-12T19:32:00.001-08:00

Just had my one and only pottery sale of the year. I did better than last year, so that is good. This year I made glazed stoneware, the first in a few years, but it didn't seem to move as well as my saggar work. Feel free to take a look at my stuff and comment. Marsha, my wife, is always in charge of the display.My cups have small, "one finger" handles. I guess if your fingers are small enough, you could use two. I sure can't.

Those deep green bowls in the center are glazed with what should have been a medium blue glaze, even more blue than the pots on the right. Seems I have some testing to do to determine how exactly I got that great green.

Here you can see how that deep green glaze really shows texture like throwing lines in those smaller bowls. The larger bowl has a thicker application of the same glaze.

My saggar work was all sold by the end of the day. Sure wish I could get those right more often.

Not Been Idle

2008-01-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick look at what has been happening at WireRabbit Pottery. The last bisque load took 20 hours. Time for new elements. Had to do a bit of work in the switch boxes as the two older switches need to be replaced.

Take a look at a piece of the old elements. Some stretched spots, some compressed spots. Yuck

New elements went in pretty easily. Hey, what's that down there?

Loaded bisque and fired off a very good load with the new elements. You can see the cones there. Left to right/ top to bottom. Forgot the bottom switch for one hour. Missed the high turn up, but cone was bending when I shut off things. The table is full of two loads of pots and test items. Now for the glaze mixing. Yuck!

While things are cooling, I think I'll carve a few bowls for February's show. Sound good to you guys?

U 2 Can Make Tools

2008-01-04T20:15:00.000-08:00

Here are a selection of home made pottery tools. They are simple and easy to make. I'll start at 12 o'clock and work my way around.

At a little past 12 is the very first trimming tool I made. It is made out of strapping steel and has a handle of plywood. I used a propane torch to soften the steel to bending heat.

Moving clockwise toward 2:00 and 3:00, you will come to strips of high carbon steel gleaned from several sources. See if you can match them: Industrial band saw blade for wood, old hacksaw blade, street sweeper steel, old jigsaw blade, and hanging file spine. All these steels need to be softened or they will break when bent aggressively.

Starting at about 4:45 and moving on to 6:00 are three tools made from the strapping steel and two from dowel, jig saw blade and street sweeper steel. The first from the right is a simple utility knife for cutting clay slabs. Of the other two strapping steel tools, one is my clay knife for beveling the bottom of pots on the wheel head and the other is a small bead tool for the bottom of pots. It makes a nice round bead at the bottom of mugs. I used the two dowel tools to carve my large carved bowl (see previous blog post). I pushed ground down jig saw blades or street sweeper steel into lengths of dowel. The saw blade helped to carve the many oaks around the rim and the sweeper blade worked great for small spaces and to bevel edges.

Just past 6:00 and stretching right across the Hendley bat is one of my bowl paddles. I took very roughly sawn wood from a pallet and shaped a handle in the middle. I can flip this paddle over when it begins to stick to the clay. All four ends are usable. Resting atop the paddle is a bamboo handle with a plaster roulette. It works great.

From 7:00 to 8:00 are stick tools made from either old chair spindles or chop sticks. The first I use to form flanged lids off the hump rather than using my fat finger. The next is obviously a sponge on a stick and the last is a throwing stick used when a finger just won't reach. It is straight and not as useful as a jug finger, but I'll try it out soon anyway.

Somewhat in the center of the bat are my latest two trimming tool attempts and a simple needle tool. The needle tool is a wine cork skewered by a length of spring wire. I have ground the point round as I don't need something sharp to insert into clay. The cork makes for easy handling and it will float if I accidentally drop it into my throwing water. The smaller trimming tool has a copper ferrule from a piece of water pipe. The steel is from hanging files. The larger trimming tool, a bit of a stirrup tool, is made from the large band saw blade. I had to anneal that bit of steel before I could make the sharp bends. It is just held together with duct tape. I might think of a more elegant solution on later attempts.

If I can make these tools, just think of the great tools you can make. And I bet your tools will look even better than mine.

Simple Home Made Banding Wheel

2007-10-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

Too many people say you can't do things. Don't always take them at their word. Sometimes you just have to try it anyway. Hey it's like when people say you can't build your own banding wheel.

