Last Studio Day of the Year

I arrived at the studio today planning to trim the two remaining pieces from last week, and glaze the three which have been bisque fired.  But when I arrived, the damp room was still locked, and none of my pieces had been unloaded from the bisque firings.  So the only thing left was to throw more, working through my leftover clay.

If you ignore the big bowl at the back, these are the 3 pieces I threw today, and then managed to dry enough (with the help of a hair dryer) to flip and trim, all in the same session.

You'll see that the one at the front is a closed shape.  It is meant to be an egg, which means that something may hatch from it some day.

The two at the back were intended to be eggs also, but both times I misjudged and ran out of clay before I could close them up.  So they will be vases, I guess.  When I was trimming the larger one, I noticed that the trimming tool started chattering.  Cool.  I've never done chattering before, although it is on my to-do list.  So I chattered as much of the sides as I could, and hope that the subtle texture will show through after I glaze it.  Or maybe I'll need to enhance the texture with an iron oxide first?  Any thoughts on that?

I was really pleased when I trimmed my vessel from last week which was thrown from a mix of greyish sculptural clay and white porcelain.  I intentionally didn't work the clays thoroughly, so I ended up with a very nice marbling :

I flipped it over, and trimmed all the way to the hollow rim, to reveal more marbling :

I'm still playing with multi-ring feet, such as this one today on my big open bowl :

The big gas kiln was unloaded today, so that I was able to pick up a number of my pieces.  I will post better photos when I have time, and better lighting (it is so dark lately!).  You can see here my African men, the big dragon mask, and the 3 dragon hatchlings :

Here, 4 of my 5 platters (the other will be fired in the next gas firing).  Sadly, one of them cracked.  That deep 3" hexagonal mould with its sharp angles will be a challenge, but I'm sure I can make it work :

 Here, a better view of the dragon hatchlings.  I'm very pleased with the results :

Stay tuned for more photos soon.