Focus on feet

Now you can see them better.

Harriet's spoon pot

The feet make it feel like a Harry Potter pot (appropriate). It has a slightly jaunty air, which gives it character. It is going to hold my wooden spoons.

Slipped dish

Earthenware, thrown and painted with white slip. Marks made with lemon zester.

Mouldy rice

Left wrapped up for a fortnight.

Materials for slip monoprinting

Scissors, brush, newspaper, pin ... and a damp sponge.

Meg's Cobra-inspired mug ...

Slip on earthenware (terracotta) with slip monoprint designs.

Sara's bowl

Stoneware bowl with earthenware glaze - tin white with honey on top (after Jake's masterpieces)

Lustre glaze

I made this a few weeks back, a thrown stoneware clay bowl dipped in Jill's white glaze.
To give it more wow-factor (assuming it works), I coated the outside & rim with a mother-of-pearl lustre designed for low firing (<<1000C).....

After firing, the effect is BETTER than I expected!! The difference between lustre & plain white glaze is really noticeable around the rim but that same iridescence is on the outside too.
Love it + it's one of my better thrown pieces.....

Sgraffito

So far, this sgraffito tile is working better than I hoped!!

Just added a light "wash" (1 brushed layer) of turquoise alkaline semitranparent glaze hoping for an inky night effect......

The turquoise looks more green than blue but it looks great anyway - perhaps apply glaze thicker?

Two-handled jug

Thrown earthenware. Glazed with honey all over, and then matt black on the outside only - gives a dark-purply colour (I think - I'm colour-blind).

Two mugs

Two earthenware mugs, thrown. Both painted in white slip, and glazed with earthenware transparent glaze. (The camera flash makes them look like whiter than they do in real life, when they are quite a yellowy-off-white colour.) 

The one on the left has sgraffito marks scratched on (using a bamboo pen). I did it freehand though and it's a bit too wobbly for my liking. The mug on the right had its top dipped in black slip. I really don't like this mug - the shape is ugly (too much of a curve for what is quite a small squat little mug), and the glaze has bubbled horribly over the black slip. (If the glaze hadn't bubbled, then I would have preferred the mug if I had poured black slip inside too, so that the whole inside was black.)

jug and mug

Both thrown in earthenware. The mug was painted with white slip, and then black slip flicked on using a paintbrush (brush didn't touch the cup), which left a black streak like a dead worm. Then glazed with earthenware transparent glaze. 

The jug was glazed in creamy titanium - this can look really simple and lovely, but I wasn't careful enough with the glazing here - you can see the fingermarks - and the jug has ended up looking a bit scrappy and dirty as a result. Maybe I should have used glazing tongs. 

First thrown pot and what a lovely green colour

This was made with Delta stoneware clay, using the hand-building technique of coiling. Glazed with transparent green alkaline glaze which produces this gorgeous colour.

And here's my first "successful" attempt at throwing on the wheel. Inverted commas because I had several throws before I mastered centering, however, this is very small, has a very thick base and narrow edge at the top, so not much of a success. Nevertheless, it is the first thing that came out looking pot-like. I used turquoise glaze on the outside and shiny blue/green on the inside. Oh and it's stoneware clay.

Two terracotta pinch pots = a giant Malteser

After making a pinch pot, we progressed to making two pinch pots the same size, and then sticking them together to make a ball. Since I was using earthenware clay, I couldn't help thinking my brown ball looked a lot like a giant Malteser. I resisted eating it, however, and instead cut a wavy line through it with a wire. I proceeded to puncture lots of holes all over it and then, once biscuit fired, glazed the top half with turquoise glaze and the bottom half with transparent glaze. The idea is to put a tea light candle inside to see the light shining through the holes. It sort of works.

First pinch pot

I'm pretty new to ceramics, having just started this course a few weeks ago, so my work is not that great (yet) but hopefully will show my progression as I get better.

We made a lot of things in the first few weeks when learning - but not perfecting - new techniques. Those pieces have proved really useful, not just for learning the different methods, but also for testing out different glazes and seeing their effects.

My first piece is a pinch pot, made from earthenware clay, with honey glaze on the inside, which comes out a rich, dark brown on earthenware. The outside is glazed with tin white, with copper oxide on the etched pattern.

Again, matt black but I let it dry out then put a spiral of 'gold' over it.
The spiral is just visible but not even close to gold in colour - a great contrast if it had have worked.......