Below are some first pics of a simple banding wheel project based on pipe nipples, flanges and a ball bearing. This is not meant to replace high quality market banding wheels, but it does work.

At the right of the picture sits a one inch pipe nipple with flange. It just fits inside the 1 1/4 pipe next to it.

Here is a shot of how they fit together. The bottom flange can be attached to a work surface or even some kind of heavy stand to stabalize it. The top flange can then hold a wheel head of some kind.

What is needed is a way for the smaller pipe to spin freely within the larger. This 1 1/8 inch ball bearing makes a great pivot point. The pipe just captures the bearing. The curved surface of the bearing centers the pivot point exactly in the center of the pipe. Below you can see better.

Because the bearing will be spinning under the smaller pipe, the surface it turns on needs to be hard as well. Another aid would be some kind of lubricant to help things along. I have tried to figure out possible solutions to this problem. This is my first attempt. In this picture the flange and pipe screwed to the bench top has been removed. The bottle cap would sit on the work surface, centered in the larger pipe and a quantity of 3 in 1 oil will lightly lubricate things. Even without the cap, the pipe spins quite freely on this hard linoleum table top.

I think the key ingredient for the surface on which the bearing spins is quite obvious in this picture. Don't try to use a cheap national brand. It won't work.

Pouring Large Hump Mold

2007-10-04T19:04:00.000-07:00

Here is my first attempt at pouring a large, shallow hump mold for platters. The plan is to use something to pour the plaster into that will sag with the aid of gravity into a very shallow bowl form. I used a tight weaved cloth I had in the studio.

I have attached the cloth to the top of a trashcan. I secured it with duct tape and then sprayed down the cloth with water to keep it from stealing any from the freshly poured plaster and after the water I sprayed it with WD 40 to help with release.

The weight of the plaster will help to form the shape. The trick is not to have too much give in the cloth. Here I pour the first batch of plaster. While my second batch is slacking, I will reinforce the edges of the plaster form by adding fiberglass mesh around the perimeter. I smoothed out this first pour all the way out to the edges.

I have poured the plaster and ensured that it flowed to the edges of the form by running my hand along the surface and smoothing it toward the edges. You can see the result of trying to slosh the plaster around the shape. Once I pull out the set plaster I will finish the very thin edge by sanding to help prevent chipping.

Here is the form after removing the cloth, turning it over to dry, and rounding the edge smooth. This form will have to have support all the way out to the edge because I don't think the plaster is thick enough to take any paddling I may do even with the reinforcement. It will work great as a hump mold for slab work.

Clay Spanking

2007-09-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

Play by Play Paddling of a Bowl Form ala Russel Fouts

Russel Fouts uses a fantastic technique to form some of his electric kiln smoked pieces. I thought I'd have a go and have been having some good results. Now you can see a step by step of sorts from beginning to end, clay paddy to drying form.

Here are the tools of the trade. I have a plaster form sitting atop my banding wheel. To the right are my rubber mallet and my plywood scrap paddle.

I start with a 1.5 lb paddy of rather stiff clay. I am currently using a grogged raku clay. Note how lumpy the edges of that paddy is. It will inform the ultimate rim of this bowl.

I begin by thumping the paddy with a large rubber mallet. This gets the thickness down while allowing me to move quite a bit of clay about. I try to close up any problematic fissures at the edges if they develop at this point. Otherwise the rim will split rather badly.

I am pealing the clay up at this point and adding a small circle of newsprint just a bit smaller than the paddy. This helps me release the piece from the mold before shrinkage rips the bowl apart as it dries. I have been having problems with the clay releasing in time.

Action shot! I rotate the form as I paddle. Right now I am paddling in an ever widening spiral as I turn the form rather briskly and paddle quickly. Other paddling rythems will move the clay differently and have different effects I guess.

This is my clay spanking outfit. T-shirt, shorts and don't forget the rubber boots.

I work the clay down and around the hump mold. In this go around I have tried adding a strip of newsprint over the mold. I don't like it actually as it gives too much of the clay the freedom to pucker up as the paddle pulls away. The clay adhering to the mold at this point actually does help in the process.

