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Watch this Space…

So I was going through some pots in storage a few weeks ago and pulled out this lidded jar. It really caught my eye and I can’t stop looking at it, it is one of the last things I made before my youngest child was born. I have a feeling something similar to this will be on the cards again. They give a good variety of surfaces to carve, decorate and play with and I would like to get them into a saggar too, perhaps with a bit less decoration and let the saggar do all the work.

always makes me think of filming
The ice factory on Fleetwood Docks, I’m not sure how many people actually recognise what it is.

So this was one of three lidded jars I made for an exhibition I had at Fleetwood library, I chose three local sights, along with the ice factory I had the local beach bungalows and a fishing boat that I had drawn in a sketchbook.

inside out
Looking at this now I think the inside maybe should be white too and could have some carving in there too.

These would be good to build at my day job as they have a little pottery cupboard upstairs that has a wheel, a slab roller and an extruder with no dies or end cap. If I can get all my slabs rolled out there it would be a bonus.  The year ahead I have Fridays off to work on ceramics, so what may happen is that I roll out slabs on Thursdays and assemble on Fridays in my studio.

bottoms up
there is something I really enjoy about the feet

I need to make some templates so these are repeatable, as when I made them last time I just measured it all out with a ruler as I went along and made the process the longest.

those feet give it some lift
It looks like the side panels were made with the feet on, but the feet were added later the box is all joined through 45 degree joints on the slabs.

I have learnt so much since I first made these  and part of me is thinking about making some thrown examples too.

I have been thinking about my carving recently it has taken a bit of a back burner to my saggar work. As my drawing is improving daily through spending a couple of hours drawing every day but I have struggled to get the quality of line I like in sgraffito.  I have tried using a knife which produces an accurate line, I have a Korean carving tool made by Adam Field which is good for the boundary marks as it cuts little coils.

A pottery pin / needle tool is a bit broad it doesn’t produce a variety of line that I line and an actual need just bends easily.  What I would like is something line a dip pen that flexes as you draw but non of the dip pens I have are the right level of flexibility for clay.

Has anyone else any ideas?

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2 Comments

  1. A Signwriter’s fine brush, about an inch long? An interesting and informative post.

    1. I use a sword liner for my cobalt decoration on other pottery, but I’m looking for a tool to remove the top layer of clay to help bring a 3d nature to the whole process, as you can feel the depth of the lines.

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