Today in a nutshell

Today I made some 2 lb. canisters and a couple of tea pots.

Bellow are the canisters. I made a batch of about 400 lbs of clay yesterday and instead of letting it age like any smart person I decided to just jump right in and start throwing it. The clay didn't really respond to well with what I was trying to do but I fought through it anyway. I added some reclaim to the batch when I made it yesterday and that has made the clay slightly plastic but not as plastic as I would like. As you can see the canisters are straight sided as opposed to a bellied jar. I really like the look of straight sided canisters plus the straight sides take up less counter space.














Here are the lids for the Canisters. I try and make all of the lid seats all the same size. It really makes it easy to crank out the lids rather than measuring each individual pot and then making the lid. another good thing about making all of the lid seats the same size is that you dont have to make the lids right while the pots are wet. I made these canisters at about noon today. I couldnt make the lids right away because I had to go pick out a wedding cake but that didnt really matter because like I said I already knew what size to make ALL of the lids.














These teapots are probably the most successful ones I have ever made. I think they have a nice shape and where the spouts are connected they have a really nice seam that isnt over worked. Now all they need to do is pour well and I'm in business.














Till next time....

Sheridan

Random Pics...

Here are some random pictures of pots I have made over the past couple of weeks.

This double bellied pot is going to be a lamp... Hopefully.




















I just made this vase today. I threw the base first using 7.5 lbs. of clay and then I added the neck which was about 2 lbs. of clay.
















I also threw this pitcher today. My pots seem to be getting a little more belly than I am used to having. The reason for this, I think, is that the way I mixed the clay up this time around made it really plastic. I made a test batch of about 20 lbs in a 5 gallon bucket and mixed it to a slurry. I then dumped the bucket into a trough and let it air dry for about a week.
















I fired this test kiln about 2 weeks ago and got it up to cone 7. I only had about 30 lbs. of propane so I knew I wouldn't get all the way to cone 10 but I thought I would give it a shot anyway.
















Here is a picture of the ware rack after I organized it today. It doesn't look like there are many pots here but on the top shelf almost every pot is stacked in twos or threes.

Here's whats going on.

Its been a while since I have made a post. That's because I haven't been really doing a whole lot with pottery lately. My Fiance has a job interview in Chicago in a week or so, so I have been slowing down production just in case we get a call saying we have to pack our stuff up and head out. Besides posting on blogger I spent most of the morning cleaning up the studio and re-organizing my ware rack so that I am able to get more pots store more pots. My electric kiln that I have isn't working as we speak so I am not able to glaze fire or even bisque fire for that matter. That makes things difficult because I am stuck with all of these really fragile pieces of pottery that I cant store anywhere else but the ware rack....

Recently I posted some videos on YouTube of some different pots that I threw yesterday. If you are interested the links are...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JId3gEp2hiE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VCziJY5OhU&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF7QeQ3Dpoo&feature=channel

Let me know what you think. I am planning on making some more video once I get some clay made. I just received an order of about 2000 lbs. of dry clay, but as I mentioned earlier I might not be in this exact spot in a month or so. If anyone in blogger world is in Peoria, IL this weekend I am having another pottery sale so you should stop by. I have mostly the same stuff as my last sale seeing as I haven't had a chance to fire anything new. I am also going to be in two up coming arts and craft shows around the area so hopefully I can get rid of some of my inventory so I can start really throwing again.

Sheridan