Glazes and . . . glazes

Thought I'd put a quick post up with some color, kind of. I've got six test mugs ready to fire. The absolute maximum I can get in my test kiln is seven, but that's good. It'll force me to do six or seven, learn from the firing and then go again. I am determined to feel like I have at least reasonable control or at least knowledge of what all the glazes are going to do with eachother and have a good idea of what works and doesn't before I glaze any more pots I have invested a lot of time in. Good plan!

One interesting note about these cups. I didn't like any of them when they were just sitting there as a piece of bisque. Now with some glaze on, even unfired glaze, they take on a whole new presence for me. I think I'll write about that later.

These are my five glazes. I know I said I was going to use only four, but two of them are blacks, so I figure that counts as one. One is a shiny black I use for a liner and another is a nice satin-matte subdued black that is nicer for the outside I think. I like that they all look different. It really helps keep my mind from getting a little overwhelmed, as we all know it can sometimes be hard to tell them apart at this stage. This was just luck by the way, not planning. Okay, gotta go. I've got to cut my day short because I am watching my little grandson tonight. That makes me think of another post. Hmmm. More later on, As The Wheel Turns.

On mug handles

I wanted to talk a little about my handles today. Before I get on to the design aspect, as you can see below I have a problem. As I said in an earlier post I would like the option to dip some pots into a white slip. I had concerns I would have issues with pots with attatchments and I was correct. I have absolutely nothing to offer as to how to prevent this from happening. Obviously there is a way around this, otherwise people could not be dipping pots into slips, engobes, and raw glazing. So I need to figure this out. I am going to try and raw glaze one coffee mug to see what happens. I have already glazed the inside of that mug, but now I know I cannot glaze the outside until I have learned a thing or two. If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Below is a detail of a handle. I like the way the handles look in the sense that visually I find them appealing in a surface kind of way. However . . .

The first things about all of these handles I think, is that they don't do anything to enhance the form. They serve the purpose of picking up a hot drink so you don't burn yourself. I can't say that satisfies me. I don't want them to just serve a purpose, I want them to contribute to the form in an aesthetic way-who doesn't. I think right off the bat I know one thing I need to learn to do. Something I have resisted with every fiber of my being for a long, long time. Something which frightens me and makes me want to shake my head from side to side saying no, no, no, no. I need to learn to pull a handle straight from the cup. I'm not talking about pulling handles and then attaching them. I mean the distasteful skill of attaching a partially pulled lug of clay onto the mug, and then pulling from the mug to finish. I think it is safe to say that what I am looking for will be found there. I know this is what I am seeing when I look others handles I appreciate-but I keep resisting and thinking I can figure a way around this. I think I am going to simply have to walk on through instead of around.


So this first mug. I like the shape of the mug but the handle seems more like the handle of a shovel, or something to be used to cantilever the cup. Notice how it, and all of these really are very thin where they attach to the cup at the top. It doesn't feel at all like it has grown from the cup or has a real relationship with the cup other than as something stuck on to help lift it. Boring. It's also kind of high, not that high handles are bad, but why is it high? What does that contribute to the pot? Nothing that I can see.

This second cup I think visually actually works well. Although it still has the issue of a lack of substance and being just sort of stuck on, it seems to grow up from the foot in a much nicer curve, kind of following the curve of the cup a little. Sadly this is not a great handle, but probably one of the most successful from this batch.

This handle below is awful in many ways. Again no feeling of growth from the pot, and it's big but attached in such a way that even with it's size you couldn't really get a few fingers in. It's like a two fingered handle that could fit four fingers in an awkward way. It does follow the curve of the base of the pot pretty well, so I guess it has one redeeming quality.

Yikes, yikes, yikes. Okay I have several similar to this. These are what I am coming to think of as the bad bridesmaid dress handles. Can you see it now? This little mug waddling down the isle with that big bow on the back of it's butt? How embarrassing for it. If I put another one on the other side and a little face it would also make a nice ear.

This handle below I think is just too high. Same lack of prescence and growth from the pot again as well. There is just nothing inviting about these. Nothing that can make you mentally imagine picking up the mug and holding it in your hand.


