I believe I've achieved a +1 in pottery skills in the last couple of months. I've just completed a 5 week (three hours a week) course at ClayMake Studio and my skill at making things has come along significantly. Prior to this course, I made a bowl at Pennsic in 2017, a cup and a bowl in 2019 and 5 "bowls" in a oneshot single lesson session in October which I glazed in early November.
Enthused, and city based for the time being, I signed up for a 5 week throwing course with the aim of being able to throw a satisfactory cup in a deliberate manner. i.e. I want to be able to throw a set of similar looking cups whenever I want. As a side mission, I'd like to understand clay and the strength of the form well enough to be able to throw a properly balance quatrefoil cup.
As this class went for 5 week, 4 throwing, 1 glazing. I spent 1 class throwing items in PB103 which is white clay and then shifted to a buff clay for the next session as it was closer in colour to the earthenware I was trying to replicate. I spent the third and forth sessions trimming pots and learning to make handles and for the fifth session I glazed some of my creations.
I had a lot of pots to glaze! Due to my interest in underglazing, I decided to do some experiments with underglaze rather than just dip all my items like I did for the oneshot class. Below is my experimental colour test tile which was fired with the first 6 items. The first six were experiments to see if the underglaze held up and if my cups would make it through stoneware firing. I only underglazed three of these and accepted they might not come out of the kiln well. I figured I had a pretty good shot with the black oxide and the other colours may or may not work. They were ready for collection on the 27th!
All my items are at various stages of glazed so I'll post about them and update this entry as they develop.
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