Robin Welch told me that he was taught to throw with one hand off the hump before he learned to throw with two: it took me a while before I got the hang of it, but it's worth practicing and learning. I use the technique to throw these shot glasses/cups, small dishes, lids and some bowls. These shots don't need trimming- stamp them, slip them and they're ready to bisc. I use 2 hands, as you can see from the short [and rather un-edited] Youtube video- click...here
Which it probably is,but if I haven't wasted enough of your precious time already,you can click on the title and be transported to Youtubeland,there to watch a system I use to avoid inside and outside glazes running into each other. Some people claim to like this effect: I suspect it's more often a result of a lack of an alternative technique [it took me a while to work it out].
Today felt like the eye of the storm,with Purim behind us [unless you're in Shushan] and raku [with Anna Carmi,Tel Hai,tomorrow],salt [with Sydney,Yesod,Wednesday] and anagama [loading with Reb Meir,Pardes Hanna,Thursday] ahead. Not much point getting clay out,so I turned the bundles of cane I cut last week into handles. I made a quick video,which I hope will prove instructive and maybe encourage you to make your own tea-pot handles. I managed to add a voice-over this time,as well as numerous entertaining transitions. I haven't actually run the movie through to see if it makes sense,but will post it anyway and check it later.Click on the title to see it on Youtube.
Later: I see that the video needs some more editing- I'll try to get to it in the next couple of days. Tues p.m. - second version is up and running.
As mentioned below; a great way to glaze tall thin pieces with not too much glaze.The bottom is pushed into a pad of soft clay slightly larger than the pipe's diameter. I found this discarded offcut recently - it really needs a bit of a trim [or bris as we call it around here] - even I don't throw this tall and thin,and it's difficult to see what's going on down there when you're glazing.
Just before Shabbat,and as promised,here is a short,but I hope instructional video of a chanukia getting glazed.Click the title if you have nothing better to do.
The clay is a rough red stoneware,which I shall probably glaze with the Nuka or Jun glazes,leaving the rim and outside exposed.Robin Welch taught me this technique at the beginning of my apprenticeship,before I could centre and throw in the usual "wet" way. A Youtube clip of Takeshi Yasuda's early pots reminded me of the technique and unglazed rim effect; I'd been wondering what to do with the red stoneware [used for the lanterns a while ago] and I felt like playing a bit before Shabbat. The first ones [on shelf at end of video] I threw wet,then decided to take it a step further and go for that nice wobbly semi-un-centred rim [click on title to watch].
Click on the title if you want to watch a short video of me carving the fluted decoration on one of those jugs. I realise that the soundtrack is fairly inaudible at times - believe me,you're not missing much.
I have an order for a dinner set [large and small plates,bowls and cups] but forgot that it's a set of 12,so made some extra plates to round off a month's work in stoneware and fill up the 3rd bisc before moving on this week to my beloved porcelain. The plates are made from 1900 gr clay; when dry enough to trim,they weigh around 1500 [obviously,some clay is lost in the throwing];after trimming,they weigh a kilo,and after glazing and firing - around 820 gr. I don't do it often,but it's quite instructive when trimming plates to have scales handy and weigh each one when you think it's done. By the way,I believe that the word 'plateweight" might be yet another neologism to have sprung from the blog,like "dethixotropize" a while ago. Start your own blog! Make up your own words!
Another of Sydney's revelations. Hakame is a Japanese brushed slip decoration which I [and maybe you] have tried to do by applying the white slip with a suitably twiggy brush - doesn't work,does it? But if you lay the slip on the piece first,and only then brush it....pretty obvious,no? Took us 30 years to figure it out... Having learned this,I took out some recently-arrived black [manganese] stoneware clay and quickly made these small dishes,doing the brushwork while they were flat slabs,then slumping them gingerly into a variety of square and round fired bowls by banging the slab and bowl on the table. Some of those little cut feet seemed appropriate. The last time someone [nameless] sold me black stoneware it melted all over several shelves,so I shall fire a few cautious test pieces.
Clicking something here should get you to the youtube video I uploaded just now. People seem to find these shapes difficult - I think that the steel kidneys help a lot. Please note use of 2 cameras [and a few superfluous transition effects I couldn't resist trying out]- does it help?
