Enormous Gunnera Leaf Pottery Bowls

The funny thing is that the 2 gunnera leaves I brought to the studio to create bowls from, are actually among the smallest leaves on my gunnera plant.  The biggest ones, they wouldn't fit in the kiln, nor would I have the strength to lift them, unless I made them in sections.

Anyhow, here is the first gunnera bowl, which survived the bisque firing with only a small crack.  So I have my fingers crossed (when they're not in clay) that it will survive the final firing intact.

I prepared a slab using the slab roller, and pressed the leaf (with some of the prominent veins shaved down to a manageable thickness) into it, using a pastry roller.  I then slumped it onto the outside of a big mold which I know has been used for bird baths, and has fit into the kilns.  I wanted to make a sort of foot for it (although not a precisely level one, as it will probably just go into the garden, not stay indoors), which I did with coils.  Then I reinforced it in various spots, using leftover strips from the slab :

So far so good.  And it did just fit into the kiln :

After that first leaf, which was almost too much for me to handle, I decided to make a smaller leaf.  This one I am hoping will end up in the living room or kitchen.  So I made it a nice even foot (extruded, since I am not particularly adept at rolling coils), and placed it on with a level.  I am really excited to see this one.  I think it will be particularly beautiful.

Here they both are, waiting for me to continue working with them in September.  I didn't want to rush the first one, which I plan to finish with stains, perhaps not even glaze at all.

In between working on the huge gunnera leaves, I also made a few small leaf plates from hydrangea leaves and Davidii Involucrata (my beloved David or Dove Tree) leaves.  I amuse myself by using a small snake as a foot.  I think it is a lovely surprise when someone turns the plate over (although perhaps not everyone thinks a snake is a thing of beauty as I do) :

Stay tuned.  I hope to be able to pick up some of these pieces prior to September, and will be sure to post photos.

Finished Items from July Pottery : First Two Seashell Footed Plates and Sea Blue Mug

I was happy to be able to pick up my first few items from the July pottery workshops before glazing the remainder.  In particular, I was able to see my first two seashell / beach themed footed plates, which helped with glaze selection for the final two.

I'm very pleased by how these pieces turned out. (Some days the glazes actually work for you instead of against you!) :

This is a shot of some of my pedestal plates in progress :

And here they are, one by one :

1) This was my first footed plate, thrown from 1200 g of Columbia Buff w/ Grog clay, which is a wonderful and versatile gritty clay from Seattle Pottery Supply.  Sadly, our studio has run out of it, so I need to wait until September to use it again.  Good thing the studio is closed for all of August, so it won't feel as long of a wait for the clay.

It is sitting on a sturdy little closed pedestal, and I used a silicone mold for fondant making, to make the pretty seashells.  It is glazed in Bamboo, with a bit of Daly Blue poured in the middle, to look like water on the beach.

2) This pedestal bowl/plate was thrown from 1300g of the Columbia Buff w/ Grog clay.  It also features seashells, but this one is more of a beach scene, with the waves washing across the seashells.  I glazed the seashells in White, the starfish (which is my creation, not from a mold) in Flambe, and then waxed the top of the starfish and some of the larger seashells, before dipping it twice (or maybe even 3 times) in Daly Blue, each time receding to the one side, to simulate the wave washing the beach.  I really like this effect, and think I will be doing more of these in the future.

I have two more similar pedestal plates which are probably being fired by now, or very soon.  I can't wait to see those also.

I didn't take enough photos of the blue mug yet, so I will post notes about it once I have some accompanying photos.  Same with the big stump I was creating for my sister, or potentially for my garden, if it doesn't suit the purpose I had in mind for her.  Stay tuned.

Focused Workshop Sessions

I am so happy to be back in the studio for July, as June and August the studio is closed.  Since I'm not in a class, I have only 4 hour workshops on Wednesday and Sunday.  So I have been very focused during those times, making as much as I can, as my head it exploding with ideas of things I want to try.

I have been trying to make items suitable for the horsehair raku workshop in September, but I keep getting distracted by other ideas.  Sunday I threw, trimmed and added pedestals to 3 plates, along with throwing a nice little vase, and an egg, both of which would be suitable for the horsehair raku firing.

Today I decorated all 3 footed plates, with a seashell design, trimmed the little vase, and then made another bowl with 3 feet by draping a textured slab over one of my hump molds.

Here are the 3 pedestal plates before decorating :

...and after decorating :

One by one :

...and that slumped bowl, which I haven't turned over yet :

Midnight Raku Fired Pieces

Recently I had the absolute pleasure of participating in a Midnight Raku class.  It started on the Friday night with wood fired pizza, then glazing, and we started firing 8:30pm (a bit earlier than the 9pm that was planned) and went until 1am.  By the end of it, some of us were fading a bit, but we all went home happy, smelling like campfire, and treasuring our precious raku fired pieces.

I had signed up for the midnight raku session at the end of June back in January, but only realized in my last two classes at the end of May, that the studio was pretty much closed for the whole month of June.  So I quickly had to make some pieces, as I refused to drop out of such a fun event.

So these are the four pieces I pulled together, just after glazing them :

And here they are, at midnight, just after firing them :

And in the sunlight, where the true colors are best seen:

Not bad for quickly created pieces.  As the raku pieces are non-vitrified, and not supposed to be food safe, so effectively non-functional, I like to pierce my pieces, so they can only be used to hold dry items, or candles, or the like.

Here's a few process shots :

The raku kiln, with the pieces red hot at 1860 F, just before being carried out by tongs, and placed into a bed of newspaper and sawdust, and covered with a metal can.

The "burping" process, where the cans are tipped up, and the combustibles allowed to ignite again, or helped along with a small blow torch.  This apparently causes the oxygen to be consumed, providing a good reduction.  The pieces are allowed to smolder in the cans for 10 minutes (we have one person designated as a timer), and then they are again carried by tongs, to an area where they are doused with cold water.