This is fun.

The edge of the clay is very important. Russel says so and I believe him. Here I watch what is developing right at the edge. I don't crush and pinch the edge to a point, rather I coax the clay down into a nice rounded shape with creases and cracks developed from the clay itself.

Here's a shot of the surface and the edge. Notice the newsprint sticking out from under the clay.

Here is a closer picture of the edge.

Following are some pictures of the raw pots drying. The last one is of a footed bowl. I attached a coil with deflocculated slip and paddled it into shape.

Hoping for some yummy pots.

Handbuilding: Slabs and Molds

2007-08-17T15:36:00.001-07:00

I decided to do some hand building today. I'm interested in using thrown slabs, so I threw out several paying attention to how the surface stretched and deformed depending on how I treated the clay before starting to throw out the slab. I have some interesting textures. Because I wanted to preserve the texture, I allowed the slabs to set up. Here are several slabs stacked on boards.

I have seen Tony C's recent hand built work and seeing his work has encouraged me to just put something together. I want to use the same slip he did, allowing it to ooze from the joins. I don't think I was aggressive enough with the slip but by deflocculating it like Tony and others do, I hope to prevent cracking during drying. I scored nothing. First you need some dried out claybody. This is a commercial raku body I use. Get a cloth, a hammer and break the clay up into small bits for soaking.

I added some sodium silicate which is a deflocculant but others use Darvan which I don't have. No scientific measurements here and I like it.

Add water and slake the clay for several minutes. I decided to try blending it in my garagio blender. It did speed things up a bit. I added just enough water to cover the dry clay. The slip was very very thick. I would describe it as sour cream consistency. Yum.

I thought I'd make a teapot just for the heck of it. It's raku clay and I plan on low firing the piece if it survives, so it will not really be functional, but I did go ahead and make the hole for lid and spout. I'm loving the texture of the clay. Have no idea what I will do for the kiln.

Hmm, I'm not sure the overall form is working very well but not too bad for a first try.

Ah, now back to the hump mold which bested me the last time I tried to use it for forming bowls. To prevent the clay from sticking to the form this time, I cut out old t-shirts and placed them under the clay. I then proceeded to beat the heck out of about 2 lbs of clay, moving it down and over the mold. Here is my first bowl. The texture is produced by the side of my balled fist. According to this, I'm supposed to have three children.

I wanted to try another bowl, so I needed a place to put the first bowl. The problem is the first bowl is too soft to pull off without deforming. I chose to make a sling from some more old t-shirt and tied it to the top of a 5 gal. bucket.

I'm trying to pay particular attention to edges with this method of making. Russel F has started me thinking of this. Here the clay was too much and extended farther than the form. I needed to cut it off. this really buggered up the edge's texture. I believe this will take some time to perfect but should make all the difference. Must not copy Russel though, so I'm thinking about other forms.

This second bowl is exactly 2 lbs. I will decrease the clay amount until I get the edge effect I want. Too much clay and I can't beat it out for interesting edges. You can see here I have taken to spanking my clay with a piece of old 1/4 inch plywood. It has some interesting textures on it: some holes and some rough wood. Will be interesting.

As you might imagine, the t-shirt fabric leaves an impression. I didn't like it at all, so I brushed on some of the attaching slip. It makes an interesting pattern.

Aw, Chicken Foot!

2007-08-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

I have taken an impression of one of my chicken's feet in soft clay and then wrapped the clay with a wall of clay to hold the plaster. Hmm, the chicken must be shedding.

Here is a nice picture of the finished cast after the soft clay mold was pulled away. Many of the incidental bumps will be carved away and smoothed. I waited until the plaster was solid and started to heat up before I removed the clay wall and mold. Still the plaster was quite moist.

Here is the finished cast with edges beveled. I realized at this point that because I was going to be using this cast as a clay stamp, I needed to get rid of the majority of the excess plaster otherwise I would have a circular impression around my chicken feet.

While I waited for my plaster work to set, I tried to paddle a thin bowl over my hump mold. Each time I tried I either thinned the clay so much that the paddle pulled the clay off the hump and tore it, or when I tried to release the bowl, it stuck to the hump mold and again ripped. No, I did not use a paddle with a bird's foot impression. Can you guess what I used to paddle this attempted bowl?

