Box pot with a twist

It's not a box and it doesn't twist... I suppose the more accurate term would be "slab" pot, but that sounds just too much like flab. *sigh*

To make these "box" pots, I put the clay through one of the slab rollers at Space Studios. Very handy machines. First you pound the clay to get the air bubbles out, and also to get it down to a manageable size, then you place the clay between 2 pieces of canvas and run it through the slab machine, between two rollers, over and over, while rotating the clay piece, gradually decreasing the width until you end up with a lovely large piece of flat clay.

This pot stands about 7 or 8 inches high. The twist to this pot is a little drawer.



It's made with red clay, and I used underglaze on the dry piece to paint on the design, then after bisque firing, put on clear glaze. The top of the pot has a base inside, before the drawer area, so it holds things there as well.



As I seem wont to do, I was overgenerous with the clear glaze. Dammit. It made the beautiful colors inside the pot, the lid and the drawer milky, and you can see the milky brush strokes. Also, the clear dripped or gathered on the pot where the top of the drawer would fit, causing the drawer not to fit well... actually, not fit right at all; it was a little too tight. I had the devil of a time getting the drawer back out once it was put in. So I took it out to Kev's workshop out in the pole barn, and with a hammer and chisel, and also with trepidation, pounded away at the clump of clear glaze that was causing the problem. It worked, but ummm... yep, I chipped the sucker. So I glued the 2 chipped pieces back in place. Spent way too much time on this one to just give up on it. And the glued-back-in-chips aren't all that noticeable... you can see the chips just above the blue flower on the drawer...



I like the little drawer twist, so I've got another tall box pot in the works also with a little drawer at the bottom. I mentioned that I'm making up pieces to work on when I'm home recuperating from surgery, mostly just dried pieces that I can paint with underglazing. So far, I have 6 box pots and 12 shaker balls in the works. Once 4th quarter and year-end close really kick in here at work, my time for pottery will be very limited, so I'm trying to get a lot done before mid-December. I think I know what my family members are all getting for their birthdays next year...