Pottery Projects 6, 7 & 8

I picked up some small finished pieces recently. These were all made from "leftover" pieces of clay from when I made bigger projects. This first one was made from when I made a large candle holder, which is currently being bisque fired, and I used the largest diameter on the extruder... it made a large tube of clay. I had a long piece left after I cut the pieces for the candle holder, so I just pinched it around and played with it. I really had no idea what I was doing with it. Somehow it turned into a little olive dish. I'll take mine shaken or stirred...



The next one I made from some leftover pieces of slabbed out clay, from when I made some box pots. I carved in some Celtic knot designs, and I tried an experiment with glazing. I first glazed it with a solid green, and then I put the same kind of glaze I used on my poison ivy pot on top of it, lightly. My thought was that the vase would turn out kind of glossy with some of the green showing up in the crevices where I carved in the designs. But the 2 glazes were not “compatible” (not of the same family, chemically), and the result was not super glossy, but instead kind of leathery looking. I really like it. But I have learned that just because that combination turned out like this once, it may not react the same again. When you mix glaze families like that, it’s a crap shoot. Guess I was lucky, since I like it.



The Celtic vase is only about 5 or 6 inches tall. This next vase is just a little bit taller, probably about 7 inches or so. It was made from leftover coils from when I made Joycie’s pot (more on that later, it’s ready for final glaze firing now). I left the coils looking like coils instead of smoothing out the clay, again with no real plan in my head. It started to look like a bee skep, so I ended up making the top kind of like a wild rose and put a bumblebee on it. I am happy with how the glazing turned out.





That’s one of the things I like about using up leftover pieces like this, I can experiment with glazing. I can discover what I like or don’t like on these small pieces, so if it doesn’t turn out, I’m not so very disappointed.

I have started a large triangle pot like my small one, though I don’t plan to glaze it in the same fashion. I was happy with the shape, not so much the glazing. I have also finally finished glazing 2 of my 3 box pots and, as I mentioned, the large coil pot I made for Joyce. Tomorrow, I will get to see how my large candle holder has turned out from the bisque firing... fingers crossed.