Alchemy of Clay

Speckled brownstone cone 6 stoneware.  Eggshell glaze, rubbed off with sponge in places to give the burnt look.

I forgot to celebrate my 800th post as my last post.  But since it was the double rainbow, I think it's alright.

Well, I continue to have problems taking photos of this jar.  Maybe one of these days I'll just sell it and won't worry any more. 

The Dragon Mask, January 2013

Dragon Mask, side view, Jan 2013

I still am planning to apply something like spikes in the various holes around the mask...some variation of toothpicks probably!

1. Dragon Jar, March 2013

2. Dragon Jar and lid, March 2013

3. back of Dragon Jar, March 2013

I'm really tired of working with this grey background and the camera deciding to give it pink tints sometimes, green tints sometimes, and every once in a while behaving and making it look plain old grey.  I set the camera so it wouldn't do "automatic" and it still does it (on the light setting...where it can be daylight, incandescent, fluorescent, etc.)

So I've spent the last 3 hours taking about 70 pictures, keeping 30, and there's no consistency of the background color!  ARGH, as the pirates say!

So I'll ask other potters and maybe someone will have a suggestion about camera settings.  (Incidentally I use a Nikon Coolpix L810)  I was going to ask through Mud Colony but it's closed till Thurs.  If I haven't heard anything by then, I'll submit this post.

A rainy couple of days.

Making some new things in the studio...not sure I want to keep them.  One platter slumped, so I cut the rim and curled it up into 2 curls.  I keep thinking I'll just recycle the clay.  Not sure yet.

Some mother's day yesterday.  A few phone calls from my sons late in the day yesterday. But my feelings were the whole day wasn't exactly fun fun fun.  The homemade batch of brownies as well as a pretty card which arrived Sat. was a special treat from one of my sons.  It was just having a long day of not having heard at all from the other 2 which meant I needed to focus on something else.

Threw some mugs a few days ago, and today some very big, beer stein size ones.  I've got a couple of big bowls waiting to bisque.

Then Sarah wanted to see how I make ginger jar lids, so a casserole doesn't need to have that bulge that makes it hard to clean where the lid sits on a galley.  I made a sugar bowl with 2 possible lids as a demo.  I think she's got it.  The following jar has the lid which sits on the top edge of the jar, and for my design, I have a flange on the lid which goes down inside the jar.

commercial ginger jar

Of course she's ahead of me in lots of designs, and definitely in production. I learn much from her as well as sharing some tricks I've learned over the years.

Here you can see the flange down inside the jar.

There is another design where a ginger jar has a lid which completely covers the top of the jar, and rests upon the shoulder rather than the rim, and thus doesn't have the flange inside at all. 

Lid on shoulder of ginger jar