After the "Before and After"

Wow, guys.  I've been away for quite a while.  Time to start getting a bit caught up.  There's a lot to talk about, but let's go with the 'platter' pot I last displayed back in March.  I smiled just reading over that last post.  I really did boast about that pot! 

After I had taken all of the vegetable-filled pics of it, I put it on my counter with a few other bowls stacked within it.  I didn't look at it again for a few weeks, until I pulled it out to show a friend.  As I unstacked bowl after bowl from atop it, I finally got down to it and saw this:

Who would have known that I could not only make vessels, but could differentiate myself as a creator of children's puzzle games?  (It's sharp, Billy.  Be careful.)

The depressing remains of platter sat, just like this, on my counter for months.  The technical flaws to its form allowed it to happen:  the bottom of the platter sunk down during firing and the foot didn't compensate for the dip.  The bottom wasn't flat. It was curved just enough.  Despite all of that logic, however, I just couldn't bear to throw hours of work away (to permanently contribute to a landfill somewhere, as fired clay doesn't biodegrade).

As I ended my pottery semester and started anew during the summer, I asked Moriah for her thoughts on whether (and how) it might be repairable.  I expected to passed down some ancient secret learned from potters long ago. 

Instead:  she shared DAP Silicone Aquarium Sealant.  This magical stuff is safe for sealing your fishies' tank, and for human food and food surface contact.  It doesn't get brittle, and you can get it anywhere.  I mosied on over to my local big-box, confused the staffer in the paint department trying to describe what I needed it for and ultimately just matched the image from the site tot he tube I thought would work and took it home.



Wa-lah!

 2 people, 45 minutes, 5 Q-tips(R), most of a newspaper and a few medical gloves later, and it's as good as if it had been Steri-stripped.

I sincerely doubt that my platter will ever see the dinner table. As my friend, Bryan suggested, however, it may end up hanging on display in the house.  It will not only act as inspiration for future pieces, but will add just a touch of foreboding...a warning to Ms. Clumsy of what happens when you're just not careful enough.

That said, I have renewed confidence in my "handiness" as a result of a rather successful repair.  Score.

Before and After pics

I thought it would be fun to show a pot in various stages of completion.

This is me proving to Moriah that I had, indeed, created something as wide as she had instructed.  The platter was wet, still on the wheel.

This is what the pot looked like with glaze drying onto it after it had been bisque-fired.  One more trip through the kiln for a few hours and it ended up looking like:

The veggies didn't come from the studio - I had to add those myself.  The lettuce actually makes the platter look a lot smaller than it does in real life, too.  I tell you, compared to most things I've made:  this thing is huge. 

This platter has also taught me a very powerful lesson.  It turns out that things that have large, flat bottoms often sag down when they get heated up in the kiln.  What used to be a perfectly flat bottom now sags down so far that the plate doesn't sit straight; it sort of rocks back and forth on the curved base. 

If anyone has ideas on how I can sand down/flatten a fired ceramic platter, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Pots I'm pretty proud of

Unlike a lot of the things I've shown already in this space, I'd like to share some of the things I've made recently of which I'm particularly proud.  Since in the past I've seen others' work and really tried to get myself to the point that I could "make something just like that", it was hard for me to evaluate my work over time and see the positive in it. 

Now that I've been up to it for a while, though, I've started looking back.  I recently looked at some of the things I've purchased, and noticed that their stuff isn't all that great, either!  I can see the technical flaws in things and smile, knowing that I've done that, too, or that I know how I could have prevented that. 

That said, here are some things that I'm actually not embarassed to show as my own...with a few descriptions and 'fun facts' about each.

This is a ceramic bowl, made and glazed with my sister in mind.  It has two different glazes on it - a first-coat of "Heaven's Gate" with a top ring of "Royal Blue".  My sister loves purple, and I was trying to get her something in that color scheme.  The blue turned out brilliantly, but where it was thicker turned to what I like to call "pepto-purple" around the top.  It turns out some folks are fans of pepto.  Sister likes it, and I'm learning to more and more as I go back and revisit it.

A platter!  I started out with pottery focusing on small things.  Largely that was because everything you make as a beginner is with 1-1.5 pounds of clay, and after you fire it twice it's shrunk to almost unrecognizable proportions.  This semester, my instructor handed me a slice of a notepad's cardboard...11x3".  She told me to see try to make something 11" wide and 3" high out of 5-6 pounds of clay.  This platter was my first successful result.  It's a flat-based platter with a "Celadon" glaze (I do love earthy colors) and splatters of darker colors to add a little 'oomph'.  My father made a killer meatloaf in it, I hear.

This one isn't finished yet.  This is a picture of my first casserole in 'greenware' form.  It's been thrown, trimmed and handles have been slipped, scored and attached.  The clay has dried out, but it hasn't been fired.  A good impact or the scrape of a fingernail and it could be totally destroyed.  I would like to glaze it a la "Le Creuset", the wonderful French pottery.  I was thinking an obnoxious blue-green color on the outside and bright, glossy white on the inside.  Thoughts?  Post a comment and let me know what you think.