Custom Dishes for Brooke and Victor

Brooke and Victor's large bowl

My friend Brooke got married in Spain this past summer. I had been hoping that we could join them, but COVID and uncertainties about traveling made me hesitant to plan international travel this summer. Instead of booking a trip to see her and her wedding, I threw some pieces for her and her new husband, Victor.

Wide bowl with B(heart)V stamp

I wanted to do more than just create bowls that looked nice, I wanted to personalize them, so I tried a few things. One was to create a stamp with their initials and a little heart in between. I used this stamp as decorative motif on two of the bowls, and as a stamp on the bottom of another.

bowl with B(heart)V stamp at the bottom

I throw bowls regularly during the year, but rarely at home. I find throwing bowls to be kind of calming and pleasant, but I don't tend to spend a ton of time on decoration because I'm usually making them for demonstrations at school.

Wide rim with stamp

I wanted to try something more interesting for these bowls, so I did some of what I know and some of what I don't.  I used the stamps to impress a pattern around the rim on some. On the largest, I decided to carve decorations on one of them. I spent a lot of time planning and carving and glazing the design, but I didn't do a lot of practicing beforehand. I'm basically happy with the design, even though it isn't as sophisticated as would be the carved decoration of someone who does this regularly. 

Inside the large carved bowl

I am pretty happy with the interiors of all the bowls. I kept these free of decoration, kept the colors of the liner glazes simple, and the dribbled other glazes over the top to add some variety and interest. The interior of the carved piece contrasts with the busy exterior.

Underside of the stampled rim bowl

In the carved decoration, I planned for the height of each row of letters, marking a guide all the way around the bowl while it was on a banding wheel. I then staggered the letters in columns, trying to take account of the changing witdth of the bowls. (the lowest band has less space than the highest because bowls are round). After I had started carving, I decided to add the hearts, which means I didn't quite leave enough space for all of them.

I used a variety of glazes to highlight the carving on the outside

I glazed the letters and hearts carefully, painting in a blue glaze then wiping it from the surface so it could highlight the carved background. I then glazed the hearts with a pink glaze (Amaco Celadon Cherry Blossom) waxed the hearts and applied a semitransparent glaze over the top of everything so as to highlight the letters.  

I dribbled contrasting glazes inside most of the bowls

Highlighting the indents like this is something I did in one of the stamped bowls as well. The glaze combination is the same, but the application of the light green semi-stransparent glaze may have been a bit thicker on the smaller bowl.

the red galze moved a bit during firing, which I didn't anticipate

I realized after I had finished the pink and semi-transparent glazes that I preferred the hearts in a darker red. I applied this over the top, but unfortunately glazes move during firing. The clear and the pink both melted during the firing, as expected. This caused some of the red to move on the surface of that melting glaze, resulting in red splotches that are off set from some of the hearts. The result looks a bit like what you sometimes see in comic strips or old ads in the paper where the different colors plates weren't correctly registered so one color hasn't lined up correctly.

the same red glaze mooved on the rim which I had planned for

Up on the rims, I was planning for some of this. I had tested some glaze combinations before this firing and liked the layering and melting effect of my red glaze (Amaco Potter's Choice name glaze) over my green (Amaco Potter's Choice Vert Luster). These colors melt and move down the side of the pot creating a nice variation and irregularity. In one of the bowls this melting somwhat obscures the impressed BV stamp.

I think the inside drizzles look great in the sun

Some of this movement can been seen inside as well, where the dribbled glazes melt over the top of the clear and white liner glazes. The pink glaze was particularly thin in the jar, which means it was lighter where I dribbled it over the others inside. 

I had fun making these and think the color combos worked out pretty well

This batch of pieces that I sent aren't really a set. I played too much with both decoration and color for them to match, though they are all similar in texture and interior decoration. Though the process of making, glazing, firing, packing, and shipping took a couple of months, I felt a bit like I didn't have as much time as I would have liked. I would have been happy to experiment with my techinques for one whole kiln load before doing these pieces, but I never seem to find that kind of time during the school year. Here's hoping Brooke and Victor will enjoy the bowls. 

Contratulations Brooke and Victor!

 

 

New Year's Covid Balls

this COVID ball is not an ornament

In December I made a bunch of these COVID balls as gifts. Though they look like ornaments, that's not exactly what they are. They aren't meant to be decorative, or at least not primarily decorative.

COVID Balls with directions attached

Each COVID ball comes with instructions: 

Directions: If your 2020 has sucked, use this COVID Ball to capture and expel all the suck at the end of this year. 