I'm also throwing out some slabs for a raku project I'm hoping to do. I enjoy all the things that happen when throwing out slabs, but I'm not sure these examples are going to survive.

Simple plaster projects for clay studio

2007-08-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

I took the time to make a few simple plaster forms to help me in the studio. I needed to make a simple hump mold and a plaster sink for reclaiming clay. Below are some quick pics.

You can see the simple hump mold here on the left. I have made a little mushroom form to make it easier to work on. The mold was a plastic bowl and the mold release was a cooking spray. Coating of the release was too thick and I had to use drywall sanding paper to smooth out the surface. The form on the left is the negative space for my plaster sinks. Rather than making it out of clay each time, I took a page from a potter friend of mine and made this reusable form from plaster.
I use this formica table top to pour on. The plaster will release very easily from this smooth surface.
To have the negative plaster mold release from the poured plaster, the mold must be sized or covered with separating agent. This oil soap is just the thing. I cut the stuff 50/50 with clean water and then make sure to whip it up into a froth.

Here you can see the soapy bubbles sitting on the form. Let it dry a bit then brush on another two coats or so.

Here is an overview of the cottle boards and the negative mold. You can just see the fillet of clay pressed to the inside of the cottles wherever there is a seam.

Here is a closer shot. I want rounded corners to resist chipping so this clay is pressed into place with my finger and then raked to make a nice smooth radius to the corners. Be sure to clean up all stray clay from the mold before you pour or it will leave pits where the clay ends up.

I have not taken the time to make any permanent cottle boards so I grabbed some 2by6s and bent some nails to pin the ends together. The clay on the outside helped to stabilize the boards agains the pressure of the plaster.

Here is a shot after the second pour. The cottles are full to the top and I have marked the year I made this sink. It should serve me well for years to come.

Here is the finished sink with the negative mold removed. I was worried about the strength of this sink as the bottom is only 1 3/4 inches thick so I added drywall tape of the fiberglass mesh kind to strengthen it. I poured plaster till it just covered the top (will be the bottom of the sink) of the negative mold. I then let the plaster just start to solidify. I laid strips of fiber glass mudding tape onto to plaster and poured the remainder of the form. This embedded fiber glass should provide a stronger mold.

I'm still learning how to handle plaster and it shows. Several voids from bubbles clinging to the negative mold are evident. I later filled those in with more plaster and it should be just fine.

New Wedging Table

2007-04-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

I have just finished building a new, sturdy wedging table for dealing with reclaim and for kneading clay before throwing. I used two layers of chipboard for each side and pieced them together with the help of 2x4s at the corners. Notice that I have put my canvas covered plaster batt on the wedging table. I won't use this surface to wedge on any longer. I will use it just for stiffening clay now.

The top of this work bench is a solid core door. The interior of the door is not solid wood, however. While the surface of this door is just a thin veneer, it is still structurally sound. When the time comes for a better surface, a thin sheet of plywood will probably be good enough to place over it.

One of the pictures gives you an idea of how the 2x4s are placed at the corners. I also have 2x4s runing along the top edge of each side. When I cut out access at the front of this box for storage, I will need the support of the wedging surface that those 2x4s provide.

Alex and Sabrina from Mannheim!

2007-04-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

Email us as soon as you see this. We miss you.

Latest small containers

2007-03-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

I'm off to Louisville for NCECA and I realized that I had nothing to take to my really good friends who live there. I needed some small things to take with me, so I threw some small pieces for saggar firing. I had a little clay left so I tried throwing closed formes and turning them into covered pieces.

These have flanged lids with handbuilt handles.

These were thrown in one piece then cut in half.

In this pic you can see how the lid fits. All this was thrown as one piece, altered while wet and then trimmed to tune the fit.

How much clay could a bisqued chuck chuck?

