Week 6 - Clay is my Valentine

An intro haiku:

This week I drilled holes,

Bisqued my big ol’ silly stool,

And sculpted a bit.

For whatever reason, I thought that drilling into bisqueware was going to be a big scary ordeal, but the diamond core drill bits I bought worked surprisingly well and cut through the material quickly and smoothly. I drilled two identical holes in the bottoms of both halves of my sculpture, so that I can mount them together with a rod running through their centers. I also drilled a hole in the top of the larger half for the stabilizing rod that it will hopefully eventually sit on. I need to start figuring out and building that base soon.

Here’s a rough start to another cup. I plan to add a handle. I think I’ll move onto bowls after this one’s finished for a bit, then return to tackling mugs. Still struggling on how to simplify and streamline these.

I put some hours into my propriocepta sculptures as well (not pictured). I’m hoping to have them ready for the bisque by the end of the month.

The big success of the week was a crack and explosion-free bisque firing in Big Bailey. I feel very comfortable firing her now! This big, heavy, precarious sculpture (which I still can’t believe has made it this far) is close to fulfilling its destiny as a silly stool/chair/butt perch. Sarah says it looks like a toilet and she’s so right, and I love that about it.

This studio week concluded with me loading my two-parter into the soda, along with Sarah’s cake stand and a sculptural little tea pot from GH. I bricked up the wall and lit the pilots a few hours ago and will be turning on the burners soon for an overnight candle. I plan to fire it up to cone 5 tomorrow for a mid-range, light soda; I did a very diluted iron oxide wash over my forms but am otherwise firing them raw and will only be spraying once (~1/3 the usual amount of soda). This is my first time firing it alone, so I feel good about it being a super loose load of mainly my work.

artists on my mind

Uriel Caspi, Sarah Knight