and mug the second

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And here's the second mug, coming from the spring 2015 session of my pottery class.

This one is a much frostier green, but still has a bit of a sheen to it, and isn't pure matte.  This one also pools blue because SHOCKER I choose green and blue glaze combos. 

This is another runny but really pretty combo: standard pottery pale seaweed, topped with a dip of moss.  Moss is a semi-matte, almost like velvet, and pale seaweed is a pale frosty matte mint that can puddle bright blue and glossy.  Together the chemistry turns them into this combo, which I find lovely.  

please to note, you can also see where I whacked the mug off kilter where I attached the handle.  Oops.

Again, you can't quite see the blue puddle in the bottom, but trust, it's there. 

This is another mug where I purposefully created a glaze catch while trimming the foot, just to give the glaze runs a place to pool and collect and (hopefully) not run all the way down the foot and fuse the bugger to the shelf. 

Another mug

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So the spring session of pottery has wrapped up, which means I now have a bunch of pieces back with me.  I've been working on mug forms, because handles are a pain in the ass and clay shrinkage is also a pain in the ass, and I will figure this out if it kills me.  

But I came out of these last few classes with two mugs that I'm very pleased with.  Today, mug the first, aka, a seaweed mug.

the seaweed mug.  shows the variations, but not quite nailing it on color. But, ooh, look at my filthy porch newel post!

This is the same glaze combo as yesterday's bowl, and the first of these older mugs--one dip chambray, one dip frosted moss.

inside the seaweed mug.  Can't quite see the true blue pool in the bottom.

I'm pretty happy with the size and form of this mug as well.  The handle sits nicely, and isn't too thin or too chunky for my taste.  The body is big enough to hold a giant cup of coffee, and I'm happy with the points of attachment on the handle, with the thumb rest doodad and the little roll at the bottom.

most accurate to color, and shows the pooling around the details and the glaze catch. Also, my lawn!

I'd done a glaze catch at the bottom while trimming the foot, and it's a damn good thing I did with this glaze.  Even though I thinned out the glaze on the bottom of the body after the second dip and wiping the foot clean of extra glaze, it still ran a ton, and puddled blue right at the catch.  Also note my thumbprint which the glaze ran clear over.  

Those lighter areas look at first like places where the glaze is thin or broke too much over the edge, but they're still pretty smooth to the touch.  It definitely broke hard on the edges of the handle though.

Seaweed bowl

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Not literally a seaweed bowl.  But a glaze combo that to me looks like seaweed, and pools a deep clear blue.

pretty pools of blue.  please to note the sippy cup in the background, along with the ikea bowl with the dregs of broccoli.  KLASSY!

One dip Standard pottery glaze chambray under one dip frosted moss. I love it 

I've used this combination on at least one or two other pieces, but I think I've finally nailed it's quirks a bit more.  It pools blue where the chambray was heavy--which I used to my advantage inside the bowl and didn't quite dump all the chambray out while glazing.  But only on the inside of a bowl because this combination is super fucking runny. This piece has a bit of a ridge to act as a glaze catch, so it didn't run down the foot and onto the shelf.

see the mottling? Also say hi to my dad (and the messy kitchen).  Hi Mr. Tom! 

It's glossy, but translucent on the edges and texture and breaks a bit browny green on edges. But when the dips are too thin, it's dry. Where the frosted moss was heavier, it brings up some of the lighter colors and looks as though it'd be matte (as the frosted moss is a matte glaze on its own), but is still shiny with a bit more of a velvet sheen.

A wee tumbler

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remember what I said about shrinkage with clay? Well this one I knew was going to be wee. 

a tiny tumbler. Probably good for bourbon, right?

I normally lean toward pieces with feet, glazed in something with a bit of blue, and this piece has neither. I am pleased with the balance, both shape and weight wise, but also with the glaze.

ok maybe a little bit of blue

The first dip of glaze is cream, which is a soft semi matte, with a bit of a velvety hand to it. Interestingly it broke a bit reddish brown (shino-y) where it was heavy. Then I dipped the room in moss, which alone is a complex brown-green semi matte. Through the magic of chemistry, not only did the overlap come out glossy and somewhat translucent, but it ran a frosty baby blue at the lightest application.  

Glaze is not like paint where red and blue pigments make purple. The components of glaze change chemically in the kiln as they melt and attach themselves to the clay body, and when you combine two glazes they interact with each other as well. Even there color of the glaze when dipped doesn't necessarily correlate to the color when fired. So instead of red plus blue equals purple, it's more like bathtub plus lunchbox equals telephone. 

the inside. Totally bourbon, right?

two mugs

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I've been throwing pottery pretty consistently for the last six or so years (save a full year off when I had the littlest little, cause baby).  I started doing pottery back in high school in my outstanding and amazing Crafts elective taught by the outstanding and amazing and terrifying (in the BEST WAY) Ms. G.  That's a whole 'nother post though. 

I take classes at a local studio, which fires stoneware to cone 6.  Right now we're working through some reclaim clay, which doesn't really bother me (save the THREE times I've picked out plaster--what? BAD--and the one time I found a piece of packing strapping in my clay.  Annoying, but at least I found it).

So here are two of my most recent results.

mug the first

DETAIL OF THE HANDLE DWEEDLYBOB THING (AKA, ADDED BIT OF CLAY I SMOOSHED WITH MY FAVORITE CARVED BISQUE STAMP I MADE A FEW YEARS AGO)

I really like this first mug.  This glaze combo is Standard pottery glaze Chambray (first dip) with Frosted Moss (second dip).

I'm pleased with the translucence of the glaze, and how it settled in the stamped lines and pooled on the handle and the interior.  I'm also pretty pleased with the foot of the mug--I love big feet on pottery.  While I was trimming this one, I added a small ridge right by the foot with the idea that I'd glaze this one with one of the slightly runny glaze combos. The ridge acts as a bit of a glaze catch to keep it from running all the way down the foot and onto the shelf.  It mostly worked, too.  

The one thing is there are two bits of something or other on the interior of the mug, embedded in the glaze.  I suspect it's something that was in one of the glazes itself, and it's not easily reached to grind or polish off.  

mug the second.  please to note the SUPER KLASSY photo platform of my notebook, and background of the messy kitchen. 

drippy glaze is the best glaze! unless you have to clean the kiln shelves. then it's the worst ever.

I chose the bottom glaze on the second mug on purpose, but I'm still on the fence about it.  I like it in parts, and I love the combination with the second partial dip (which is a full dip on the interior).  After the first dip, I waxed the bottom a bit higher up so I could just dip full on into the second glaze, but the best parts, right by the handle, are where I kind of smudged the two glazes together a bit with a damp sponge, and where the wax wasn't a hard line.  

The real issue is that it ran right down and off the handle, and pooled on the shelf, so I had to grind/sand/diamond polishing block a chunk of glaze off the bottom of this one.  No foot, no glaze catch. 

This one is first dip (long dip) of Standard pottery glaze Snow on Brick, topped with Midnight Sky.  

I'm still awful with negotiating the shrinkage percentage of the clay--all clay shrinks as it dries, then again in the kiln, so to get an item of a specific size you often have to make it bigger than you eventually want.  I like big mugs and so these are a bit small for me. Eh, getting there.