2006-12-12T20:05:00.000-08:00

Some have wondered how to trim those difficult to invert forms such as narrow necked vases, bottles or even rounded closed forms. Potters use many different methods and one of them is shown below. I have a few bisqued cylinders that I can attach to the wheel head. These can allow a long neck to hang below while the sholder of the form to be trimmed rests on clay wads attached to the chuck's rim. Here I am trimming an enclosed form which I will turn into a lidded box. It sits on a soft clay coil ringing the chuck's rim. I have soaked the chuck in water (stinky water, btw) to keep it from drying the coil too fast. I placed the piece on the chuck and made sure the bottom was level. I then centered the piece with chuck and attached it to the wheel head with another coil of soft clay.

Here you can see my homemade trimming tool and my Hendley trimming bearing sitting on the piece. Now a Hendley bearing is a very sophisticated trimming aid that no potter should be without. It consists of a series of nesting lids. You place the Hendley trimming bearing on the pot bottom and hold with a finger of your free hand. This allows the pot to spin beneath the finger with reduced drag. Yahoo.

Bowl Carving

2006-12-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

I had an idea to make a carved bowl for a February pottery show here in town. I have seen various permutations of this form and thought I would try my hand at it. I threw a few large bowls and picked one (the only one still soft enough to carve) to carve. I still need to perfect the design, but the idea is a rim of windswept oaks running around the bowl.

In order to do the carving at the medium to hard leather hard stage I needed to make some carving tools. It took me about 10 minutes to fabricate some prototypes. Hehe. I took a coping saw blade and a street sweeper bristle and worked them on the grinder. I put them each into wooden dowels for handles. The street sweeper knife did cut pretty well, but I was worried that because it only pushed clay out of the way that it was going to cause too much stress and might create cracks in the caly. I used the coping saw blade for almost all the carving as it sawed out material and kept the stresses down. At least that is what I hope it did. Seems to work the best for this project. I placed the saw blade in the handle so that it cut on the push stroke. Works great.

My assistant took pictures of me working on the bowl. It's about 23 inches in diameter, so I'm working on the floor with it in my lap. Notice how I am really supporting the underside of the bowl as I carve.

Some recent and some inchoate work

2006-12-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

I attended the International Woodfire Conference at NAU, October 2006 and was fortunate to participate in the preconference firings. This is a picture of some of the pots from that firing. The only interesting pots were the naked pots I took. All glazed work came out terribly. Must have been the cone 13 and the billowing smoke. That small jug about in the center is now at the Art Center of Rockport for the annual members show.

Below are some bone dry pots I'm experimenting with beside some little handbuilding experiments, and my 20 inch bowl, wet from the wheel (sitting on a Hendley bat, btw. Absolutely NO slippage either.)

I have rearranged my garagio a bit. Now the wheel sits in the back next to the wedging board and I have put my work table in the middle giving me more room to work at either the workbench along the wall or at the table. Notice my over-engineered drying rack at the left. All scrap wood either salvaged from the chicken coop or out of Aransas Bay.

Make it yourself

2006-11-11T17:01:00.000-08:00

Many of us would rather make something ourselves for the pottery rather than going out and buying something ready made. Well...some things we'd rather make.

Below is a series of pictures of how I make my Hendley bats. Sometimes I use three cleats and sometimes I use four. I remember someone on CL mentioning using a compass. I don't have one that big but where there is a will there is a way. Check out my answer to 'you got a compass?'

That's my callipars, a ballpoint pen, and a needle tool. 7" radius for my 14" wheel head. David just tap centers his cut outs onto his wheel head then runs a pencil around the wheel head to mark his circle, but I just like extra steps. So mark center then scribe a circle for your wheel head diameter.

Next, glue you some one inch by 2.5 or so inch cleats either at thirds or fourths around the scribed circle. I like to counter sink my screws. Be sure to add a good glue to the underside of the cleats before you screw them in. Have them just touch the scribed line.

Once you have all the cleats attached you can fix any misfit with a bit of sanding. Use some kind of shim material if in the future you don't have a snug fit. David uses thin strips of cardboard. I will be sealing this bat top, bottom and edges with a water seal. Two coats and then on a regular cycle.

Wait a sec! Where am I going to sit?

My stack of bats is not quite as tall as David's is, but I'm young yet.

Below are pics of my wedging board as well. I used 2 by 4s as a frame, covered it with heavy duty canvas and poured the plaster in the space. Heavy as an anchor but works well.

