Plate Up

Last on my "orders" list is a set of 12 porcelain plates,which means I need to make at least 16 to allow for trimming and firing mishaps,which means that the already-jammed studio is going to have plates on every available horizontal surface; once thrown,they're best left for a couple of days [covered] before trying to take them off their bats,which is why I'm throwing them on Friday [so they can rest over Shabbat].
In fact there isn't enough room for them in the studio,so yesterday I cleared out some space in the adjoining store-room,reminding myself that making some empty space is invariably a first step in making something new; you see this graphically when working on the wheel- the centred lump of clay is pretty useless [door-stop,paper-weight] until you make a hollow empty space in the middle of it; as the Tao Te Ching puts it,
"Profit comes from what is there
Usefulness from what is not there."
If you care to click on the title,you can watch me making plate #11; I'll try to film some plate-trimming next week,if you like. I haven't forgotten about that strange spout piece,nor the recipe for Slippo. Stay tuned...Shabbat Shalom...