Wednesday-8am

Since I don't have video, I was trying to take progressive shots that would show you how Leah was carving the footing out for the rice bowl. She had already angled in the sides of the bottom--and then started on the very base of the bowl.

I had wondered how they kept the bowls from flying off the potters wheel when they flipped the greenware over--hehe! It has to be "leather hard" before you can do this part. They center them and then use little rolls of clay, as you can see. I find this endlessly fascinating!!

Here are some of the racks. There are a lot of things ready to fire and some that have been fired.

Here is the rice bowl after Leah finished the bottom of the bowl. This is the one that I tried to work on--hehe! Like I said, it's 98% Leah. :) I watched her put the notches in (so you can lay the chopsticks across the top of the bowl). I could have tried, but didn't want to wreck it.
Next week is the glazing! So I'll have to decide what color I want the bowl to be. I am actually thinking something bold--like maybe red and black--but then I love the earthtones....we'll see when I can see what colors we have to choose from.

In the meantime--we asked and, yes, I can turn in things for just bisqueware next Tuesday. (Bisqueware is only fired once and then can be hand painted instead of glazed and fired again. I used to do that when Dagan was little when ceramic shops were so popular.) I have been puzzeling and even waking up thinking about how I could make some hand-formed figurines and turn them into paperweights for the brush painting--possibly a fish, turtle, salamander, or toad. They have to be hollow inside and Leah said you have to use crumpled paper, a balloon, or something that will burn off in the kiln later.

[I had been thinking a rock inside, but that could explode in the kiln, Leah informed me--not good! Could use a rock with the polymer clay, tho--bakes at such a low temp. I can try that any time in the future.]

Then we were trying to think of how to weight them and seal them off on the bottom. Had thought of filling them with sand--but then you have the problem of how to seal the bottom?
On the way home with Dagan last night I was telling him about it and the light bulb went off!! The Plaster of Paris we bought that didn't work with the brass stencils! Could fill them up solid with that, I would think? I have to tell Leah this morning when she comes and see if she thinks that isn't the perfect solution, too?

Leah is coming over for a short time and we are going to play around and see if we can figure out how I could make the figurines--what to use to form the body around that will burn off in the kiln? Newspaper? Paper towels?

Leah can't stay too long today because she is busy getting ready for ValleyCon this weekend. She and Dagan always are involved running a booth for the event. Dagan has been busy getting three games ready that he will be hosting. I am probably not using the proper descriptions for these things--hehe! Anyways, got to go....