Making those forty some bowls proved to be somewhat of a challenge. The bowls were going to be imprinted; in general when soft clay is being imprinted shapes have a tendency to distort. Especially bowls and plates are prone to develop edge cracks if they are thrown too thin and also imprinted. To combat possible problems the bowls were thrown on the thick side. The throwing part was simple enough: matching diameter and height, thrown thick or thin; after forty some years of throwing I can do that part in my sleep! What made things a challenge was that not only needed these bowls to be properly footed, they also needed to be imprinted with letters around the edge AND the convention seal on the "body". On the rim there was plenty of room for the letters, I made a special tool to give me a nice flat surface to make imprinting easier. The body (curve) of the smaller bowls, however, could barely accommodate the convention stamp. So I had a choice: foot the bowl while it was really too soft to be footed or wait until the bowl was leather hard. Should I elect to foot the bowl at the leather hard stage I would run the risk of the bowl being too hard to take the convention imprint… or the letters in the rim for that matter… Some choice! ;-) Good thing I have a little experience in these matters. Very carefully I footed each bowl when it was really way too soft to be footed.
Then onto the decorating wheel to be imprinted. In order to imprint the edge of the bowl, I constructed a slanted platform on which I placed the decorating wheel: placing the footed bowl on the slanted decorating wheel made the edge of the bowl practically vertical and imprinting became a lot easier. Necessity is the mother of invention! Bring it on! I can do this! :-)
Once the bowls were footed and imprinted, they were stacked opening to opening on the drying rack shelves to dry, slowly! Everyday I would turn the pairs of bowls over so the drying would take place gradually and equally.
Now that all the pots have been made, firing is an almost every day occurrence. At 238 degrees it is almost time to unload the kiln and load it right back up. When the kiln is being fired he temperature in the studio hovers around 85 degrees, facilitating drying of the remainder of the pots.
While the kiln is cooling, the next load is being glazed. The next load will consist of the very last plate, some storage jars and all the small harvest jugs as well as a few hump mold pieces. Some pieces are being glazed by dipping, others by the pouring method, yet others by spraying. By the time the glazing was done it was time to empty the kiln. In order to take advantage of the residual heat that is still present in the kiln, the kiln will be loaded right back up and a new firing cycle will be programmed in the computer control. Nifty these new-fangled “kiln-sitters”!
Everything in the load survived! Two jars had a surface crack in the bottom, but none went all the way through. We can fix that! Now to load it up again! As soon as the firing is under way, we’ll fit the corks on the storage jars and make the hanging wires for the plates.
The last wall plate, the first seven harvest jugs and the large storage jars as well as a few hump- mold pieces survived the firing. Not having had but two casualties after this many firings in a row, I cannot help but think that this assignment is blessed indeed. When years ago I made harvest jugs I was always holding my breath that they would make it through the firing cycle. Generally one out of five would not make it for one reason or another. Not this time! Next we’ll fit the corks on the storage jars and the harvest jugs.
\
Next is the filling in of all those letters on all those bowls and drape mold pieces. Good thing it is too hot outside this Memorial Day weekend. Ninety degrees is a little more than I can handle so I’m in the air conditioned studio doing the tedious task of filling and wiping…Between the bowls, drape mold pieces and the large harvest jugs it will take the better part of the day to get them all done. In between filling letters I made, by way of diversion, another five-gallon batch of glaze. While doing the latter I realized that this particular order used up almost one thousand pounds of clay and ten gallons of glaze…
Glazing of all those bowls could be a real chore if one didn’t have the right piece of equipment for the job. The most efficient way to glaze hollow items like bowls is to hold them by the foot rim and dipping them in a vat of glaze. In this case a five-gallon bucket. That dipping will take care of the outside, but because of the vacuum created on the inside when the bowl is pushed into the glaze the inside will not get glazed. Glazing the inside will require the use of a glaze fountain. Using a five gallon bucket, an old backyard swimming pool pump and some PVC pipe the fountain was
initially built to glaze the inside of five hundred mugs. That particular order required the mugs to be white inside, blue on the outside. Once again necessity was the mother of invention and the glaze fountain materialized. It will come in really handy this time around! A foot switch operates the fountain. One holds the bowl over the fountainhead; foot pressure activates the pump/fountain and presto! Inside of bowl is glazed. Then the bowl is dipped into a five-gallon bucket with glaze and the glazing part is history. All very quick and very efficient!
In order to have an efficient firing, all those little hump-mold pieces will be glazed by dipping. When loading the kiln they will be placed in the vacant spaces between the bowls. Bowls are notorious for taking up (and wasting) lots of valuable firing space, so it behooves the operator to have little “fill-in” pieces on hand.
Operating the glaze fountain requires a bit of foot/eye/hand- coordination. Grasped by the foot rim the bowl is held over the fountain head, the foot presses the switch and the hand rotates the bowl to assure an even coating on the inside. Once done with the fountain, the bowl is dipped in the red bucket of glaze to coat the outside. Glazing a bowl this way is a snap. Doing fifty some bowls does result in some cramped fingers, the tendency to drop a bowl is great, especially if the foot rim is not substantial … Fortunately none of the bowls were dropped, although on two occasions there were some tense moments…
Having the best of intentions not to make a mess in the studio, operating that fountain does get a little tricky: every once in a while the foot switch gets pushed when there is no bowl over the fountain head…Thanks goodness for easy clean linoleum floor and a mop!