This handle below is almost successful in a way I think. It has that same lack of growth but I like the shape. However it feels very low to me. I'm probably being a little too hard on this one. I kind of like it, but something is stopping me from really liking it. Maybe if it just had a little more of a substantial attatchment that would do it.

Here again is one of my favorite mugs, except the handle. It suffers from the bow on butt syndrome, but this one sticks out so far I actually think of it more like victorian squeezed into a corset and then something wierd under my dress to make it stick really far out in the back cause it's the fashion syndrome. It looks like it should go have a cup of tea and a crumpet.


So I guess that's about it for now. Thanks for listening to my critique. It actually helps me to figure out what is wrong. I think I might try and post a few images soon of some handles of other potters cups that I feel are successful and try and figure out why. Bye for now!

Mug comparisons

So my idea is to compare some of the mugs from this round. I was going to compare handles, but I thought first I might deal with shape. Many of these look better in the photo I think. Holding them I get a different impression. Keep in mind that this is just what I am looking for in my own work, and I don't believe every successful mug should have these characteristics. I myself enjoy a huge variety of forms and styles from other potters. I'm just looking for something that works for me.

So example 1. Two mugs very similar, but different. I feel the top one is more successful. There is something about the swell of the belly that is a little more inviting and the rim dips in a little making the space feel slightly more enclosed.

Example 2. A similar form but it just sort of sweeps up. It's missing that little indentation above the foot that might give the base a little lift and no belly swell. Also the rim just flares out. It's very open and feels less comforting


Example 3. I feel like the top cup is more satisfying in shape. Again there is a nicer belly swell and a little movement also with a throwing rib.

Example 4 is very similar, but kind of dead on the outside and while there is a little swell, it's up kind of high. It's more like the pot is puffing it's cheeks out rather than taking a breath.


Example 5 is one of my favorites from the group. What do I like about it? Well again the round belly, and although it doesn't dip in a little at the rim it dips in below the rim in a decent curve and the lip has some fatness and nice undulation on the rim as well. Also nice lift at the foot.

Example 6 is missing the boat for me. I don't like the way it sweeps up so severely towards the belly and feels more like someone puffing out their chest rather than, again, taking a breath. Not much undulation, and no flaring out towards the rim. The rim has a nice fat quality, but that's about it. It's just kind of static.

I have many others I could compare today but I'll spare you the redundancy. You get the picture. I know I have been unsatisfied with many of my pots and although I can recognize a good pot it is often difficult to make that transition from my brain to the making. I read this great thing on someone's blog and I wish I remembered who, but she said something like, she was finally getting to the point where her hands matched her heart (she said it way better). I can totally understand that. I know what I am after in a vague way. It may not be an exact shape of a form, but it's a form that is successful in every way. All the parts are working as a whole.

I'll talk about my handles on my next post. I'll be glazing for a while now so won't have any new pots to put up and I don't want to run out of posts in one day!

So, several potters have stopped by to visit my blog and I just want to say hello and thank you to every one who does. I truly enjoy writing knowing you are reading.

Mug handles and slip

I handled a bunch of mugs today. It was awful. Sometimes this clay is just not plastic. My handles would just keep breaking in half and I'm quite sure it wasn't my application. Right out of the bag sometimes this clay, although it feels a little slippery and even sometimes has signs of mildew (good things to me as far as clay is concerned) when you do the bend test it breaks right in half. I've had this for at least two months so even if it was fresh when I got it it shouldn't be now.

So I was thinking. I'm not thrilled with my handles. They're fine, they don't suck in an obvious way, but a lot of them just are not complimenting the cups. Some look really good and so I was thinking that for my next post I will compare some of the cups and discuss why I think some are successful and why others are not. This will be good for me and hopefully help me figure out what I am after, and hopefully you might enjoy it too.