1. Find the hole in the COVID Ball. Whisper all the awful things from this year into this hole. Don’t worry, whispers are small, so the ball can hold a lot. If you need to scream, the COVID ball has an automatic scream-compressor installed to be sure you can fit all your rage at 2020 inside. 

2. Once you have filled up the COVID Ball with all the yuck of 2020, find a safe space (maybe a cardboard box outside--if you are under 13, please discuss with your parents).

3. Throw the ball as hard as you can at the ground (or the interior of the cardboard box). You may choose to smash it with a hammer or other implement if you prefer. The force of the COVID ball breaking will create an interdimensional wormhole into which all the range and yuck of 2020 will be sucked, leaving only good feelings for the year 2021.

The hole

One of my friends, when she received the COVID ball, said her first reaction was to smash it, so the idea is sound. I came up with the idea this summer, in part because of the frustration that everyone feels with the pandemic and the stay at home order, and in part because I observed (and remembered) the fun of the violence and physical release that comes with smashing ceramics.

smashed ceramics this summer

In college, the clay studio had a protected kiln yard that was outside but fenced in. Next to the raku firing area was a huge pile of shards against the building wall. I can't remember if there was a literal target painted on the wall, but I do remember that the reason for the shard pile against the wall was clear: If your pot or sculpture didn't work, you threw it against the wall. And it helped.

we used a box so that we weren't cleaning up bits of sharp ceramics from the sidewalk for days

This summer, when I was clearing out stuff from my new studio, I had some work that was broken or jsut not great. I was going to throw it away, but my daughter was playing outside (with masks) with the neighbor girls, so I decided to let them have some fun. I put the pieces in a box and gave the girls a hammer and let them go to town.

bisque fired COVID balls awaiting glaze

I hadn't exactly forgotten about making these during the summer and fall, but something happened to a friend in December that reinforced my motivation as I pictured her pouring her frustrations into the ball and then smashing.

Glaze fired COVID balls awaiting directions

I really enjoyed making the COVID balls, even though I didn't start until the second week of the quarter (when I got my pug mill and my reclaim clay was super soft and nice). The forms are pretty familiar to me, as I made many similar forms in graduate school and for my MFA show. I suppose I haven't made exactly this in quite a while, but making them felt like home.

Work from my MFA show in 2006

I honestly made these with the idea that folks would smash them. As I made them, I had several people in mind, including my nieces and nephew who've experienced this pandemic from a different perspective than have adults and might be more willing to smash things. But I also knew that people might really want to smash these with a hammer (even if it might feel good), so I added alternate directions that might make people feel ok with their urge to keep the COVID ball.

Alternate Directions: If your 2020 has been excellent, I suppose you can hang this up as a memento of the year. If you choose to combine the alternate directions with step 1 of the regular directions, the scream-compressor also works as a rage and yuck magnet to hold the negativity inside, preventing it from escaping into next year.

The balls on the bottom have some chunky old bits of underglaze on them

It's interesting, though, to make something with the intention that it be destroyed. I chose my colors to be loud and garish, and maybe a bit gross, too. I used some chartreuse underglaze, but mixed in some other scrap greens. In fact, on a few of the pieces the underglaze was chunky and instead of fixing it, I painted on the chunks. After I took the pieces out of the kiln, I realized that those chunks of underglaze made a gross kind of rough surface that really seemed appropriate for the diseased forms themselves.

COVID Balls with directions awaiting packing

I also thought seriously about trying to make a batch of these to sell for Christmas/New Year's gifts. As it was, I made about 26 of these as gifts for close friends and family and that was plenty. However, I enjoyed making them, so maybe I'll take orders or plan to make some for later in the year or next winter. I'd love to think that by December of next year we'll all be past the pandemic and not in need of cathardic destruction, but as far as I can understand, we'll only be getting to an end-point in late fall if all goes well. And as much as we'd like to feel otherwise at the start of the year, 2021 is going to feel a lot like 2020 for some time.