Top side.

Man I love a good jug.

2006-05-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

So here is a sketch of what I'm trying to throw these days. My homework will be to aproximate the form in the middle there.

Mugs and thumb bubumps

2006-02-20T20:14:00.000-08:00

Here we have a few pics of some of my favorite mugs. Don't take my word (or hand) for it, collect your own favorite mugs.

Here is the bottom of an Issenberg mug. I like the bevel and the lip at the bottom goes well with it. See Don's pic too.

This is his mug. See the thumb "trigger" on the handle? If you hold your mug like Don, you must be a famous contortionist because I can't handle a mug that way.

Here is how I hold a Issenberg mug.

Another mug I like is this mug by Jim Dale, a Texas potter of excellence. Note he also had a thumb bumpy.

Here is his bottom. Bumps it up in the middle.

Sanding bone dry will put you in the ground

2006-01-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

Using 0000 steelwool on bone dry clay and no mask?

Need I say more?

Still pluggin' along

2006-01-16T20:50:00.000-08:00

These are the newest pots for the pit. I'm trying to stretch my throwing ability to larger and larger pieces of clay. Lot of scrap clay this day, but I did manage to cover some boards after all.

Making Terra Sigillata

2006-01-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

I've made my first three batches of terra sig this last weekend. My deflocculant was sodium silicate and the three clays were OM4, goldart, and redart. Being in a hurry to do something, I made my own hydrometer out of a Sonic straw and a racking cane out of rubber tubing, a wooden dowel, and some electrical tape. It may not be the most beautiful setup nor the most accurate but it'll do for now. Here's the pic. You can see the rubber tubing is simply curving upwards so when the siphoning occurs, liquid is drawn from above and not below. With time I think I can learn to feel when the loop of the tubing hits the thicker sediment of the deflocculated clay. The straw hydrometer was made from simple plans from a fellow clayarter. Check google or clayart archives.

Penultimate pit

2006-01-01T18:42:00.000-08:00

To make myself feel a little better about my latest pit difficulties I've decided to post a picture of my next to last pit firing. It wasn't too bad as far as color goes but still not exactly what I'm looking for. I've also thrown in a picture of the pit before extracting the pots.

Sometimes the pots, they dry slowly

2005-12-13T18:44:00.000-08:00

I don't have the time to spend all week in the garagio. As a result, I find myself watching the pots dry because timing is everything and throwing, drying, trimming, drying can't be rushed (much). Oh yeah, there is also the space thing. Once the table fills up I have to trim and dry the pots enough to stack them. Now if I could just throw better so I didn't have so many trimmings to deal with!

Latest Pit

2005-12-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

4pit2
Originally uploaded by wirerabbit.

Well, this last pit was terrible. I got only black, greys and white. Almost no flashing from the chemicals. I think I played it too safe with the chemicals. Very disappointing.

This is the pits

2005-11-06T17:58:00.000-08:00

I have finished my very first pit firing this weekend. I am very pleased with the results. This is the first pottery I have done in over a year, yet things went rather smoothly. I have a few pics here of the pit and loading of the pit along with the results.

The pit is about 26 inches deep and is three feet in diameter at the top. In my area, the first 26 inches is mustang sand. Below that is a dark clay with white inclusions. Better to stop digging right there.

Before loading of the pots I placed 7 inches of fine hardwood shavings from a fine furniture shop in the bottom of the pit. I then spread around some copper carbonate, rock salt, copper sulfate, and miracle grow over the surface of the shavings. I then placed the pots on and slightly in the shavings.

Over the pots and shavings I placed small diameter twigs--about the diameter of a pencil--makeing a nice net of fuel to help support the larger pieces to come. Over that I placed half inch and larger hardwood off cuts from the same furniture shop. Because I wasn't sure how much of the color-producing chemicals to add to the pit, I followed the cut offs with a thin layer of grass clippings and on top of that I put more copper carb, rock salt, and copper sulfate. Finally, I placed larger pieces of lumber--2 by 4s, pickets, etc up to the top edge of the pit.

