Pottery News

I am starting to get some size in my pieces. No longer throwing salsa bowls, I am now making ... larger salsa bowls. I don't know what these things are or will become, but they are all about 6"x6"x4" high. I threw them last week, and they are now in the "leather hard" stage. (They are kept wrapped in plastic till I trim them, to keep them from drying any further.)


The two pots on the ends are from the end of my first 25# of white clay. Now, I am working with brown clay, which has a little more grog, or grit, in it. It handles a little differently, and I am enjoying working with it. Also, it looks more like mud, so you look dirtier, which is a plus in my book!

These are two of the three pieces I threw last night. This bowl was looking really good, but there was a sharp inclusion in the inner surface. I picked out a bit of hard plastic, then had to try to smooth over the defect. In doing so, I messed up the rim a bit.


Somehow, I thought this piece was straighter and more symmetrical when I got done with it than it looks in this photo. The funny story about this piece is that the bottom was so thin that when I undercut it with a thin wire, so as to be able to remove it from the bat later, I cut right through the bottom. So, I tried to patch it. We will see what happens when I trim and fire it next week. Perhaps it will be a planter - it will already have a drainage hole in it.

Word of the Day:

Grimalkin

A grimalkin is an elderly female cat. The word is derived from the Old English, a combination of gray and the archaic malkin, meaning demon. Scottish legend makes reference to the grimalkin as a faery cat which dwells in the highlands.


"It will be quite a while before Dixie becomes a grimalkin. After all, she is only six and a half."