Another good lesson for my campers… if they let their terra cotta dry too fast so that it’s no longer usable, we’re NOT going to toss it in the reclaim bucket. The easy-out. Instead, we’re drying it out and then they need to pulverize it so we can quickly turn it into terra cotta slip for them to use! Tough work… but it’s all part of the process.

Spent the afternoon in the studio doing some stamping & slip decorating. Thankful that these vases didn’t dry out too much while I was off racing yesterday!

While I am not a “factory” cranking out the pottery… it is sometimes interesting to see how production pottery is made. And how every step in the process has been maximized & streamlined. Got to get me one of those plate-making machines! And the “insta-glazing” system… as we all know how much I hate glazing!!!

Click here for the Production Pottery video.

Spent some time tonight trimming my stamped cylinders… with my favorite trimming tool. THE GIFFIN GRIP. It’s a brilliant contraption that instantly centers things and makes my trimming life so much easier in the studio!!! Love it.

So I spent the evening doing a bit of stamping. I had a few cylinders that were on the wetter-side of leatherhard… perfect for stamping! So here’s a quick tour of the cylinder before & after AND the stamps that did the magic!!! Some are stoneware reclaim, and others are porcelain. Now all stamped, patterned & textured!!!

Next up?….
A bit more drying under plastic, then trimming… and then HANDLES!!!

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Spent the afternoon making some more FREE clay. My reclaim was turned out onto a large plaster bat a few days ago. The gooey clay has firmed up a bit… so it was a day full of “fast-drying” with slices in front of the fan, and a LOT of wedging!!! But still… five bags of FREE CLAY!!! And you know how I like free clay!

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And then today after Summer Camp, I decided to re-fill my “recently-emptied” reclaim bucket. So I washed it down and started filling it with porcelain scraps. A potter friend in Minneapolis gives me ALL of her reclaim scraps… so I have a lot of dried porcelain to process. This afternoon I started pulverizing, filling my bin and then adding water to help slake it down. A little bit of work to get a whole lot of FREE clay!!!

Yesterday, after summer camp, I turned out a huge pile of reclaimed clay. These are all of my scraps & trimmings from my weeks of art fair production. I broke down the scraps and soaked them in water for a few weeks. The trimmings are nice & gooey. So I mixed it up and turned it out onto a large plaster bat to help absorb the excess moisture. When it stiffens up a bit, I’ve going to have a LOT of wedging to do!!!

Just making a couple larger bowls. I find it’s easier to throw them larger and shape them of the clay is in the firmer side to start with. Easier to throw, but a bit tougher to center. These started out with about 6-pounds of clay each.

After they were thrown & shaped, the let them set-up overnight under some plastic. Then they were good for stamping & detailing.

Here’s the second large bowl in sharp contrast to the smaller cereal bowls on the bats nearby.

The outside is stamped with larger stamps. The inside shows the finger divots and smaller accent stamp. The rim is fluted and detailed.

Here’s a quick glimpse of a fun platter a made as a class demo. I placed a lace doily onto the freshly-thrown plate surface and carefully covered it with thick white slip. Pull off the lace.. and voila’! Sure, it’s taken me awhile to get it glazed, but I think it was worth the wait.