Three styles, one cup

A school assigment of three different styles of one object for an imaginary "cultures museum shop". My themes were Persian Miniature, Comics and Modern Romantic Nationalism

A jug and 6 cups

Serving dishes set

A wheel throwing mission: Set of four serving dishes that are easy to storage (for example nestling bowls) for an autumn party. The biggest one should be for 2 liters.
Throwing big pieces on the wheel was new to me. First I  practised  throwing on bats, then how to make plates, platters and big bowls. I didn´t reach to the 2 liters but was quite happy for the results. After all the hard work I wanted some safe glaze that wouldn't make any problems...but there is always a but. The cream white glaze that usually worked didn't melt. I put the platters again in the kiln, but the glaze didn´t behave any better this time -it tore the pieces. And this happened only to the pieces I thought to present to the class.

The pitcher was the only surviver of the original set -for  it was glazed before the others. The rest of the pieces I fired 20 celsius higher than usually which made all the difference. The decorations are made with black engobe on bisque fired ware, with the cream white glaze on the top of course.

Another wedding present

Playing with two different white glazes.

Casting clay tests

One regular casting test cup and origamis, egg carton, and East German vintage underpants dipped in liquid clay.


Before

After

Autumn Raku

This assignment was a warm up after coming back from the summer break:  expresing autumn feelings with clay, fire and smoke. My inspiration came from  a song, Elokuun kruunu - CMX (the Crown of August)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqyV92w5-ww
It is always a reminder in that time of year of a bittersweet  teenage drama -now translated into garden deco that can be used also as a candle holder! :)  I wanted a romantic worn out look so I used glaze that is more like a rusty patina for the big ones. The small crowns I wanted to be more colorful, with surprises of  different layered glazes. Part of the mission was to find a place for the work outside where they would be presented to the class. Unfortunatly  one big crown didn´t survive,  I dropped it when taking out from the Raku kiln.

The most I enjoyed  placing the work in the yard with a little help of the ways of environmental art.

Matching colors with the surroundings.

And this place I just could not resist, it was too tempting even too obvious.

Champagne clay

In the start of the semester I emptied the white smooth stoneware recycling container.  I knew it was a risk with all the yellow, brown and whoknowswhat lumps that were found in the bottom, but I anyway poured everything to the mixter. After the glaze firing of the test pieces I could see the clay had nice tone with spots but it is very bubbly. Specially the thrown cups have big bubbles which was disappointing, because I made the clay batch specially for the wheel. The pinched cup looks more even, but still you can see the same effect. I fired also some pieces for breaking to see if I could recognize what is causing it, but there was just air.
I thought first to throw all of the 60 kilos to trash but then I thought this clay might work well in sculptural work. So, I saved it and hopefully soon I will have time to make some big bubbly creature.