A Bit of Work

I again didn't have much time in the studio this week. My daughter was sick for two full days. On the other hand, I did get a lot of reading done in the short bursts of time when she fell asleep on my lap. She's feeling better today, so I have a kiln firing right now with some underglazes work.  

Weekly total: 1 finished (building) piece

Today I finished one piece from the last batch of thrown pieces from early last week or so. This piece took longer than some because I covered almost the entire surface with overlapping sprigs. To contrast with the sprigged surface I created lily-like openings on the end. I added a raised rim around each of the oval shaped openings to add interest, but this process took more time and effort than I expected. 

lily-like end of finished piece

I used tiny coils to increase the height of the larger oval rims and used a slip trailer to add thickness to the smaller rims. All rims then needed to be smoothed with rubber tips on the inside and outside. Later I compressed all the rims with a wet chamois.

Two rubber tip tools, laying on a wet chamois, two hole punches (for the oval shaped holes) and my slip trailer.

After all that fuss, I foolishly decided to add texture to the entire remaining surface with a needle tool. Someday I will learn to make my processes easier and faster, right? I spent hours poking the wet clay with a needle tool.

I started drawing pictures in the surface with the needle tool just to break up the monotony.

Today I also worked on another wall piece from early last week. For this one I used fewer sprigs for the surface and used a slip trailer to add texture dots to the remaining surface. The slip trailer is quick, but also annoying because sometimes the slip gushes out quickly and I have to clean it off the surface before adding new drops of slip.

sprigs and slip trailed dots drying on the surface

I might take an opportunity to finish the work this weekend, though I was considering trying another lily-like end to this piece, so I may not have enough time to completely finish. Kids don't start school until Wednesday, so I won't have a full studio day again until then. In fact, with Labor day coming up, I won't have another full studio week until the second week of September. And the week after that I go back to work. I should probably be wrapping up my building if I expect to finish anything this summer. (slight panic, normal for late August)

I'm tired, so I'm not going to retake this slip trailing picture.