In December, I took a pottery class at the Cape Coral Arts Studio. I just got one of my pieces finished a week ago! I enjoyed parts of pottery class, but I don’t think it is my calling. The first few classes were great, and I was able to throw nice bowls on the wheel, and I was quickly able to progress up to bigger and more complex pieces. However, at some point, I lost it and I don’t know why. I wrecked a few bowls on the wheel, and I had a bugger of a time centering my clay suddenly. I guess I just didn’t have the strength to center the bigger chunks of clay. I began working with slab clay and constructing pieces manually when I got frustrated.
Then I discovered that I don’t like glazing either, which is a complete art in itself. I have a very scientific/mathematical mind where things need to be black and white/yes or no/on or off. I need certainty. Glazing is anything but. You never know what you are going to get out of the kiln. This really bothered me. Some pieces came out of the kiln nicely, but others I wasn’t so happy with.
So here are the fruits of my frustrated labour!
This is a firebowl I made for sitting out on the cooler nights on our dock. It is a slab clay piece that was formed in a mold. It took forever to dry, and bisque fire. The glaze is a spearmint green, then I dripped lots of colonial white along the rim. The wave detail I put on the rim was very fragile, so the excess glaze on the edge gave it lots of extra strength.
See, you would think that a white glaze would turn out white, but nope. It turned out a nice blue when it was mixed over the green. Naturally, right? Green and white make blue, of COURSE! Hence why my frustration with glaze. BUT this is one of my favorite pieces to come out of the kiln.
Here is the top detail. I extruded a lot of clay from a press to make the even snake of clay.
I got my inspiration for this Fire Bowl at a local store and found a Fire Gel product. I tis cleanburning so you can burn it inside your home too. There were lots of commercially made clay pots being sold and they had stainless steel cups inside for the fire gel. But I decided to come up with this homemade design instead. I found the steel cups at the dollar store. However I may need to find bigger cups since the gel only lasts for about 20 minutes in them. The wind doesn’t blow out the flames, and there is no smell to it. I have also placed this as my outdoor dinner table centrepiece. Since it is very portable, it can go from the dock to the dinner table, to the inside of the house easily, even after it has been lit.
And here is the final product!
As nice as it is to have something I made myself, I think next time I wouldn’t have been so cheap and purchased one of the $40 bowls that were sold next to the Fire Gel!!!!!!