Making Gifts

odd ball dishes that I threw before coming up with the plan to include textures for underglaze inlay

Once the quarter ends, I always think I will have time to spend reading and chilling. Instead, I usually fill up all the available time with new projects, like recording 50 videos and making sculpture examples for class, or like building a set of stacking cats and throwing dishes for gifts.

plates in progress

This December my over-ambitious time suck was making plates and bowls for my brother. Possibly this idea started out as a birthday gift but I quickly passed the time that would be appropriate for birthday. I have now passed the time that will actually get these to him by Christmas.

re-enactment of what my brother does with the dishes I made for him

My brother informs me that, like our family, they have been breaking the dishes I made them years ago. Apparently there's some sort of family competition for breaking pottery. My daughter is all-in on the competition, but she keeps breaking the pyrex bowls instead of the ceramic dishes. I'm ok with her approach, as more of our dishes are made by people besides myself and therefore harder to replace.

big plates with blue, purple and blue underglaze decoration

Anyway, I decided to replace some of my brother's dishes for Christmas. I took a day to throw, half a day to trim and then I figured the glazing would be pretty fast. I'm not sure why I thought this. Apparently because my time estimates are just way off when it comes to what I can make and how fast. This is a chronic problem that is most noticeable in December.

trimming plates = more fun than glazing plates

On Monday, a week before Christmas (because that's how I roll) I spent over 6 hours under-glazing the dishes. I know how long it took because I listened to almost an entire audiobook start to finish while glazing today and the Audible app tracked my work time. 

three different size/shape of plates, notice that the set has only 3 of the smaller sizes because I already broke the others

I was trying to get the dishes glazed in order to fire them before traveling for the holidays. This is a bit silly, as I am unlikely to want to carry a bunch of dishes on the plane, and neither is my brother, but I did want to get the cats done in time for the trip and the plates and cats were going in the same kiln.

the bottoms don't match = fun!

I painted underglaze on the tops and bottoms of all the plates and the interiors and exteriors of all the bowls before bisque firing (because occasionally I do plan ahead). I then intended to apply a contrasting color to the indents and lower sections of all the plates and bowls followed by a coat of clear glaze.

the smallest plates

While I was throwing this seemed like a good idea. Several hours into underglazing the bisqueware I was convinced this was a terrible, horrible idea and the results would make me want to move to Australia.

the wacky not-matching dishes

When I unloaded the kiln, I was really happy with the results and stayed that way until halfway through taking pictures. I wanted to get pictures taken before leaving to see my brother so I could show him what he'd be getting (he doesn't need it all, so he can choose favorites). 

I enjoy throwing bowls, bowls, bowls

I decided to go to the trouble of getting out my photo backdrop and table and stand and taking semi-careful pictures. I'm glad I did, though I drew the line at getting out my tripod and camera and just took cell phone pictures because I know for a fact that I should not be allowed to try to upload pictures on the same day as I plan to travel. I am already on technology time-out after an incident involving iTunes and a significant amount of foul language yesterday.

these bottoms don't match either

Joking and travel/holiday related anxiety aside, I actually am pretty happy with the results. Ironically, they look very different from what I planned. The colors faded and darkened in ways I didn't anticipate. My fears about how they would look around hour 4 of glazing were proven incorrect--to my relief.

the inside is only one underglaze for these little bowls---and my favorite

I am still not getting them to my brother by Christmas and I may even take some better pictures when I get home (yeah, that's not going to happen--Winter quarter starts January 2, so my brother will be lucky to get the dishes in January). I plan to grind down a few stilt marks, do a quality check, and then send on his favorites via UPS or something. Unlike the stacking cats (see this space later this week for an update on the nesting cats), these dishes I might actually make again.

my favorite to throw and to glaze

And now, with the dishes staying home, and me leaving the state, I should be able to avoid starting any ridiculous projects this week. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Kid Decorations on Small Bowls

in the kiln after firing

My daughter helped me quite a bit with this last kiln load. She was going to cut out some ornaments, but then got sidetracked into drawing pictures into the wet clay of a bunch of tiny bowls. Most of these are destined for particular people for the holidays so the drawings are Christmas or relative related.

lots of drawings

After the drawings were done, I let the bowls dry and then applied black underglaze to the surface. I wiped away the underglaze gently with a damp sponge, which left black in the impressions and also served to soften some of the slightly sharp edges of the drawings.

 

two drawings

I particularly like the way my girl writes the sound a cat says. Her airplanes apparently look like unlikely Bert Rutan creations (that's my husband's assessment; I had to look up the guy).

a cupcake with gingerbread men leaning against it

  

The bowls mostly exist because I was making some bowls for teabags at my brother's request. The project took off, but my daughter points out that the bowls can hold nuts, cookies or a single satsuma.

bowls in action

My daughter was at school when I was finishing the decorating, but the whole batch of work is still pretty much kid oriented, with primary colors and plenty of trucks. 

more trucks