The round disk is like a raised coaster or a lid. The spiral was a pin tool against the clay on the wheel at the soft leatherhard stage same as for creating the "foot". Single dip in matt black.

The wheel-thrown cup/vase has the smoothest base I've made yet but the matt black needed another layer.

It's almost invisible here but I brushed a band of transparent violet alkaline glaze ~2/3 of the way up the side........creates an oil-on-water type effect. A bit thicker might work better?

I can't seem to make straight-sided cylinders - looks like a flared trouser!!

I really like black as a colour

This is from last semester's raku session.

Wax on base to give the dark blackened effect.

Not sure what I did with the glaze.....maybe a mix of turquoise & white? The inside is better than the outside.

Group five-minute handbuilt piece

Sweets dish

It's not good as a plate for ordinary food but as a bowl for sweets, it looks great (test not shown).
The coloured glass was inlaid into the indentations after bisque firing, alongside the edges in my own "midnight blue" crystalline glaze - kiln too hot & fast for the crystals?
Green transparent glaze dip at each corner is subtle but under flash photography, looks highlighter lime!!

Blue

The Egyptian blue looks like it slumped after double dipping but the effect is great.
Mustard yellow inside is mottled but still watertight.

Thrown "perfume" bottle.

Stone red (base & inside) with "misty" blue body - copper acrylic band & rim after firing.

Thrown terracotta clay tea light holder.

Clear glaze atop black slip.

Cabbage pot

Jake in the cabbage pot.

Clay was rolled over sliced red cabbage and formed round a cylinder.
Glazed with rough purple.

Georg Ware

cobalt carbonate and copper oxide on Jill's White

Earthenware bowl

Earthenware, thrown and turned with a fairly high footring. Glazed with tin white and then honey over the top - the combination runs together during firing giving a slightly mottled effect.

Slip plate

Earthenware plate - thrown, with white slip painted on and then black slip splashed on with a paintbrush. Earthenware transparent glaze over the top.

Five-minute Olympics/Paralympics

Can you guess the sports? Answers later.

Five-minute Olympics/Paralympics 1

Five-minute Olympics/Paralympics 2

Five-minute Olympics/Paralympics 3

Five-minute Olympics/Paralympics 4

Five-minute Olympics/Paralympics 5

Raku

First Raku firing of the year. This pot had clear crackle poured over and some highlights of turquoise that when fired mixed greeny turquoise and copper red colours.

About calculating the cost of a pot

The Hourly Earnings Project: A Working Potter Spends a Year With a Stopwatch and a Calculator http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramic-art-and-artists/open-studios/the-hourly-earnings-project/ (from a professional point of view!)

Harriet's Furry Woman pot

Lady pot grew some mould.

Heather's first tooth pot

 

 

Frozen Planet Pot

Inspired by David Attenborough's Frozen Planet I wanted to make a pot that contrasted the smooth whiteness of glaciers with rocky outcrops that rise out at the edges of them.

White part of this pot is porcelain, burnished prior to firing. Top part is black coarse clay.

Inside glazed with double layer of Egyptian Blue (the inside glaze of choice this term for some reason). Some matt white thickly brushed onto the black clay to give the partial coverage.

Marbled bowl

About 20 cm across. Thrown, mixture of about 2/3 porcelain, 1/3 black clay. Turned both inside and outside when leather-hard. Glazed on the inside only with transparent glaze, and fired to earthenware.

Teacup

Thrown, black clay (680 smooth), fired to earthenware. Glazed in turquoise (first coat) followed by transparent on top (Liz's suggestion originally). Worked nicely in leaving patches of colour on top of a darker base. NB that the glaze ran off the pot slightly, so it stuck to the glaze shelf.

Coral bowl

Stoneware cut with Madelaine's curly wire tool and pressed together to form a bowl shape.

Painted with slip and oxides.

Glazed with clear transparent.

Like the look that its from under the sea - glazing and finishing wasn't subtle enough.

Pinch pot, black clay

Tiny pinch pot, black clay (680 smooth). Glazed on the top half only with 2 - 3 coats of matt white, and fired to stoneware. The glaze 'sinks in' to the black clay, giving it an uneven finish.

Harriet's Wavy Stalked Urn

Mixed clays - black coarse and architectural stoneware. Fired to stoneware temperature. Inside glazed with double dipped Egyptian blue. Egyptian blue painted on outside. Outside the colour sucked into the clay so shows only as a slight sheen. Stalk glazed in matt white, painted on rutile oxide and crocus martis oxide.