I've been back at it in the clay studio, this time starting with the more complex pots in this making cycle. Usually I warm up a cycle with easier, quicker forms like bowls, mugs, and cups. But sometimes that leaves less time for the more complex pots, the ones I love to make, because usually the firing date comes near and all of a sudden I have to stop making and fire the kiln!
So this time I switched it up, and I'm having fun. I jumped right into these teapots, some ewers, and some oval serving dishes, complete with their own little details. Now jars are in the mix for the rest of this week.
4 comments:
Wow Joy! These teapots and serving trays are amazing! I see that your love of these details has really blossomed into something quite extraordinary over the last year or so. Congratulations! You are on such an incredible journey and I am grateful you share so much of it with folks on your blog.
Question about warming up: At one point I felt it necessary to start off slow, and I always advise students not to just jump right on to their wildest ambitions, but to warm up to them over the course of a few intermediate exercises. I also remember the point where I discovered that I no longer needed to warm up, and that I could take several months off from touching clay and pick back up and find that magic with no problem. Are you usually warming up from habit these days or the need to have certain basic shapes for the kiln? Do you have specific ideas for what students can use to warm up with? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts!
One last thought. I absolutely LOVE the carved deco on the two end trays. They remind me of van Gogh paintings of rocks in a stream and a field of windblown grass. Amazing stuff! Keep up the good work!
These teapots are dreamy...I'm glad you tackled complex forms and shared them. Is it cooler up there at the Xchange than down in the valleys? Keep on potting, your work is lovely! (I'm a student of Annie's from Black Mountain)
somebody suggested I look at your blob and I am glad I did, your work kicks ass :) -Gary Rith, potter from ithaca, ny
Carter- thanks, that's cool what you noticed in the patterns. I'm loving the simplicity of turning my carving tool around in hand just to try the same pattern in different directions.
I usually do warm up with bowls, ones that I keep, but it still feels like a warmup. That's different than the beginning days where a 'warmup' meant still throwing pots only to smush them back up and try again. Now I find I keep most of them, but with starting with bowls, then mugs, then on progressively to the slower pots, my focus and momentum change in the work cycle, and I'm really seriously focused by the time I get to teapots! But like I mentioned in my post, sometimes a deadline creeps up on me and I find myself with not enough time to really explore those complex forms as much as I want. So this time I thought I'd try them first. Although, right now I'm already realizing I have to move on to other forms, because yes, there are certain things I specifically make to fill the kiln each time.
But I do like to work in batches, usually I throw 12 of something all the same. Then I'll throw a batch of a different form. Then the rest of the time is working on the finishing of pots. But for teapots, serving dishes, or other slower pots, usually I like to make 6. Sometimes the form is the same on all 6, but I alter the details slightly, so by the 6th teapot, it sometimes turns out different, something I couldn't have planned on. Just rock hopping from one idea to another in the middle of a process.
So for an easier warmup for your students- bowls would be a great one, then simple cup forms. But if they are interested in 'warming' up on a teapot, I'd say make them in batches and let them change slightly within that batch. Then pick out the most successful form of that one and the next time teapots are made, start of with that form and see where it leads next. Hope that gives them some ideas!
Thanks Barbara and Gary for the comments- hope you stop in again!
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