It was quite dramatic working in the dark, by the light of a spotlight, with the steam billowing up around the pieces.  We couldn't help ourselves but to hover around, waiting until the pieces were cool enough to touch, so we could admire the results.

Then we scrubbed them up a bit, and set them out on a table, where we could admire them, and compare notes, while we waited for the next batch to come up to 1860 F, and then repeated the whole process again.  All night, 6 to 8 pieces in the kiln at a time.  What a wonderful way to spend a night!

One of our classmates, Wilf, was making beautiful native style masks, such as this one, which he modelled for a photo :

… and this one, which broke into various pieces during the process, but when glued back together, will be outstanding :

I am already looking forward to my next raku courses.  I have a horsehair session in late September, following by raku workshops in October and November.

More Results from the Pit Firing

Since the pit firing, I've done another raku firing, and also picked up some more pieces from last term today.  So I thought I'd better post a few more pit fired pieces.

3) This little pinch pot turned out better than I could have imagined.  When we started the class, Linda handed us a chunk of Plainsman H490 clay (affectionately known as "baby poo"), and we sat around a table making pinch pots.  My first attempt was a big floppy thing which didn't even stand up to its own weight, but when I looked around and saw others making something which actually stood up, I got mad, squished it up into a ball of clay, and started again.  I'm glad I did.

All our pieces were burnished so they have a smooth and even glossy finish.  This one was burnished with a piece of plastic bag while leather hard, and also with a spoon once bone dry (adding a bit of oil to help with the burnishing process).

The imprints are from ferns, wrapped around the pot.  I'm not super certain, but after wrapping ferns leaves around this pot (I may have used a bit of jute ribbon to hold it in place), I believe I placed it into a paper bag, and filled it with sawdust around.  Once fired, it was waxed and polished.  Quite a remarkable result, one I am very pleased with.

4) This is a very sweet bottle.  Since the items are "non-functional", I tried to make a narrow neck, so there would be less temptation to fill it with water and flowers.  It was also formed from H490 clay, this time approx 800g thrown on the wheel.  It was also burnished, and then saggar fired, quite likely in a paper bag again, surrounded by sawdust, but also wrapped in fresh ferns.  I love how the pattern of the fern fronds comes through so clearly but naturally.  The neck I believe was finished with black terra sigillata.  Again, waxed and polished once fired.  I'm very pleased with the result.

5) This egg is quite interesting.  It was thrown from 800 - 1000g of WSO clay, and then when bone dry, coated in yellow terra sig (my notes indicate I may have then added white terra sig on top), and burnished with plastic or a microfibre cloth (I experimented with both).  It was saggar fired in aluminum foil, to which I added various organic materials.  One which shows through as a sort of scaly pattern (especially on the bottom) is the steel mesh from a steel kitchen scrubbie.  Or was it copper?  We were very busy that day, I took a few photos, but no time for notes on what I used.  Although we are sure that the little grey caked-on spots were created by fertilizer pellets.  Some of the terra sig also seemed to flake off, adding further variation and interest.

6) As these are non-functional pieces, I made a lot of egg shapes, as they are beautiful for display, but there is no temptation to use them for kitchen or floral purposes.  I believe this one was coated in white terra sig and burnished.  This sweet little thing shows a really nice variation of color from whites and yellows almost to black.  It also has a distinct pattern on it, I seem to remember it was a cedar branch instead of a fern frond.  And held against the pot with glue while I stuffed it with other combustibles.  Sweet result.

7) This is a fun little egg.  It was thrown from 750g of H490 brown clay, and then Linda indicated that the red terra sig would provide a very similar color to the H490, so I decided to test that out, and applied bands of the red terra sig.  I believe it was then saggar fired in a paper bag.  It shows a nice discoloration on one side, as if it was burnt by the pit fire, which it effectively was. 

8) For this egg, I decided to round out the bottom, so it is more like a true egg.  It can sit upright or lay on its side equally well.  It was thrown from WSO clay, and finished in green and blue terra sig before being saggar fired in the pit.  It bears a distinct pattern from fern fronds which were wrapped around it.  And a dark blotch on one side.  Quite an interesting egg, with lots going on.

9) For this and the next egg, I can hardly tell which photos belong to which one.  They both have beautiful charcoal/black finishes, with some blues and other variations.  This one may have been the WSO clay egg which I finished in blue terra sig.  It has some scales or lines on it (top right) which were formed from strands of a pulled-apart copper or steel scrubby.  It also has marks which are indicative of the fertilizer.  Other than that, I can't remember which other combustibles I wrapped it in before the aluminum saggar.  Anyhow, I'm pretty pleased with the overall impact.

10) This one is more likely the white terra sig, which polished up more glossy than the other colors of terra sig.  It was saggar fired in aluminum foil, with various combustibles, and has some nice variations in color, against a very dark, mostly black, background.

11) Linda had a neat idea, to thrown a pot and use sodium silicate to push it out and create a crackle effect, and then pit fire it.  So I seem to remember (I'm too lazy to hunt for my in progress photos) that this one was brushed in blue terra sig before adding the sodium silicate and pushing it out.  But then when it was bone dry, I applied white terra sig and polished up the top and bottom, to contrast nicely with the rough, crackly surface.  I seem to remember this one was saggar fired in a paper bag, as I didn't want to add more patterns to an already busy surface.  It looks like something which has been dug up after a very long time buried in the ground, or pulled out of the rubble of a fire.

That's it for the pit firing.  A very enjoyable process of making the pots, and an exciting process of preparing them for the pit, and some very fine results.  A very successful course, and I would be happy to take another course like this again.