Double Walls for fun! - Chips-and-Dips bowls

Chips-and-Dips Bowl - Detai

  Today, while visiting my parents and looking at the lovely gifts I had made them over the past year, my mom told me I should share them and inform everyone that things like this, although not available on Etsy, can be made to order.

Also, I wanted to share that these are very simple ways to apply the double-wall throwing method.  Of course, YouTube can show you a lot of different and more complex ways to do it. And there are tons of fancy double-wall forms that can be made, such as vases. As a matter of fact when I first delved into double-walls I wanted to make double-walled goblets where I could carve away the outside and reveal the inner cup.  I threw about a dozen of them before I finally got it down.  After that I tried to think of different ways to explore double walls.  I don't know about you, but I get my best ideas when driving (especially back and forth between my parents house and my place in Berkeley). I started to wonder why the inner cylinder couldn't be at varying heights, maybe taller than the outer one perhaps. And why the outer cylinder couldn't fold into or out from that inner one.  The results of these experiments are pretty awesome and will be posted in time.

Chips-and-dips Bowl

But, these are what came out of the more mundane applications of the double wall.  Functional and simple, the chips-and-dips bowl specifically came out of playing on the wheel.  I often have no idea what I'm going to make when I first center the clay. I simply let it become whatever it's going to be. The chips-and-dips bowl is not original, but definitely fun and definitely easy to execute. The experienced potter could probably throw it in 5 minutes.

The Chicken roaster on the other hand was the result of a request for this type of form.  My step-dad wanted something he could stick a roast a small chicken on, over beer in the center cylinder.  The only downside of this piece is that given the fact that it is ceramic (cone 6) it will likely not withstand the high and sporadic heat given off my a BBQ grill.  However, it would be just fine for an oven, and could probably go up to about 350-400 degrees without issue.

To sum up, double wall is fun and simple. In fact, I'm finding it more difficult to throw single walled now! I'm finding more and more ways to apply double walls to my work. And these two pieces, which are fun and simple gifts are examples of two easy ways to do it.

Chicken Roaster - Detail

Chicken Roaster

Etsy Link

Ok, oops! Just realized that the link on the last post doesn't open up the Etsy page.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GenevaMillionCeramic

That one should... I hope!

Thanks for the support!

Playing with Manganese Clay...

This posting includes all the work I made with some Manganese Clay.  The clay was given to me my Ehren Tool, who works at the UC Berkeley Ceramics studio.  When he gave it to me he said, "have fun with the Cancer Clay." The thing about Manganese Clay is that it fires this beautiful dark brown color, and when left naked has bits of metallic sheen built in. But, and this is a big but, it is highly toxic to work with before it fires.  It's fine to work with wet, but once it starts to dry, the dust it produces is cancer causing.  How fun! Oh, the prices we pay.

Anyway I just thought I'd share these great results I got from playing with the "Cancer clay".  What was also fantastic about it was that my usual glazes came out completely different when applied to this clay.  Of course I did tests, but it was still an enormous surprise to see the finished pieces.  The Manganese clay provides a kind of warmth to the piece that is missing with the white clay. This is especially evident with the Rutile glaze, which almost looks like honey over the manganese clay.  And the red under-glaze could also never look quite as vibrant as it does against this clay body either.  

(Click the link to see all the work I have for sale on Etsy.)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GenevaMillionCeramic

Butter Dish

Gravy Boat

Triplet Bowls

Red Manganese Vase

"Banana-tree bowl" successes (and failures)

The banana-tree bowl is an invention of my very own. I'm sure you can think of the inspirations for such a bowl. This form is an expanded exploration of the double walled form and a new avenue in which I thought I might apply it. I can't wait to take one of these home and try it out! That will be the real test.

The other success of this bowl is the glaze on the green one.  Believe it or not, the bowl is all one glaze, only the top of the tree is glazed differently.  This great variation was achieved by the straw glaze, which is yellow/red when it's thin and ocean blue when it's thick. God I love glazes like this.
On the other hand, the brown and yellow bowl is glazed with two of my most stable glazes. This is also a great feature. There is nothing greater than expecting and praying for an effect and getting it.
Overall, I'd say both bowls were successful in their own ways.

… I have to make an amendment to my earlier statement about these bowls being complete successes....

I took the brown and yellow one home and the banana tree in the center was too short! Damn! Still not sure about the height of the green one, I'll have to test it out later, and hope for the best. And now I know that I have to throw that central "tree" part a lot taller.

New kiln unloaded...

After a week of firing drama, my glaze kiln is finally out. I'm so excited about the varied results. Although I always do glaze tests it is impossible to know exactly how a glaze will work in a larger firing.  So, even though I went into this firing with certain expectations, every piece was a surprise.

Detailed pictures and comments to come.

Introduction:

Hello all,
The purpose of this blog is to share my many experiments with clay.  Yet, the blog in itself is an experimentation.  I have never really done anything like this before, so please be patient with me.

Over the past couple of years I have been using Facebook as a kind of Blog.  I have been posting my ceramic pieces and glazes as they unfold rather sporadically.  However, over the past few months this experimentation has become more and more intense and even scientific.  I'm excited to see where it is going next.

Okay, enough of being elusive about what exactly my experiments include.  Basically I've been exploring throwing and what I can do with the process.  However, since there was really no one around to teach me exactly what I wanted to do, I used YouTube and my own trial and error to develop my own shapes.  Basically this includes double-walled (some triple), closed forms, and all kinds of thrown and altered pieces.  A couple of weeks ago, my teacher, Richard Shaw, offered me a book on George Ore (The Mad Potter of Biloxi) and told me to check him out.  I realized upon studying the imaged of this book that for the last two years I have been going the direction of George Ore, without even knowing who he was.  All Richard had to say to this was, "Just make sure you don't go mad too."

The other form of experimentation I explore has to do with cone 6 oxidation glazes.  I started my education in a studio that fired cone 10 reduction and fell in love with those types of results.  When I started working with cone 6 electric firing I really wanted to duplicate reduction results.  A real triumph occurred last week when Richard looked at a couple of glaze tests I had made and asked me, "How did you get these to reduce?" I was practically giddy.  "I didn't," I said, "it's elecrtic fire, oxidation, cone 6." In the past few days I consolidated all my notebooks of glaze recipes into a FileMaker Pro database.

Let the Blogging Begin...