tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24246804417786901812024-02-21T03:22:02.904+11:00moresophA little blog about pottery, aikido, whippets, weekends and why toast tastes better when somebody else makes it for yousophiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04741722392756378467noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424680441778690181.post-88643616142596432912008-08-11T20:51:00.003+10:002008-08-11T21:00:44.220+10:00more problems with pots<span style="font-family:arial;">Throwing pots is never a straight forward exercise. From the outside it seems simple - you create a form on the wheel, it dries, you fire it, glaze it and fire it again. A simple series of processes.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">But every stage of the process is littered with problems and pit falls.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Creating the form is perhaps the easiest and most satisfying part of the equation. The drying stage reveals problems, a too think base will give you nasty S cracks in the bottom. Turning done too dry will reveal hairline cracks in the rim. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">There's some tidying up to do - spongeing, application of a dinky transfer if I'm in the mood. Then it's time for bisque firing. Usually fairly uneventful.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Then glazing. Glazing is a horror. Getting the glaze at the right consistency. Choosing the right glaze for the form. Applying in a not too think not too thin fashion. Then gently dusting the surface to fill in any bubbles and smooooooth it all down and a final dry sponge of the base and it's ready to be fired.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">That final firing is when everything can come undone. S cracks that didn't exist will suddenly appear, a too late reminder to keep the base not too thick. The glaze will miss behave, turn an ugly as sin colour with horrid texture... who knows what can happen.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">But it's those elements of the unkown. The random and unconqurable nature of pottery that makes it so enjoyable and so frustrating.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span>sophiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04741722392756378467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424680441778690181.post-54051781539207283642008-07-19T21:49:00.003+10:002008-07-19T22:29:28.235+10:00problem pots<span style="font-family:verdana;">When you take a pot off the wheel it's still damp and soft, it has a certain fragile, fluid quality. There's something about that fresh state which just looks right. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">The problem with pots is that you always feel like you're trying to get back to that earlier moment, to hold onto that life... but it just can't happen.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"> The whole process of firing and glazing just sucks that life right out of the pot. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Throwing pots seems like a constant struggle, a battle of adjustments and discoveries, that is endless.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;"> It's a series of tiny steps, each taking you a little closer and a little further away as new challenges appear. </span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">But it's such a satisfying journey, there might be problems with pots, but that first moment when you take it off the wheel - that's what it's all about - even if you can't hold onto it!</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span>sophiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04741722392756378467noreply@blogger.com0