Getting Back Into the Swing of Things
What better way to spend fall break than in the ceramic studio!
Below are some finished teapots from over the past couple of months.
The public schools are on fall break, giving me a whole two weeks in the studio. I’m finally getting around to messing around with the flameware body that I found earlier in the semester. The two teapots to the left are made from a Robbie Lobell recipe.
First impressions are the clay is very short and weirdly grainy. I’ve been noticing this recently in some other new material orders that we have gotten. The new alumina hydrate appears to be more granular and gave a weird grit to the wadding used in the last soda firing. The best way I can describe it was like handling wet beach sand—at times it feels consistent but when pressure is applied it feels gritty.
Anyways, working with this clay was tough. Throwing with it was annoying because it did not want to pull evenly and it wasn’t plastic enough to get very complex with the shape without the clay collapsing . Afterwards, it took a significant amount of time to dry to a nice consistency to trim and attach the spout and handle. Handbuidling presented its own problems with the clay wanting to tear away from itself instead of smoothing over nicely.
Ultimately, I was able to these two pots through. I really like the left form better than the right. I don’t think the body of the right lends itself to a overhand handle, but it is needed for heating purposes later. The final critique of this side quest will be post soda firing to see if the soda glaze compromises the thermal expansion capabilities.
