It doesn’t take much to make me happy but some things make me happier than others.
They are building a bypass down the road from us and as I drive down the Midlands Highway every day, I have been amazed by the amount of fill they are trucking in. The fill has mostly been rock but in the past couple of weeks, sections of the new highway have been covered with this glorious red clay. It has taken all my self control to not pull over to the side of the road and start frantically filling the boot of the car up with clay. I am busily plotting ways to get my hands on a bucket load of the stuff.
Yesterday we stopped at the Midlands fruit market and whilst I was inside the shop buying potatoes, The Spouse walked across the busy highway and came back with two clods of this yummy clay. I will process this raw clay in the next few days and experiment with it as a clay body, as a slip and as a glaze ingredient.
I have been busily making work to be sent out hither and yon all over the blogosphere and had been eagerly waiting for the kiln to cool down enough to see the finished results. As so often happens in ceramics some pieces that came out of the kiln were fantastic and some were crap.
Here are some pieces that didn’t work. The first cup on the left has cracked because I accidentally knocked the cup as I was glazing it. The glaze has pinholed at the rim because the glaze was too thick there. The middle cup is a total disaster because the glaze has run and crazed. I first thought this was because I had applied the glaze too thickly but I knew that I hadn’t, so after some thought I realized that it was probably because I had been using a new clay body. The crazing of a normally very reliable and forgiving glaze gives me a clue that the clay and the glaze don’t fit. The third cup is poorly glazed with pinholing on the rim due to me being careless.
The crazing and running on this piece are most probably because the glaze and clay body aren’t compatable. Even though I am not unhappy with how the piece looks it certainly isn’t fit for sale in the shop. It does feel gorgeous in my hands and the inside is lovely but it is destined for the seconds box.
This next piece will be winging its way off to a secret location in America on Wednesday. I made this for the ART SWAP and I am really pleased with it.
This Southern Boobook Owl was in the yard on Friday night and I am really happy that I was able to get a half decent photo of it. Yay. I could have stayed out there snapping away for ages as she didn’t seem fussed that I was there. But I already felt guilty that I had buggered up her night vision with my flash So I left her alone.
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Oooooh, the owl. I love, love, love owls. I have a small but gradually growing collection (not live, of course!).
If you hadn’t pointed out that pinholing as a fault I never would have known. To me it looks like a pattern that you put on the piece. I like it. The jar destined for the seconds shop also looks uniquely different. I’m sure it will be perfect in someone’s home. Love the platter that’s going to America.
The owl looks a little blinded by the light.
Gorgeous red clay, if I ever figure out a way to get back onto the sandstone rocks I’ll take some photos for you, that kind of red colour is naturally occurring in my area.
I love the mistake cups too…maybe you should do an exhibition of beautiful bendy ‘mistakes’? BG Xx
Wow, gorgeous! I love your red clay, yum. And that owl, that’s something else. She is huge.
I love mistakes, they make the most amazing treasures.
Next time I visit southern Utah I’ll have to smuggle you some of the red, yellow and yes, green clay.
Missed your blog!
I really really like the ‘mistakes’ there is something wonderful about the blobby bits – its as though they had a life of their own in the kiln.
The piece you are sending away is simply beautiful and reminds of something I have which is different entirely in colour but similar in shape and have been thinking of taking a photo of it for you to look at it and would be interested to find out what you think it was made from. Being such a fool about these things.
The red clay has a richness of colour that makes me want to touch it! Many years as a child I had the luck to be taken to Italy and visit the place in Tuscany whose name evades me now, and see where they got the stuff that makes the beautiful marble which is shipped all around the world. Despite the blot it all made on the landscape I will never ever forget the beauty – ever. Either of the raw material or the finished products.
For some reason I always think of Amy when I see pictures of your clay in its natural form. I used to work with children in a former life, who were busy bee’s and the tactile element of clay would quiet even the most excuberant. Before our education system got so hung up on testing testing testing – it was recognised particularly by educational pyschologist’s, occupational therapists and play therapists that clay was a fantastic medium for children. I ‘did’ pottery at school all those years ago and wish now I had concentrated harder as a young teenager,instead of spending my time giving the young nun who taught us, the most awful of times…
The owl oh the owl – the picture is simply fantastic. The access you have to wildlife is such a joy.
I am off to read about the art swap – what would I do without you I don’t know. I am like you in that the smallest of things can make me very happy indeed.
Small things are the best, although the owl looks quite big!
And remember there are only ”design features” or ”learning experiences” not mistakes.
I would have thought the pinholes were a pretty design feature if you hadn’t said!
Wow, love the owl picture – what a great shot and how lucky to have one in your back garden.
Just keep in mind that some of us would be more than happy to fossick through the seconds box!
I love hearing your thoughts and stories about the process & products.