Monday, October 11, 2010

One Hundred Pounds of Productivity

For the past two afternoons I have had the opportunity to throw pottery, uninterrupted, with productive results! This was the weekend for bigger items and trying to finish a few orders. It's been a while since I've thrown about 100 pounds in a few days, but I'm not in any pain (thankfully, and I know I shouldn't have any pain if I throw correctly, but I figured my muscles which have not been used as much would be complaining)! My favorite thing to throw are bottles, and it was great to get back in the groove of making bottles. I love the shapes, and I received a request for an eighteenth-century style bottle, which I have a photo of here:
I went for an English style, mostly London-based. I think the handles are pretty good, but something to work on more.
I also tried out a new rim style. I have been making my rims and lips of pitchers similar to this for a few years:
I'd been using a rib tool to make indentations on the side of the lip
 But I have been wanting a little more flare, and a little more rise around the lip, so I tried this:
I left more clay at the rim and then pulled the edges of the lip up to get that rise
I've also had a request for one liter tankards. I never quite wrapped my head around how big that was, until I realized my Nalgene holds one liter. They're really big! So, tankards have taken over several shelves of my ware rack:
Tankard Fest 2010
The finishing touches were to put glass on some of the mugs and vases I threw, as well as on a few of the pitcher handles:
I am a devotee to green wine bottle glass. I've never had good luck with brown bottle glass, and have not had the chance to get any pure glass from a glass distributor. It's a good excuse to drink wine too.

3 comments:

Mommy-of-5 said...

They are looking great! Do you have any pictures of the green bottle glass after firing?

Dan Finnegan said...

Very nice bottles, Brenda. Handles have great shape, but perhaps could be a bit smaller? Same with mug handles, at least from my vantage point here in Virginia. You could tell me to mind my own business....I've decided to make pots rather than go to ACC. How about yourself?

Liberty Stoneware said...

Naomi, I will try to get some photos up for you soon. Dan, the tankard handles are large and manly for manly men that drink 1 liter of their beverage of choice. Actually, it was also the thought of how big a handle needed to be to a.)support a 1 liter vessel and b.)fit a man's hand. They don't seem to be uncomfortable to my size hand, so I hope they'll be decent for a man's. Some of the pitcher handles are a little further out than they could be, I'll work on that. I've decided to bite the bullet and go to the ACC even though I cannot get there until Friday morning. I think it will be worth it.