Dartington Box results

I forgot to post what the dartington boxes looked like after they were high-fired.  Here is one I glazed in ohata red.  I used the trimming tool to create a sort of spiral on the top when trimming.

It was interesting to make these, but I don’t think I will be making more.  They are a pain to trim and glaze!

Container/bowl thing – jade and ohata red

This is a new glaze combination for me.  When I found this piece on the glaze shelves, I noticed it was thrown with BHC clay. I love the way ohata shows on BHC, but do NOT love the way it clumps on the bottom even on top of the wax.  It takes a lot of time to clean it off and make sure it’s not too thick.  So I decided to glaze it diagonally sort of on top with Ohata Red, and the bottom diagonal half with jade.  Sort of an interesting look.

Assorted Bowls – beige and jade

Here are a few that came out pretty nice.

More of a side shot:

White bowls – Ida’s white

I decided to start putting a quarter by the photos for scale.  This one is not really a usual shape I make.  In fact, it got lost in the studio shelves for a month or so until I picked it up and saw my initials underneath.  I had no recollection of throwing this at all.  Weird.  I glazed it all white, I was getting a little bored with all the colored glazes and thought it might be nice to have some white pieces.

Another white bowl, since I had already been using the white glaze (I’m a lazy glaze paddle washer).

Biggish plate – ida’s white and jade overlap

Oh yeah, these are all thrown with Big Sur (not BHC, the first clay I used).  The one glaze I vastly prefer on BHC is ohata red, which comes out darker and speckled on BHC, and bright orange/red on Big Sur.  I might try something creamier for my next clay.

I like the way this one came out.  I really like jade with beige, but I had some mixed results with beige–sometimes it came out a nice light beige with speckles, and sometimes it came out darkish orange/brown.  White is a bit more reliable.

Small vase – Woo blue over the whole piece and sun valley rutile

This one came out a bit differently than expected.  I dipped the whole thing with woo blue, and then dipped just the upper half into sun valley rutile TWICE.  I think because it was so thick, it came out more creamy white color.  I got the whole drippy effect I wanted though.  Sun valley rutile runs pretty bad, but it looks nice on something like this.

Closeup of the drippage:

Small bowl – stony matt blue

I sent this one through the mail to my mom for mother’s dayYes I also got very lazy and did not attempt and any sort of backdrop.  I was also in a rush to pack it in a box to take to the post office.

I’ve been lazy…

…and not updating the pots I’ve been getting back…

I just took a bunch of photos now, so I’ll post them

Finished bowls – glazed in beige and ohata red

These are some bowls I made awhile back, and glazed recently.  So I had admired someone else’s bowls that were ohata red and beige overlapping, so that’s what I glazed with.  Somehow the beige turned out orange.  I think there was something wrong with the glaze, but I’m not sure.  Anyway, they turned out pretty nicely.  They are both fairly thin, which is nice (yay trimming).

Even though I did not intend for it, they actually nest pretty nicely.  I may try to make some nesting bowls in the future.

Dartington Boxes, thrown

These are the dartington boxes I threw a few weeks back.  I just went in yesterday to glaze them, so I’m hoping they turn out well…I hope the glaze doesn’t make the lid stick onto the rest of the box.

This first one I put a layer of slip on it right after I threw it.  Supposedly you can also put it on at the leather-hard stage, so I may do that in the future, since this really limits how much trimming you can do.

This one’s pretty unique, because the top (when you’re throwing) becomes the bottom of the box.  The design on the “top” was made with a wire tool placed stationary against the bat, and spinning the wheel to remove the object.  One of the instructors actually made this one.

This is probably the most standard one I made, although I put in a subtle spiral pattern on the top with the trimming tool (can’t see it in the photo).

To make these boxes, you throw a cynlinder, and then close up the top.  Once it has the shape you like, you take a clothespin and push it in on the side, where you would like your lid/box division to be, keeping in mind if you would like the lid to have the smaller inner lip, or if you want that on the bottom box part (decided by if you trim the lid off on the bottom of the pushed in part, or on the top of it).

For trimming, it’s basically just trying to make it fit and look nice.  It took me a loong time.

Glazing took a long time as well…you have to wax not just the bottom but all the points at which the lid and box will touch (you fire them together, so they stay fitting). And then hope that the glaze doesn’t run too much!

I should get the finished product back in the next week, so I’ll post photos of how they turn out.