Saturday, March 29, 2008

A bird vase...

Wednesday night I went to pottery on a mission. I was in a crabby mood from the weeks busyness, so I was on a quest for something BIG! It all started with a 6 pound lump of white stoneware clay and the wheel. I immediately knew what I wanted to create but was going through the process in my head. I threw the bottom of the vase within the first 1/2 hour of class. It may seem like a long time but from the throwing stage to the fine detail of smoothing it all out, it does take a while.

After that I then threw the top part with about 4 pounds of clay. I let them sit overnight to firm up a little and when I went back into the studio on Thursday morning, I uncovered them to firm up even more. I loaded the back part of the studios gas kiln with Terri and then began to attach the two pieces (total of 14-1/2"). When the two pieces were finally attached and smoothed...it just needed something more...

This morning I started drawing in pencil on it and then proceeded the carving process. After about an hour of carving, my arm was ready to fall off so I took a rest. My intentions are to carve the whole top part and sort of taper the carving off towards the bottom. I think maybe a transparent grass green will be nice for the glaze color.

1 comment:

jenk said...

Very nice. Please post a picture of the finished piece when its finished.