But first- one of the better teapots from a pretty successful salt firing. Now- it takes quite a lot to blow me away ceramically these days,but Sydney managed while we were unloading the salt kiln. He showed me a striking piece- a tenmoku [dark brown breaking to rust on edges] glaze that had been refired in a bisc firing,revealing beautiful and surprising shades of ochre yellows,oranges and browns- rather [in technique] like the struck silver nitrate crystal glazes I occasionally play with. I didn't have any tenmoku pots in my studio- I love the glaze,but,despite the fact that it shows of food well,people are notoriously reluctant to buy it [apart from other potters,especially those with electric kilns who can't do tenmoku] so I took this bowl of Netzer's [for those of you who know Netzer] and fired it in the next day's bisc.It's a hard glaze to photograph as well,but I hope you can see the rather dramatic transformation. Today's glaze kiln has a couple of hastily-glazed tenmoku bowls in it- more before-and-after shots,doubtless,to come. I'm impressed.
We just unloaded the bisc,with another batch of porcelain tiles: they were stacked like this in the kiln- layers four or five high- [last time I fired them standing up,and rather a lot cracked along their edges] and only one cracked [and that a small one],so I guess this is the way to do it. I have been known to forget the outcome of successful experiments [and senselessly repeat mistakes],so I took this picture to remind myself for next time.
I always used to make pads [on which to stick bats when throwing] from stoneware clay; when working with porcelain,bits of stoneware sludge would get on my fingers when changing bats and find its way onto the next thrown piece. Recently I've been making the pads from porcelain [recycled when it gets too dry] which solves the problem. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a Tip,but shall label it as such nonetheless.
No obvious damage,which was a relief,with pots for the anagama and all those rather precarious porcelain tiles. I found some fine cracks in some of the tiles while unloading,but I think that overall this system of stacking seems to work.
And here's Goldie's,perched proudly on her Jerusalem balcony,having performed its first bisc and glaze firings without mishap. Ex-apprentice [now wife and mother-she had an eventful year] Goldie paid a visit this morning [with obligingly patient baby Naomi] to report on her first firing to 1250- a few degrees hotter on the bottom,which I think is good on a first firing,since most kilns fire hotter on the top: the remedy for a hot bottom is usually a slightly lower first shelf and/or tighter packing of pots under it. The speckled clay looks good,and initial glaze tests show promise.
Not the only way to glaze a large bowl,but one of the quickest. If you're quick setting the bowl down after glazing and releasing the tongs,they won't leave a mark . You have to break a couple of bowls [by gripping them too tightly] until you find the right technique. On larger [and heavier] bowls,I tend to prefer two hands [instead of tongs],filling in the inevitable finger-marks once the glaze has dried. Why don't I wax the footring? - indolence,partly,but,as you can see,the damp sponge does the job.Filmed by Yahel I've just finished loading the newly-restored gas kiln with glazed ware ready for its maiden firing on Sunday. Ask me if I'm anxious,even after 30 years in the trade and around a thousand firings: you betcha!
There's supposed to be a short video here,but it isn't here yet.Bear with me. [Much later] Oh yes. I think I worked it out.But will it run? I have 30 handles to pull this morning [another 20 mugs are already handled and awaiting clean-up and decoration] and thought you might like to see how it's done [first year students at Tel Hai are just starting to learn handles...]. I know,I know,it's a bit suggestive,but get over it. The Leach-and-Cardew style is to hold the lump of clay overhead and pull with one hand,so,of course,I tried this for a few years without much success until I discovered the technique of sticking the lump to the table and using both hands.Much easier on the back and shoulders. I had good teachers in handle-making- apart from Leach and Cardew [from their books], Robin Welch pulled a mean handle,and I learned a lot from closely examining pots I bought from Mick Casson [whose jahrzeit was yesterday,by the way] David Frith,Gwyn Hanssen-Piggot,David Leach,Phil Rogers and others. I've been using stiffer clay for handles for years,but,having just read in Pioneer Pottery [with Sydney] that Cardew says otherwise,I am making this batch with a softer mix;I can't say there's much difference,they just take a bit longer to dry and don't give such a nice curve as stiffer clay [Cardew pulls handles off the pot itself- I attach them afterwards,only bending them when I've pulled the whole batch]. There's much to be said about handles,as any potter knows,but I've got another 20 to do,so this will have to suffice.
