Red Kiln potters thought it would be fun to have a "MATCH YOUR WINE GOBLETS TO A WINE LABEL" party. It brought out the creative side of lots of people. There is always lots of food, lots of beer, and in this case, lots of wine! Just for fun I thought I would show you a few of the results.
First is mine. My wine was Menage a Trois. To pair I threw three goblets.
The RK mug exchange this April will have a theme: APRIL SHOWERS
I had the idea about doing a mug that was tall and thin.
Rethinking, with the theme, I decided not to go too tall. I had a flash that is not my typical style. I could see narrow mugs with raindrops on them. I scored vertical lines on the cylinders to look like rain. Then I added the "drops" by rolling tiny balls of soft clay in my fingers. Starting at the bottom of the mug, scoring and wetting little scratches in the clay where I wanted the drops to be, I pressed them onto the clay and wiped the tail upward to form the drop.
Then I thought an umbrella might be kind of appropriate so I decided to make umbrella lids for the mugs. I threw little lids. Then I added small coils on the trimmed tops to represent the umbrella ribs and put a knob on top.
They were bisque fired and ready to glaze. We have a glaze called Shiny Blue Brown. It is a deep blue but will break into a brown line on a raised area. My thought was to have a dark blue umbrella with brown ribs.........we'll see!
I put three different colorants on the raindrops. At random, I painted some with a medium shiny blue called Leach's Blue. Others I painted with two different blue slips. The first is called Hamada Slip: 1 part Cobalt Oxide, 1 part Yellow Ochre. Second is Stewart's Light Blue to Magic Line Coloring Agent: 1 part Cobalt Oxide, 4 parts Rutile.
Then I glazed the whole mug in a light blue, hoping the blues on the raindrops would show through in different shades of blue.
I will fire the lids and mugs separately because I want the mug rims completely glazed. If the lids were fired on the mugs the rims would have to remain glaze free so the lids with unglazed undersides would not melt together permanently.
They will be fired in two days. Stay tuned to see the finished product. Opening a fired kiln is like Christmas! Nearly everything that comes out is a surprise. Glazes have a life of their own and a lot of the time you are expecting something a little different than the finished product. Luckily, it's almost always a treat!
Well, they turned out pretty fun. Little RAINY DAY MUGS with lids. They should keep your hot tea warm on a rainy spring day!
I’m having fun working at Red Kiln Pottery co-op. It’s a co-op with a gallery and studio for classes open work hours. There is something totally different about working with other artists rather than at home in my studio. I am always pushed to advance my skills and learn new techniques. RK has regular parties with themes that challenge one to go the extra mile in making a piece to compare with other potters.
The next challenge at Red Kiln is a mug exchange. I’ll be working on a couple of ideas. I’m thinking tall and thin – maybe part hand built combined with part wheel thrown. I’ll keep you posted.
I’ll be sharing a lot of that process with you as I work on my mugs. The next party is in April. This could be a blind exchange (mugs in a paper bag), or choosing by number. We’ll see.
The ones I did last year were two cylinders, one wide at the top the other wide at the bottom, with squared handles made from the extruder. The dots are porcelain dots added to the leather hard body.
