Monthly Archives: November 2013

Throwin the clay

I don’t throw very often these days but I do enjoy it .  I recently broke a little pitcher that Jay uses to brew tea and I also wanted to replace Xena’s food dish so I bought a fifty pound box of porcelain and got to work.  I love porcelain for kitchen items because the small particle size makes a very dense finished product that is chip resistant especially if you give it a nice fat lip.  The down side of fine particles is more shrinkage, a tendency to warp in the fire and slump on the wheel.

gettin artsy in the photo

gettin artsy in the photo

Patience is a virtue that I don’t have much of, but to throw a successful pot, it must be exercised.  First if the clay is not just right moisture-wise don’t even bother to try.  Once the clay is ready, weighing out the lumps and wedging into a cone comes next.  Wedging looks a lot like kneading bread.  The purpose is to remove air bubbles and align the plate shaped particles of clay so they can slide past each other in the throwing process.  This is the secret to clays ability to be stretched and shaped into any form.

Pale blue band on a serving bowl

Pale blue band on a serving bowl

mini tea pot just because it's small dosen't make it easier

mini tea pot
just because it’s small
dosen’t make it easier

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jay loves his new pitcher and I have some for sale, along with a new mini tea set and a few new single serving size cat food dishes (can’t have too many of these with eight recalcitrant cats to contend with!)

 

 

Women of Appalachia

Scarred Woman

Scarred Woman

This work was recently juried into the fifth Women of Appalachia Art Exhibit on display in the Multicultural Center Art Gallery, Baker Center, Ohio University.  The exhibit runs through December 10  Then I believe it moves on to Chillicothe, OH.

There will be two events with spoken word and musical work performed on Nov 1 and Nov 7 details at  www.womenofappalachia.com

“Scarred Woman” above epitomizes the Appalachian woman who has been through the fire and may be marked by life but not broken.  The resilience and creativity that my friends and neighbors bring to every day life is truly inspiring. DSC_0008_4

Paw Paw Green Man Sun

Paw Paw Green Man Sun

Paw Paw Green Man is also in the show hanging beside his sister.

The process for making my green men and women are basic hand building techniques.  I start with a large lump of clay and form a shallow oval bowl shape about the size of a face.  This is pretty thick and the sides are 2-3 inches tall.  When the clay is ready, and this is crucial, it’s time to start pushing, pressing, shaving and adding clay to form a face.  The clay needs to be pretty pliable for the first roughing in but not so soft as to collapse.

I use some photos of faces and my own face to get the proportions and I usually go large as the clay shrinks in the fire.  I only need to do eyes, nose and mouth because the edges of the face are covered with leaves.

It takes a few days of a few hours each to finish the face.  The clay is kept in a plastic bag so it will dry slowly.  This allows for finer finishing at the end.

The leaves are cut from slabs of clay, using real leaves.  A large Green Man can take up to 36 leaves.

The assembly has to be done on the kiln shelf as the bone dry piece is very fragile.  After the piece is completely dry it is bisque fired, if it survives I either spray on stains for a soft finish or dip into glaze for a shiny finish.  It is then fired again to a much higher temperature.

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