Yet More Platters from Styrofoam Hump Moulds

I attended the open workshop today, and with Thanksgiving closure this weekend, and my trip to Shanghai after that, it may have been my last session before November.  So I decided to try to finish up and only start items I could finish in the single session.

So first I finished off the hexagonal platter from last time, adding an extruded rim to it :

I was very pleased with the result.  It is fairly difficult to lay down the rim in one long piece, so I ended up cutting the 6 segments and mitering the corners, but then I smoothed them out, so they look somewhere in between a continuous edge, and squared off corners.  I'm really happy with it.  So this completed my set of 4 platters from the 4 Styrofoam hump moulds that I made a few weeks ago.

I took a long and hard look at the triangular one from last time, and experimented with various decorative touches which I could add to the corners, but decided I liked it as is (as did others in the studio, who also seemed to think it was quite fine the way it was).

So that just left me enough time to make another platter, and use up all the extruded pieces I had left over (I barely made it, but I had enough for the feet).  This one, I wanted to do something different, so I pressed a set of oakleaf hydrangea leaves into the slab.  Then I wondered if they would look too bare, so I textured around them with the back of my sharpie :

I had to make a big enough pattern, to fully drape the styrofoam mould.  So that ended up being a lot of poking with my Sharpie, but I liked the effect, and I think it will hold stain or glaze really well.

I made a very beautiful hexagonal foot on it, but I forgot to take a photo before I flipped it over, so I'll need to go straight to the finished piece.  I decided this one will not have a rim (since I didn't have time to extrude more clay, and didn't want to mess around with rolling coils).  I think I like more of a rim, but then again, it is good to experiment with different variations.  So this is one of them.

Before peeling back the leaves :

And after :

I'm pretty pleased all around with these new moulds.  They were messy and time consuming to make, but they help create some really beautiful platters in a relatively short period of time.  I love all the possibilities for texturing them.  I would like to try one where I texture a slab (which will form the inside), drape it over the mould, and then texture the outside also.  That will be really fun.

I will also try a few different types of glazing.  For some I could use an oxide to highlight the texture, and then glaze in something light and translucent, like a Clear or Celadon glaze.  For others, I could experiment with using glazes (which I wipe off to reveal the texture, and then seal with a Clear or Celadon glaze.  For yet others, I would like to use a glaze like the Amber Celadon which naturally shows quite a bit of the texture.  I don't think I'll stain and leave any unglazed, though, since I think these are all pretty practical shapes, and I can imagine them holding food.  Fruit bowls, serving bowls...