PODS!!!!!!

This is my first refrence as a pod. The first pod I made was based off of this refrence.

My other pods were not so good. I used many refrences, but somehow this one turned out like an olive. I don't really have the patience for this.

This next pod I based off of this refrence. It doesn't look anything llike it but I promise it is based off of this!

I slabbed the leaves for this, after building a not so good middle. I think the leaves made it look a lot better. It was Emily's idea.

I curled the leaves underneath themselves so that they would hold themselves up better.

This pod reminds me of a bowl and a lily at the same time. Can't ya see it?

Pod building

The first step to pod building, at least the way we do it in class, is taking a bowl and putting tissue paper in it ( the blue stuff) and then we take a chunk of clay and throw it in the tissue paper. then we compress the middle of the clay and form it to the shape of the bowl. The tissue paper makes it not stick, and it makes it pop out of the bowl easier.

  The next step after making two of those is to smush them together. once they are sufficiently smushed, then you take a rib and smooth it all out. Better than the one I did in this picture. From there you can start forming the picture with the ribs, a magic blanket, and water. I have a really hard time with form for some reason. Lisa says she needs me to turn my left brain on and my right brain off.

This is my first pod. I was attempting some sort of rose.It turned out alright for my first pod. I'm going to put eight fo the pods I make, which will all be some sort of wierd flower, into an armature and have it as a garden design of some sort for my grandmother.  

Some of my finished products and some that have been thrown on the wheel

This is one of the finished wateretched tumblers. I glazed it in celadon. I am obviously not the best glazer in the whole world.

I do kind've like the way the glaze made the clay show through like copper though. The next time I glaze I think I'm going to try Emily's technique. Poor some glaze inside of the cup, then poor it out and then for the outside, don't glaze it all at once :)

This is a finished celadon glazed wateretched candleholder, or shot glass, Lisa doesn't like them being called that. Again, terrible glazing. I do love the color though!

This shotglass, sorry, candleholder, is my favorite because I tried to do scrafitoo on it, but it didn't work that well. And then it broke. But The inside of it turned a blueish colorand the outside it was black. Where I tried to do the scrafittoo it turned blue too. Am I spelling scrafitoo right? Probably not.I like it because it looks like an old piece of pottery from like Greece or somewhere like that.

This is a good shot of the leaves I tried to do.

I really liked the different ways it looked in the light.

See? Shiny!

This is a mess up of a coffee mug I tried to throw on the wheel. I turned it into the wierdest tea pot in th world. 

This is just the other side of it.

This is also another mess up on the wheel. I turned it into a flower holder. Probably for Nana.

This is just the other side of it.

Throwing Steps for the wheel

The first step in throwing on the wheel is the "electric Monkey" . That's basically hammering on the clay until forms a cone.

After you have a sort of cone shape, then you smooth it out and make it taller. You do this by cuping your hand in a triangle around the cone. Make sure you have a lot of water on your hands. This is not something I'm real good at right now.

After you have the cone, then you have to cross you thumbs so you don't use them and use your palms to press against the sides of the clay at an angle to flatten, not completely, the cone shape.Also not something I'm great at.

After you get it into a nice round shape, cup your hands around it at 3 and 9 o'clock to make it smoother and try to center it. You should be using a lot of water at this point so the clay flows through your hands instead of just rubbing and grinding against them.

This is just another image of what it looks like.

Next, take a needle tool and hold it inplace for a full wheel rotation against the clay. If the line made by the needle tool in the clay connects all the way around, your clay is centered.

When your cay is centered, take one hand and cup the clay, then take your other hand and open the clay up with two fingers. you do this by simply sticking your fingers in the top of the blob of clay.

After you've opened it, then you stretch the walls of the clayby pulling back on the walls.Then you need to compress the floor so it's flat.

just another picture of pulling back the walls

Next you take two fingers on the outside and one on the inside , and press together lihtly and slide up the clay. We call this riding the elevator.

This is how tall it can be made to be. Although ti can be made taller.

After all that, take your rib and hold it against the side of the pot to get all the water off.

The last step is to get your clay off the wheel. You do this by using a sort of metal dental floss contraption. Like cinnamin rolls.

                      This is my first scrafitto tumbler! bmix. I used black underslip on it and then scratched around the outline of a picture of muchroomflowers. It was definately harder than wateretching, but I enjoy the detail around it.

two tumblers wateretched and unglazed.

cold finished fortune cookie bmix

porclain shino finish

red clay celadon finish

All of these pieces are handbuilt and it took forever! The best part of it is that it is finished and actually looks ok for a beginning potter. I love the colors that the glazes made. I think the hardest part about creating all of this was that I had no idea what the heck I was doing for the first part of the month. The clay wasn't cooperating with me! If I were going to do this piece again I would definately make sure that I spray the pieces before glazing them. I found that out after I glazed these ones. These are my first pottery pieces, so it feels pretty good to have them look okay and I'm fairly happy with them. I know they aren't perfect, but what is?

my first projects in pottery

my first wateretching candleholder. bmix

my first of four tumblers. bmix.

a black underglaze on another candleholder.will be scratched fordesign later.

my porcelain fortune cookie after being fired once.

my recycled clay fortune cookie with rice after being fired once.

my bmix fortune cookie after being fired once.

me working on a candleholder.