I was a bit stuck over what to write about this week. I've not touched anything bead or jewellery related for a while, so I thought I'd share some of what I've been up to while not making beads. About 3 years ago, I acquired a pottery wheel. Every so often I would sit down and have a go and when beautiful pots didn't appear before my eyes I would put a board on it and it would go back to being a table.
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| My wheel |
Here it is looking unusually clean! Can't say the same for the surrounding area... I'm a messy worker!
It's been a dream of mine since I was young to have a wheel, but each time I sat down, I got the feeling that the time wasn't right and I'd give up and pack it up again. A couple of weeks ago, I moved it to the other side of the shed where it was a bit more accessible and tried again... something clicked and I managed to make a few things I was nearly happy with.
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| Wedged clay ready for throwing |
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| Throwing the clay down |
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| Centering |
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| Opening up to create the base |
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| Lifting the walls |
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| Tidying up |
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| Cut off the wheel |
I'm not quite up to making a matching set yet, but I like different!
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| Drying overnight so they're ready to trim |
It's great to finally feel like I'm getting somewhere!
So with my new found confidence, I decided to try out some mugs. I've been mad for carving recently, (it all started with Lindsay's Eye challenge when I made
Egyptian eye cabochons) and wanted to try the technique out on a larger scale. So after trimming my pots, I carved the design on to them and pulled some handles.
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| Action Shot - Trimming the foot |
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| Scoring the design |
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| Carved and smoothed |
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| Extruded sausages ready to pull handles |
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| Curving the handles |
This is the first one drying out ready for a bisque firing.
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| Waiting to fire. |
Still a bit wobbly, but getting closer to looking just like a real one!
I'll be working on the rest of them this week... hopefully I won't mess them up in the glaze firing!
