More Finished Items from the Garden Pottery Course

I was happy to be able to pick up 3 more finished items today:

I was super pleased with this one, I think it may be my favourite "twisty pot" so far:

7) This twisty pot was started back in February during my Pots and Tools course.  It was formed from 2700 yellow clay, and decorated in turquoise and black slips.  The inside is glazed in Amber Celadon, and it is sprayed Clear on the outside.  I was worried at the time that some of those beautiful jagged edges would be sharp, but I read somewhere to smooth them with a damp sponge, I can't remember now whether this was at the greenware stage or bisqued stage, but it seemed to work.  None of the edges are cutting sharp, they just have a very distinct texture.  Here's some more angles on this beauty:

8) I don't think I can ever make too many of these leaf imprint vases, especially with the vine maple leaves.  I like the spherical shape of this one, and the wide hollow rim.  It was formed from 2300g of grey clay.  The leaf imprints are highlighted with iron oxide (although a bit more pale that I would like), and it is glazed inside and on the rim and foot with Khaki.  The remainder is unglazed, so it retains the texture of the leaves.  It has the spirally foot which I like to experiment with, and it has a "blooper" in that my signature stamp was applied upside down.  Here is a photo of the vase in progress.

9) This is the tall lantern piece which was formed from an extruded piece of recycled clay.  It is sprayed Sombright Green, which is not a food safe glaze, but is fine for pottery which will end up outdoors, as I have planned for this one.  It ends up green where the glaze is thick, and brown where it is thin.  As you can see in the earlier photo, I successfully managed to spray the roof so 2 sides are green, and 2 sides are brown.  I tried also to spray lightly on the birds too, so their backs are brown.  This will be a fun piece for the garden, I think.

I was worried that I may not make enough items for my 1' x 1' x 2' allocation in the soda firing in late July, so I've been saving up pieces which I think may get interesting results when soda fired.  I think I'm pretty close to having enough, so there isn't too much pressure to make more in early July when Shadbolt re-opens:

I will likely try to make some more smaller pieces, which can either augment or replace some of these pieces.  Whatever I don't use for the soda firing, I'll put through the regular gas firing, so no pressure either way.

As for items remaining to pick up, I have 2 totem pieces and the big floral lantern which haven't been fired yet, but hopefully will be ready this weekend.  And the other twisty pot selected for another student display.