New Functional Work: Story Bowls, Spoons, Jars, Sets

a set I was commissioned to do earlier this year

I just unloaded a batch of functional work from my new kiln. This was an array of items (30 pieces, not counting spoons) that I threw this summer and finished glazing this week. This load was mostly lidded containers, as well as some mugs and a pitcher I threw to match a lidded piece I was commissioned to do earlier this year. Of course after the firing I noticed two more pieces on a shelf in my studio--I'm not sure when those will get fired.

most of the stuff out of the kiln

Walking out to unload the kiln in the morning posed an unexpected challenge. Because my new kiln is now in the garage, I need to walk back and forth between my studio and the garage. On this morning the lawn was wet from the sprinklers, so I and my helper had to dodge the many slugs on the sidewalk while bringing the fired ceramics in and the greenware out to load the kiln.

 

a base with clay wads and a lid wadded in place

This load included lidded pieces because I remade some lidded pieces with spoons I had done earlier this year. I didn't like how the last batch turned out. This time I was more careful with the lids. I used clay wads to ensure that the glaze wouldn't stick the lids together. The wads allow me to fire the lids on the pieces so that the lids and bases don't warp into shapes that no longer fit together.

a lidded form with wads after firing

After the firing my young helper enjoyed knocking the little wads off of the rims of the containers. A couple of lids stuck temporarily, but a little whack with a wooden paddle got them loose. All the lids fit well, but I have a bit of work yet to do on two wads that stuck to one lid. Usually wads are dipped in Alumina hydrate so help prevent sticking, but I didn't have any handy when loading.

a storyteller bowl

I glazed most of the mugs and lidded containers with storytelling designs like the ones for the Storyteller exhibition at Boxx Gallery (Aug 27-Oct 22 at 616 Maple Street in Tieton). I also glazed some bowls with similar storytelling designs.

  

two storyteller bowls

The cylinder forms make a little more sense for storytelling designs because the story wraps around the outside like a zoetrope, but I am pleased with the bowl results where the design spirals around the interior in a similar fashion.

spoons

I made a whole bunch of spoons in this batch, mostly to be used in lidded sugar jars, but also just for fun. My favorite spoon worked well because I squished the handle and then applied the glazes in combination to the indents, making for more interesting colors compared to the whole batch of work.

My young helper instantly claimed the tiniest spoon, which hangs over the edge of a mug, or in this case, a miniature form that copies the design of the Rotary Commission work. 

  

the littles spoon and the spoon through the lid piece

I also tried out this funny method of making the hole for the spoon inside the middle of one of the lids. It's a little awkward, but fun to try. I'll have to try it in action to see how annoying it is to put the lid back on when scooping sugar. The jar itself has a flower story around it.

hand-built mugs

I also had a few hand-built mugs in this batch which I decided to glaze a little differently. I shaped the rim visually with glaze since, unlike the other rims, there wasn't a thickness change that marked the transition from rim to wall of the form. These smaller mugs aren't storytellers.

Storyteller Mugs at Boxx Gallery

Join me at Boxx Gallery in Tieton this Saturday for the opening reception of the Storyteller Ceramics Show. The reception runs from 11am - 4pm at Boxx Gallery on 616 Maple Street in Tieton.

Some of my storytelling mugs will be on exhibit and for sale. 

The exhibition will also feature ceramics by Jane Gutting, Delma Tayer, Mike Hiler, Carolyn Nelson, Matthew Alan, Debbie Sundlee, Gary Dismukes, Deborah Ann, Carol DeGrave, and Michelle Wyles. 

The reception will feature local poets Terry Martin, LeAnne Ries, Barbara Hershey. I am told the reception will also feature cookies. See you there.

Storyteller Mugs

storyteller mug with a bug growing out of a hanging balloon shape

This week I fired the storyteller mugs I glazed last week. The stories wrap around the mugs, in most cases from handle to handle. Some stories can essentially continue past the handle in an endless cycle.

most of the storyteller mugs

The stories being told are fairly simple little "animations" like those that might be seen in an old fashioned zoetrope. These mugs have bugs walking, climbing, and flying, flowers growing (more or less) and people or conveyors moving. There is one more mug that didn't get fired that has a stairway conveyor belt thing.

bug mug

In a photo that shows the mug, the story is incomplete. So I decided to try taking panoramic pictures while spinning the mugs on a banding wheel. And these wonky long mugs are the entertaining result.

this person walking down the stairs grabs onto a balloon and floats away to the handle

more of the bug from the hanging balloon

how a flower is made (and unmade) ...this one can cycle past the handle, maybe

I'm not a professional panoramic mug photographer, so at least a few of the mug pictures turned out especially weird with bent and twisting long mugs. 

ka-pow!

this one is sequential and its all happening at the same time, too. maybe less effective

My husband things I should now make the long mugs themselves.

I like the bug on the handle, mostly

Strangely, one of the mugs was very difficult to photograph using the panoramic mode. It has the least decoration, so I'm guessing the camera wasn't registering the movement as well as on the other mugs. The camera didn't create the whole mug while I turned the wheel.

camera does not like this mug

this was maybe the fourth try

This was the only mug that got a reaction out of my first viewer: my daughter laughed out loud when she got to this mug. The story is simpler than the others.

you get it in two images, at least

but its hard to see the person in this panoramic

I've got more mugs out of the kiln, so maybe I'll make more of these next week. As my friend Jennifer said today, I'm making a lot of functional work this summer. (sniff) But I am having more fun with function than I did last year. A few of these mugs have some strange elements that would benefit from a redo. At a couple points I have something that's supposed to be holding on, but the arms are at a funny angle. In another mug I forgot color on one of the balloons, so it looks oddly empty.

the figures on the left are apparently holding onto the balloon with their neck muscles

Glazed Mugs for Storytelling Show

I used pencil to plan the mug decoration

Thursday I glazed. All day. I had to work hard to keep myself focused. I had 13 bisque fired mugs and I got them all decorated and glazed in one day. That doesn't sound as impressive as it feels.

Then I drew in the outlines with black underglaze in a slip trailer

Glazing took a little longer than usual because I actually needed to plan the decoration. These mugs are for a show at Boxx Gallery in Tieton featuring "storytellers". My idea is to keep the decoration similar to other cone 6 pieces I have done this summer, but make it sequential.

some of the designs use multiple colors for the "story"

I had sketched some ideas earlier this month, while I was waiting in the doctor's office, but was procrastinating getting them on the mugs. The idea for each mug is based on my slip trailed dripping balloons that I've been playing with this summer and last. In these new storytelling designs, the balloons move and change or other simple drawings interact with the balloons.

here you can see my slip trailer bottle and a design with a bug

Each mug has a different "story" told around the mug. In some, the colored balls fall from the strings down onto leafy stems. Others have the balls move around the cup or up and down in boxes and on strings. I have a bug that eats a balloon and another bug that was the balloon. I also have some plants that shoot stuff at the balloons.

these mugs have the decoration, interior and rim glazed

Each mug has a black slip trailed outline and uses green, blue, and/or pink celadon glaze for the action and the interior and rim. A few have decorations that interact with the handle.

here you can see the finished glaze colors (foreground, right)

I know what to expect from my glazes, but some of these decorations are more complex than I've done before, so I'm hoping everything looks okay once it is fired. I sometimes fire the slip in place before glazing over the top to prevent smearing, but I think I avoided trouble this time. However, I may have misjudged the thickness of the glaze on some of the early mugs before I switched brushes.

these mugs have clear glaze over the decoration

I hope to have these guys out of the kiln next week or the week after. The best looking selection should be going to Tieton to Boxx Gallery for an opening August 27.