So I was wondering in my last post about dipping some things into slip but unsure about waxing while the pots were green. I was afraid the wax would trap water and start blistering up. Emily Murphy

responded to my post and said she thought waxing would be fine and it worked great. You may be wondering why I would want to dip my darker stoneware into white slip and I'll tell you. Below you see two test pots glazed with exactly the same glazes outside. The one on the right has been slipped first. It really makes my white pop and my orangy-brown a much brighter orange. I like the one on the left very much. It has a nice earthiness to it, but I also love the brightness of the slipped pot. It makes the pot feel a little more vibrant. I intend to do both and it's nice having the option.

So, stay tuned tomorrow for another episode of One Cup To Handle.

Emily Murphy's Pottery Blog Info

Here's a couple more photos of some pots. There'll be some more interesting work done over the slipped areas-I think I'll do some oxide brush work instead of sgraffito. I often try and do things differently of different sides of a pot. The first two photos here are the same pot-circle on one side and tall stripe on other (my how ingenious)

The next two pots are the same pot again, but my little sgraffito lines go vertical on one side and horizontal on the other. Not a huge difference, but I still find it makes it more interesting.

So if you haven't already checked out Emily Murphy's Blog this morning yet she has some fantastic info regarding promoting your blog or at least trying to get search engines to recognize it. A lot of people probably don't realize that just the act of putting something on the web doesn't mean a search engine will pick it up. They often have to be encouraged to do so (poor little bots, they have a lot to do). She's got some great advice. One quick tip I just did that she made me think of was link to my blog from myspace so that I know I have a link pointing here which helps the search engines and I just linked back to it here for the sole purpose of creating a reciprocal link which can't hurt my luck either (don't bother looking at my myspace page, there is absolutely nothing of interest there-but maybe I should change that-the only reason I have myspace for is to be able to contact my wandering son, who by the way, has not called me in three months-little bastard-but I'm digressing). Another easy thing to do is to consider what you title your post (again I learned all this while reading Emily's post). What you title your posts apparently becomes the url of the page, so something to think about when naming posts- my titles are usually a little vague so maybe I should rethink that. So anyway, a lot of good info. Thank you Emily -and I tagged all my photos this time!

Pottery post

So these are a few images of the jars I started the other day. I wanted to dip some pots into white slip, but I need to give it some thought. Not sure what to do to keep it off the bottom and gallery without waxing the greenware. I guess I could wipe after but that's a lot of wiping.



I made three of them with holes for a honey stick because a friend of mine wants a honey pot.

I wedged these up and threw from about five till eight but I only got 36 of them done. Like a dozen or so left-coffee mugs. Humming right along I seem to max out at 14 and hour at most. I tend to spend a couple minutes tweaking the form. But I'm not a machine so who cares. Well, I'm pretty tired so not much to write today.

I hate guitar circle

So this is what I spent today doing. Everything was really way too soft to finish yet (at least according to how I usually work) but I didn't want to make any new pots today. I have found that creating tall ovals with altered bases is difficult because I can not get my hand inside easily to attatch the floor and smooth inside. I'll have to give this some thought because I like the form. I did realize that I probably need to wait until I have attached the floor before I alter the rim shape to give my hand more room. So, I guess that's that.

I'm off to my guitar thing again. Sick of going really. Everyone takes it too seriously now. Like we're a band or something. I thought we were just a bunch of people hanging out and having fun and it's way less fun having it feel like school. I've actually been shushed a couple of times while myself and someone were talking. I'm not kidding. I think that's when I first started to metally back off the whole thing. I probably only go about every three weeks or so now. I have done, and still do way too many things in my life that I have HAD to do. Why choose to do something now that I don't have to do, and which makes me feel like I'm twelve again?

A sweet little android

This is my throwing area.
This is Lance Henrikesen.

A lot of you will probably immediately recognize him. He's an actor and has been in a bazillion movies. Check him out on line if you're curious or don't recognize him now and you will start to. Personally I will always think of him as the android from the movie Aliens. Not the first one with the bad android, but the second one with the good android. What you might not know however is that he is also been a potter for over 40 years. This photo is from an old mag of mine, ceramics monthly I think, can't remember the issue.

Some possible good news. I think my glaze disaster might not be as disasterous as I originally thought.