Realizing
the heat dome was making its way into our neck of the woods, I decided to try
to get a handful of pots made before it got a bit to warm. The first smal group
of pots were a group of medium size serving plates and bowls in terra cotta
which dries unevenly in the heat and humidity so I switched over to making a
three pieces in stoneware, two high footed covered jars, lids, knobs and a
single teabowl with the clay left over from throwing the bits and pieces off
the hump. The next morning I set about first tooling and decorating the six
terra cotta pots followed by tooling, assembling, slipping and raking the three
stoneware pots.
As you can tell the
two covered jars aren't that big, perhaps 10" tall at the moment, thrown
out of a bit less than three pounds of clay. I decided to go with the large
generous knobs to accentuate the jar forms and make for an easy to use lid. I
first learned to make various styles of hollow knobs way back at Kent State
where Kirk Mangus was demonstrating a variety of lids and knobs that he used in
his work and that was a very long time ago. Two of the hollow knobs were made
by throwing them off the hump and later attaching them to the lid and the other
he left extra clay in the lid and then later used that clay to throw up the
knob and close it at the top. At any rate, no throwing today but at least I got
the terra cotta and stoneware pots finished as the temperature hovers in at 91
degrees and may get even hotter.
The
current weather sort of reminds me of the famous Harry Truman quote; "If
you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen" but in this case, maybe
it's the studio.
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