I then put fire to the fuel and let it really get going before adding some more fuel to the top. As soon as the large energetic flames died away and I was certain that the pit could sustain the fire, I covered it with the corrugated plate, keeping a gap with low duty fire bricks on the windward side and a 4 or so inch opening on the opposite side. Flames were still shooting out from under the steel wherever it could. Much of the grass around the pit was cut very low but still caught fire from the flames. From fire start to covering up was about 20 minutes.

I pulled the pots out at 23 hours and they were still almost too hot to handle even with leather gloves. I placed them on bricks to cool off. Nice reds and blacks. I even had some interesting yellow-green.

Full picture series can be viewed here --> http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirerabbit/sets/1311037/

Working hard or hardly working

2005-10-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

Yes I have found the time to throw again after about a year hiatus. These are a few of my first bone dry pieces. Oh yeah, some of my chickens' work as well. Who do you think has the better forms? Me too, chickens rock!

These forms are going in the pit out back. I'll be burnishing them but no terra sig this go around. I haven't the time or hydrometer to make Pitelka grade terra sig ;) so I'll wait on that. This clay body is a raku clay anyway and has too much grog to make good burnished pots.

Much better

2005-10-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

kiln5
Originally uploaded by wirerabbit.

The bottom section now sports a nice new bottom plate, screwed to the stand. I took the time to pull the Dawson sitter as well and clean it up. I'll attempt a single post with multiple pictures later. These last 5 were from inside flickr, too many problems with blogger.

Termites?

2005-10-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

kiln4
Originally uploaded by wirerabbit.

Man, moisture, heat, and sulfer can really eat it up. Not much left, huh?

Fe Ox

2005-10-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

kiln3
Originally uploaded by wirerabbit.

Free glaze materials, yum.

Bottom pan damage

2005-10-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

kiln2
Originally uploaded by wirerabbit.

Here is a close up of the damage. You can clearly see the large flakes of iron oxide that used to be the zink treated bottom pan. Note my plastic bag of iron oxide I had already collected from the top of the kiln. It looks almost as bad as this.

Fall down go boom

2005-10-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

kiln1
Originally uploaded by wirerabbit.

Ouch. Large section of the bottom pan fell away along with much of the one inch block backup insulation. You can see the IFB that makes up the inside of the bottom section.

When the world gives you rust, collect iron oxide

2005-10-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a very thin line exists between the feelings of futility and opportunity. Here's a lesson: when the bottom of your kiln falls out onto your studio floor, grab the opportunity to learn a little more about kiln maintanance. If your ready for opportunity, you might even get some free glaze materials out of the deal.

When the bottom of my kiln fell out, I took only the briefest of moments to curse a blue streak. Then I went and got my bag of kiln-grown iron oxide and added quite a bit more to my stash. Judging by what's left of the bottom pan, I don't think I could collect much more.

Pictures to follow.

Get to work

2005-07-14T19:08:00.000-07:00

I have put off restarting the pottery for a long time now. I have plenty of room for my equipment and for making, I've just not had the time. Too many things have gotten in the way.

This is a view looking from the back of the shop out the garage door. The old Paragon kiln I'm saving for a raku kiln sits in the forground.

When we first moved down here to Rockport, there was the new house to get fixed up. The guest quarters needed quite a bit of work: new sheetrocking, taping and floating, all new electrical work, new plumbing and new bathroom fixtures. That work is just about finished. Now I fight for a little time each week to start making pots.

This is a view into the detatched garage looking back into where I will be working again soon. My faithful Lockerbie is covered in do-it-yourself detritus.

My home-made kick wheel is behind it still unfinished. I need to finish it before I start building the korean kick wheel and the heavy duty banding wheels. Hehe

Sculpture under the bamboo

2005-07-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

You know sometimes art is for the birds.

This is the one non-pot piece I did for my one and only clay class at Baylor. I was to find a 2-D artist and render his or her work in 3-D. Can anyone guess who I chose? Think western civilization survey class.

Thrown cylinders, extruded columns (can barely see them), slab base and upper arcade. Stoneware clay bisqued only with Rhodes slips. I really could have done so much more with that. Oh well let the chickens have it!

Pots

2005-06-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

Recent pot posts will be here.