Popcorn bowl #1

Bowl #1 was made in class. No construction pictures. The method was one kind of coil building. As I recall, mine started caving out, so I had to make a "dart" - cut out a section and "glue" the edges back together. Initially, I was unhappy with the thing, but decided it wasn't so bad after all.

After firing, I decided to try the "peacock" method of glazing (at home). The idea is to create runs of color that resemble a peacock's tail. I used Mayco 'Stoned Denim' for the base, Amaco 'Honey Flux' for the U's and big circle, and Mayco 'Cinnebar' for the dots. I really don't know what I am doing - can you tell?

It didn't turn out the way I had hoped. Basically, the glazes did not run.

I *think* what I did next was overglaze the inside of the piece with 'Oatmeal' (or was it a layer of 'Honey Flux'? I really need to get better at making notes.) Anyway, the idea was to get some movement of the glaze. After yet another firing, the result was much better, closer to what I was aiming for.

Again, I did not allow for shrinkage, so this isn't much of a popcorn bowl by today's standards. When I was a kid, we had a set of salad bowls we used for popcorn, and they were about the size of this bowl. It just goes to show you how serving sizes have grown over the years.

Class four

The fourth hand-building class was to be on coil-building. I was pretty excited because I have struggled with this. And the instructor promised to teach us an "easy" method. Again, I neglected to take photos.

Her method was more of a hybrid between coil-building, pinching, and wheel-throwing. My first impression was, I don't like this. It took me two tries to come up with a quart-size popcorn bowl that would stand up. I've seen videos where the coils are more like long slabs, where the coils are thick as hawser rope, where the coils are very thin, so I'm aware that there is more than one way to make a coil-built bowl. But I was disappointed that what we learned was not more traditional.

Or maybe I was a bit disgruntled because the instructor pooh-poohed the container of slip I brought for constructing the wall vases. I was hoping for a bit of help with them, especially the cutting part, but was mostly left on my own. Consequently, they are not quite even. The instructor seemed alarmed that I was not going to carve them. Frankly, I cannot draw, let alone carve, so I brought them home and "carved" them using different pasta shapes.

After watching several YT videos on glazing with Amaco Celadon, I decided to work on a platter I made a while ago. Initially, I was going to use dark green underglaze (Amaco Decorating Colors) on the leaves, then top them with Celadon 'Jade', then cover the whole thing with Celadon 'Wasabi'. But after wiping off the underglaze, I decided to skip the Jade and just use the Wasabi. We'll see how it turns out.

Underglaze applied

Underglaze wiped off (mostly)

Glazed (but still a bit damp)

I admit that I get a bit disgruntled with myself because I am not a very good potter. But I remind myself that I have not been doing it long, and I like to experiment, so results are usually unexpected. I'm still itchy to get a small kiln of my own, so I can make my ugly pottery away from the public eye, as I do enjoy the process.