V&A

My heart is filled with joy.  To be able to see Lucie Rie, Han Coper, Edward De Waal works in person, it is a bit surreal.  I think I have covered may 1/3 today. Must go back.  Here are my favorites.

Pink Roses

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

P.S. Mud Colony 

I'm contented

Nothing more and nothing less. I'm contented.

Big Bowls

Nerikomi in a stack

It has been awhile since our last chat.  I think I skipped a week. I am usually fairly good at doing a post or 2 a week. Can't remember what actually happened last week.  I'm a bit under the weather but nothing can keep me away from my clay. No way! I waited patiently all week to immerse myself in clay.   I trimmed 5 bowls even though I can feel the dizziness in my head and sanded these beautiful Nerikomi plates and bowls. 

They look so good stacking up together. The white porcelain bowl was wheel-thrown. It just happened to be in the kiln with the rest.   The pure white and waviness just work with the Nerikomi stack.   I am warping the blue/white 4-units stack up as a house warming gift for my colleague. He happens to have a family of four.  We are having a luncheon at his apartment club house next Sat. 

Got to do a posting at Mud Colony now. Come check it out! Ciao! 

Teapot done

It drips. So it does. But it isn't the end of the world. It looks good, doesn't it?

A difficult day

There are days, which rarely happen to me now, I feel like hiding from the world and bury myself in the arms of my love. Clay is keeping me sane.

Glazing station

I want to show you my "glazing station". It sounds so official but it really is a tiny sink. The second hexagon teapot is coming along with some parts left unglazed. It will be weeks before it is fired.

Is it an egg?

Roses

The making of slip layering pot

Colored Clay

I couldn't bother with Dry Weight, SG and all the calcalution.  I just did the quick and dirty. Assuming dry weight is 80% of wet clay weight, then add 5% stain. Will see if this dirty trick works.

I am a copy-cat this week, copying from this video on my rounds on Youtube. I didn't follow it to the T.  I did it sort of off the top of my head and it looks great to me.



Check out what others are doing at Mud Colony.

Naked Clay

Now I think of it, this is the very first teapot I have ever made. Remember I have shown you in earlier posts the making of it. 

It now has been glaze-fired. The outside is naked clay. I love the color and texture of this clay without glaze.  It is glazed on the inside. This clay is extremely sandy and I avoided glazing on the inside where the sprout connecting the body.  The first time when I glazed the inside, the glaze which needed to be thick to ensure there is no water leakage blocked the holes at the sprout completely.  

So I washed it off and for the second time, I dabbed water with a brush around the inside of the sprout so that those holes would be saturated with water, hence could not absorb any glaze.  

Being glazeless around the sprout, it is now leaking water.  The only fix is probably glazing the outside as well. I may just glaze half of the pot. I love the naked clay too much. 

 

Front row seat at my wheel

Here is the thing about me. I don't do what others tell me to do. But when something is mentioned causally, not even noticeable, I take it to heart.

A friend at work said something about why don't I film throwing on wheel. I immediately said I can't. There are no hands. But of course there is always a solution for everything.

This past Sat. I pretty much had the studio to myself.  With a camera in hand, we are in business.

It is actually useful to me to watch how I throw.  

The filming took less than 20 mins. But the editing and uploading took like 7 hrs.  Hope you enjoy it.

By the way, Mud Colony, check it out!

Nerikomi - dried

Now they are dried and sanded off. All ready for bisque firing.