Sunday, November 04, 2007

touching clay, lightly

I am loading the kiln today. I have to refire a pot that I had not signed but sold last week! I promised to put my name on the piece and refire it (with fingers crossed). But you can't fire one piece--it takes a whole kiln load to make a firing. I had several pieces that did not come out of the last firing in satisfactory condition. They were very rough inside and out around the rim for about an inch or inch and a half--glaze too thin. I read on Clayart that a help to refiring is to coat the piece with Elmer's Glue and then apply the glaze--my previous experience was that the fired piece would not hold the glaze. So Friday I coated pieces with Elmer's Glue, left them to dry over night and yesterday applied the glaze by many dips into glaze--which has adhered to the glued surface. Very curious to see how these pieces come out.

Another little touch of clay: Visiting an acquaintance's home Friday night I spied a beautiful carved wooden block. I was itching to have a stamp from it so asked the hostess what it was. It is a family treasure. Once belonging to the grandmother in Greece, it is a stamp used for making the host for the communion service. I asked if I could make a pencil rubbing of the surface--thinking I might try carving the design into wood myself to make a stamp. However, the rubbing did not come out well so the hostess insisted I take the piece home and make my rubbing then return it to her. How incredibly generous! So I made an impression from the wood block into a thick slab of clay. I will let it dry slowly--all wrapped up--then bisque it to use as a stamp. The impression in clay looks great. I will return the wood block tomorrow. The wooden circle is about 4 1/2" across.



2 comments:

Amie said...

Hi, I'm Marian Morris, a member of the Sculptor's Workshop in Edmonds, WA. I found your blog on google, and have sent it to fellow potter's in my co-op as an example of a pottery blog. We are thinking about creating a blog for our studio.

I winter in AZ, so am not too far from you both geograhically and in age.

I enjoyed your blog. You are welcome to take a peek at mine- isitreallyzen.blogspot.com. I am basking in the glow of a Lana Wilson workshop. Best wishes.

Sister Creek Potter said...

Marian, Thank you for the nice note. I know you must have enjoyed the Lana Wilson workshop. I got to see her in a 3-way demonstration at NCECA a while back. She has a wonderful attitude--inspiring to be around. I shall go now to visit your blog. I'm glad you found mine and made contact with me. Gay