The firing was a success! No casualties… again! Must be doing something right! ;-) The kiln was loaded right back up again to take advantage of the residual heat. Judging from the amount of pots left on the drying rack, it looks like three, maybe four firings will finish off this order. Other than glazing, loading and unloading the kiln and packing the pots, I will not be in the studio as often as I have gotten used to over the last six months…
After having been so busy in the pottery it will be almost strange NOT to be in the studio… My time will be taken up by working on the house and hopefully, by the end of July we can move in.
…In order to meet the deadline of July 1st, I elected to make the plates and the mugs first, since they would take the longest to dry. Should I lose some in the drying or firings there would be time to replace them. Fortunately all but one of the plates survived the firing and all but two of the mugs survived.
Next on the list were 28 ceramic-lidded urns. Large and medium size, for a total of 28. Wedging all the clay needed for those took the wind out of me, but the throwing was a piece of cake…
All of them survived the firing and between the plates, mugs, and lidded urns boxes upon boxes are stacking up in the studio. Fortunately Jerry, the President of the Indiana Chapter of the ADGA came and took all the boxes off my hands. I had room to move around in the studio again!
Next it was on to 14 straight-sided corked storage jars and two large harvest jugs. I’m beginning to see the light at the end of this tunnel! While waiting for the harvest jug parts to be leather-hard so I can assemble them, I threw the medium size straight-sided storage jars, then the larger size.
…And then, just as I was beginning to think about making some cute hump mold pieces, the phone rang…. It was Jenny, the ADGA lady who started this whole thing: In addition to the two large harvest jugs that I had already made, could I please make seven medium and seven larger harvest jugs…. Hello! Thanks a lot Lady! You know how long those kinds of things take to dry? Should anything go wrong, there will not be time to replace them. Better get busy and make the parts right NOW! Harvest jugs, for those who do not know are made out of six pieces: two “plates” that are joined to form the body, a thrown foot for the body to sit on, topped off with a thrown neck and finally two pulled handles. It does not take long to throw the individual pieces, but the joining needs to take place at just the right time, as does the imprinting… Timing is crucial and when one has to make 14 of them nerves will be somewhat frayed as the clay dictates when things need to be done!
Once the “plates” were just shy of “leather-hard” they were imprinted with the convention seal and the individual names/titles. The imprinted “plates” were joined to form the body and, after a day under plastic to equalize the moisture content, all the parts were joined
Covered in plastic, the harvest jugs shall be left alone until dry. The slower they dry the less chance of cracking and since there is no time to replace them before the deadline, we shall be patient and let nature takes it’s course… slow, slow drying!
Now for a bit of fun, making 39 “hump” or drape” mold pieces. Each piece consists of two slabs of clay that are formed over a “hump” mold or “drape” mold. The slabs are made using a small slab roller that produces a 1/4” thick slab, perfect for piggy banks and similar sized small pieces. The slab is draped over the hump mold imprinted and, when it is just shy of leather-hard, the piece are joined and topped off with a wheel-thrown neck. Or in the case of one are transformed into a piggy bank. The making of these pieces is slow and tedious as far as the imprinting is concerned, but fun when they are being assembled.
All that remains now is the throwing of 40 assorted bowls and lots and lots of drying time for all these pieces…then the imprinting will be filled in with the cobalt slip, things will be glazed by dipping or spraying and between now (the middle of May) and the due date the kilns will be working overtime. Are we having fun yet?
Last Fall I was commissioned to create and produce all the awards for the annual convention of the American Dairy Goat Association. Seventy-five some mugs twenty some wall plates and over a hundred assorted bowls, harvest jugs and storage jars. All items to be imprinted with the 2006 convention logo and individual award titles. Talk about fabrication and assembly! In late December I started the job and made the stamps and some trial pieces. In February I started the assignment in earnest. In the morning I’m being a production potter and in the afternoon I work on the house.
The plaster master stamps for the
mugs and the bowls and the
trace “stamp” for the plates.
Mug bodies and handles waiting to be assembled, stamped and lettered
On day “one” I’d throw twenty-one mugs (seven of’’em fit on a ware board, hence the twenty-one!) Covered with plastic until day “two” the bodies would be just right to have the handles added to them. Then the tedious task of imprinting both with the 2006 convention stamp and then with individual letters… down the list…. Once done the mugs went upside down on the drying rack, covered with plastic until dry.
Once the mugs were done I started the plates, each one to be imprinted with the convention stamp and individual award titles on the border.
Plates take a long time to dry. They also have a tendency to crack when dried too fast, so once they were all made, I just covered them with plastic and “forgetaboutdum”. Meanwhile some of the mugs were dry enough to have the stamp and the letters filled in with cobalt colored clay slip, a process reminiscent of the old Japanese mishima technique. I spent a pleasant morning doing that tedious job while listening to Bach. What a life!
After the letters and stamps were filled in with the cobalt slip, excess slip was wiped off with a damp sponge and then the mugs were glazed.
First the inside, one into the next, then the “dunkle” for most of the outside
and then the bottom half “dunkle”. Wipe off the bottom with a damp sponge.
…and into the kiln they go…
The lettering and stamping on the plates also needs to be filled in. Better take my time and relax, because it is a very tedious and boring process. Each plate takes as much as fifteen minutes… Oh well, Bach makes it an acceptable passage of time. The first fifty mugs are being fired and with my back to the kiln it’s kinda cozy, all that warmth!
Forty nine out of fifty made it!