'P' is for Pottery

I returned to the studio today.

I threw a large rocket, firing chuck, and a set of three engine bells. The piece will be shorter than the Lunar Queen, the one that sold at the Worldcon art show, but it is larger than most but my first few rockets. The fins are going to start just after the body of the rocket curves in to the tail, and the outer edge will be strait lines that are parallel to the direction of flight. The inner edge of the fins will curve into the spaces between the engine bells. I'm debating whether to add stubby canard fins. There was one rocket that exploded in the kiln that had canard fins, and it was the first one that I had thown with the inner edge of the tail fins intruing into the bell gap.

I threw a small rocket as well, one that won't have engine bells, and will have minimum carving. The amount of work to create the little rockets will be less, so I can set a lower starting price on it. I figure that I can try to sell a couple of these little rockets at each convention. If the bidding warms up enough, then the buyers may hop over to some of my mid price pieces.

The last piece that I threw was a tall vase. I have some doodles of tall vases, with different simple shapes and patterns carved into them, like geometric shapes, flowers, and bamboo. Stephanie had me draw her a vase, and then did a simple column of flowers decoration. I'll blow up her flower design, transfer it to the piece, and then carve the outline of all of the flowers. I plan to have the body of the piece white crackle, the flowers pink with yellow centers underglaze covered in clear crackle , and the foot, rim, and flower outline matte black. The outline will make the flowers look a bit cartoony, but that is part of the look that I am going for.

Julie is still working in the studio, so I am going to pull together a green chili.