Three bowls, a cylidner, and some progress with glazing

Another four pots are finished. And although it's still far from perfect, or at least from how I meant it to turn out, there's definitely some progress in the glazing department. This time I used green for the insides, but kept it neutral on the outside. I prefer the green, it looks fresher, and it fits perfectly into my living room, which has a lot of green in it.

I used a dip in-glaze for the insides of the cylinder and one of the bowls. They come in big plastic tubs and you use a pair of tongs to dip the pots into the glaze for glazing them on the outside, or you ladle some glaze into the pot, swirl it around so it covers it all the way up to the rim, and empty it back into the pot. It gives a nice even layer, and I like the fact that it has some tiny cracks that give it texture.

For the other two bowls, I used a paint on glaze again, 'vintage green'. I think I didn't paint the layers on thick enough, even though there were three layers. The glazes are just so different to the colours I'm used to, and I have to learn to use them differently.

The outsides are looking a bit better too, compared to last time. Still a bit patchy, but altogether a lot more even, and I seem to have managed to cover everything. I used paint on glazes for all of them, two different ones, both light with a bit of a mottled effect. Most of my course colleagues seem to prefer bold, smooth colours, almost black on the outside, and bright yellows, oranges, reds and greens on the inside. But I prefer the more muted, uneven colours with different effects. I think it somehow suites the natural material they're made of better. But that's of course just my personal taste.

I'm especially pleased with my cylinder (which my teacher helped me made, of course, otherwise it would have ended up just another 'eggbowl'). While I don't really know yet what to use all the others for, this one I made with special intention - to keep my brushes in.

Eggbowls and the magic of ceramic glazes

Last Tuesday was the last day of my pottery class, but I've already signed up for the next class, which is seamlessly starting next week. There's still so much to learn, one class certainly isn't enough, far from it. Also, it's not something you can easily do at home. Although I could definitely do with the extra practice.

The three weeks ago, I produced a couple of "egg bowls". No, they're not bowls for eggs, I call them so because they're not nice and round, but all wobbly - which in German is 'eiern', from 'Ei', i.e. egg. You can see in the first picture the lump of wet clay that my teacher cut off, to save what could be save. It still looks a bit sad.

My teacher reckoned it was because it wasn't properly centred in the first place. It was, though, centering is the one thing I manage not too bad. But there's so much else that can go wrong afterwards, when opening up or pulling. Pulling is something I still totally struggle with. I was trying to pull up a bowl, totally focused on what I was doing, when I noticed my teacher shouting and pointing. I hadn't noticed, but the wall had totally collapsed at the bottom. I had pushed and pulled too hard. There was no hope for that piece, it had to be cut off. 

Last week, I took a little break from the wheel, and spend most of the evening glazing four pieces that had been fired the week before. (My teacher had helped me throw the big cylinder, which is why it looks good. The ones I did myself are all wobbly, chunky, uneven flat bowls). Apart from the brush on glazes, I tried dip glazes too this time. The glazes still amaze and confuse me. They're texture is so different to the paints I'm used to. And not to speak of the colours. How that light mauve will turn into a shiny light green in the kiln is quite beyond me. It must be magic!

I didn't do a very good job last time I glazed my first pieces, so I'm hoping I did better with these. They should have been fired already. Can't wait 'til Tuesday to see how they turned out!

Almost finished! - Trimmed, fired, glazed, and ready for the last firing

Last week, I learnt how to trim my bowls in order to prepare them for their first firing in the kiln. To trim a bowl, you fix it on to the wheel, cut the excess clay off and establish a foot on which the bowl will stand. It's a bit of a scary process, so much that can go wrong. But it all went alright. Mostly because my teacher did most of the trimming, and I just scraped off the bits in the middle, which took me ages. And apparently, I didn't do a very good job at it. But I was just too afraid to cut too deep and make a hole.

This week's pottery class was really exciting! After last week's trimming, my first four bowls had gone into the kiln for the first firing, and were ready for glazing. 

Glazing in pottery is completely different than painting. You can't mix colours, like you would with paints, but have to use ready mixed glazes instead. There are different glazes, and different methods of applying them, such as dipping the objects into them, or painting them on with a brush. I decided to use brush on glazes, as this involved at least something that was familiar.

The glazes dry almost immediately, and they look completely different than what they do after having been fired. This glaze here, for example, is called "Iceflower", and is a lovely white with a cool blueish marbled effect, which you can't see at all here. It's just white. Another glaze I used was a deep ocean blue/gree. The liquid glaze was just a very pastel mauve, nothing at all like the intense dark deep blue/green colour on the label. I still find this rather confusing. It gives you no clue at all as to what it will look like when finished. You have to rely completely on the samples, and hope that it will turn out like that. Also, the glazes are very dry, matt and powdery. Nothing like the smooth, shiny and hard finish they'll get in the kiln.

My bowls should have gone into the kiln for the second and last firing already, or if not, should do so tomorrow. In any case, they should be all done and ready to take home by Tuesday. I can't tell you how excited I am! I just hope they all made it savely through the firing, that none of them burst, or had the glazes running, or whatever else can go wrong in a kiln at a temperature of around 1200 degrees Celsius. And maybe one of them might even make it under the Christmas tree as a present.