Playing with porcelain and enjoying the clean contrasts & shadows of the stamping.
Trimming & handles coming soon…

Tonight I tackled all of the porcelain reclaim I dried over the past two days. It was a lot of hammering, smashing & pulverizing to get it down to small pieces & powder. A good workout that will pay off with a lot of FREE clay! And look, it already filled up my large reclaim bin… plus a bit more in another bucket too!

After cranking through a lot of work getting ready for ART IN THE BARN, I found that I had a lot of clay scraps to reclaim.I’ve been breaking them up and submerging them in my reclaim bucket. So the scraps have slaked down & re-hydrated to a very wet, gooey clay. So I turned it out onto a large plaster bat. The plaster will draw the water out of the clay quicker… and in a couple days I can start wedging it up for a LOT of “free” clay.

And then since I had an empty reclaim bin… I decied to wash it out and switch to reclaiming some porcelain. I had a few scraps of my own to break up. But I also had several clay bags full of porcelain from my friend & potter Emily.

So I started breaking them all up all of the scraps… and then dumped them into my reclaim bin with water.

But then I found several of Emily’s bags had clay that wasn’t quite dry yet. Reclaiming clay works so much better when you start with dry scraps. The water seems to soak in more evenly and faster. So I spread out the rest of Emily’s porcelain scraps so they can dry overnight.

More breaking, crushing, smashing and submerging tomorrow!!!

Also got some pretty sweet new mugs out of the kiln. I’ve been playing in the studio a little with porcelain… and LOVING the results coming out of the soda kiln. Looks like there will be more of these coming soon… as these are all going to ART IN THE BARN this weekend!!!

I love when you can throw some pieces in the morning,
stamp them AND trim them all in one day!

A veritable “tunnel” of porcelain handles.

Tonight I had some porcelain cylinders that were stamped, trimmed and ready for handles. So I start by making carrot-shaped wedges of clay.

Then I pull the handles the traditional way and set them up with the curve already established.

The hardest part for me is waiting for them to set-up a bit before trying to attach them. The first couple handles are always the hardest to get right as I’m usually too impatient… and then trying to put them on while they’re too limp & squishy.

Score. Slip. Repeat.
Score. Slip. Repeat.
Score. Slip. Repeat.    again…     and again…   and again…

So now they’re wrapped up for the night under plastic. My thought is that the moisture levels will balance out a bit and the handles will be less likely to crack off later as they dry. No guarantee… but my success rate is pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

Spent some time in the studio “detailing” this evening.

After this morning’s race, I went to the Bucktown Arts Festival to see some of My Talented Friends. A goo dchance to say hello, see some art and walk off a little stiffness. Then to the studio for some more “porcelain therapy.” Gotta wrap ’em up so I can get home early to pack my gear, eat well & go to bed early for tomorrow’s big adventure!

Registered. Checked-in. Tagged. And in the studio for a little pre-race “porcelain therapy” before the big race weekend.