Butter Dishes

By: ornamento.blog
Art, Ceramics, Design, pottery, Pottery and Ceramics, pottery studio tips, , , , Leave a Comment on Butter Dishes

I’ve paused making mugs in order to tackle making butter dishes.

First, I made a template out of tar paper for the top of the dish.

The tar paper technique lets you build with slabs while they are still malleable. You can build lots of interesting shapes rather quickly.

I made the bottom from a wet slab using a board and foam. Here’s a video showing the technique. Then I added a handle.

Then I decorated the top with some underglaze transfers I screen printed onto newsprint paper.

Here is the decorated butter dish ready for bisque firing.

You Can Do a Lot With Lines and Dots

By: ornamento.blog
Art, pottery, Pottery and Ceramics, pottery studio tips, , , Leave a Comment on You Can Do a Lot With Lines and Dots

Wondering how to decorate your pottery with slip? Make a ton of bowls and experiment! I’ve been decorating small terra cotta bowls with slip and commercial underglaze. I have a lot of bowls to screw up, but my hand is getting steadier and steadier. That’s what practice will do.

I got the needle-tipped squeeze bottles from Amazon. I used to store them with straight pins in the tip. I don’t recommend it. The tips clog and the pins rust. Instead, remove and clean the tips when you are finished and store the bottles with the sealing caps that come with the set. I can’t believe how much easier this makes them to use.

I used some donuts I cut with my Silhouette Portrait 3 in this bowl. Dots and lines followed.

I used a Mayco Designer Liner for the black outline in the above bowl. I will cover these bowls with clear glaze after they come out of the bisque fire. It’s low fire pottery, so they will be fired at Cone 04. Now I just have to come up with ideas for the rest of the bowls!

A Walk Around Bok Part 1

By: ornamento.blog
Art, POST, pottery, Pottery and Ceramics, pottery studio tips, , , Leave a Comment on A Walk Around Bok Part 1

I feel as if I am getting behind in my blog posts although I’ve been posting regularly. It’s just that there’s so much going on around me that even if I don’t feel particularly inspired lately, there’s no shortage of creative people around me. That and my penchant for taking pictures everywhere I go.

If you’re anything like me, you love to peek into other people’s creative spaces. Every year, The Philadelphia Open Studio Tours, or POST, gives me the chance to do that without feeling like too much of an interloper. This year, I went back to the Bok Building in South Philadelphia to see some new art studios. WC Pottery sure got my attention!

WC Pottery is aptly named because potter Erik Wright set up a working pottery studio in a small bathroom in the Bok Building. Maybe he played a lot of Tetris as a child?

I live in a small house and I know a thing or two about working in small spaces. But WC Pottery’s space is a model of efficiency beyond what I would have thought possible. I was impressed.

Not an inch is wasted. There’s a sink, a glazing area, and storage, too. And some very attractive pottery you can see on Erik’s Instagram site here and web site here.

I’ll be writing about more artists I met on this years’ POST tour. Stay tuned.

Smooth Your Bottom

By: ornamento.blog
Art, creativity, pottery studio tips, , , Leave a Comment on Smooth Your Bottom

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to smooth the bottom of bisque fired pottery. Simply take a square of 80 grit wet-dry sandpaper and affix it to your wheel head with a glue stick. Hold your pot bottom to the sandpaper and spin. This will kick up dust, so you might not want to do it in a shared space. You should also wear a mask. You can sponge a little water onto the sandpaper to unclog it and to cut down on dust. When you’re done, just wipe off the wheel with a towel and it’s clean again.

Always better to start with a smooth bottom though!

Here’s a video I just came across on YouTube with some great pointers for sanding safely. Try dipping the bottom of your pot in water before using the wheel. I think this would be more effective than wetting the sandpaper on the wheel.