June

First an update on my large wave vase. It's hard to tell in this picture but the clay has lightened a lot since it is drying. It's a light gray color now and feels dry to the touch, probably another 3 weeks and it should be ready for bisque firing.















Since I have so much clay to use up I've been trying to make big pieces lately. Here is the start to a wheel thrown vase I made last week. I used about 9kilos (20lbs) of clay. This is one of my fav clays to use, nice and smooth red clay 104. It has a high iron content so it's a weaker clay (can't be fired in the noborigama) but it has a nice metallic sheen to it.













I was originally trying to make a tall egg shaped vase but I failed. It was going well at first but this clay is weak when thrown for long periods of time on the wheel. The constant use of water and the lack of stones makes it easy to flop. My arms were also getting tired, so my lack of power made the vase wobbly and uncentered towards the top. So in the end I cut most of the top off and made a large short vase instead. It's still super thick and heavy...but the shape turned out pretty well. Here it is fresh off the wheel.



After drying for a few days it was time to shave off all that weight. It was about 2 cm thick (when 1 cm is needed)











After about an hour of carving almost half the weight was taken off. Here are all the shavings, probably about 2 kilos worth.






The final pieces ready for drying. I shaved the outside and the inside to help fix the unevenness.











After the vase I had a some clay left over so I made 2 bowls. Not too big and not too small. I'll carve these next week.










I also had time for glazing the pieces I made a few weeks back. They're all red stone clay and a few are red stone and black stone mixes. This time I decided to try out some new color combos I've never tried before.

First are a coffee cup and small cereal bowl. Half is glaze Q,(red) which is very similar to glaze C. Q has a nice metallic tint to it, but I've never seen it on red stone clay so I'm not sure how it will turn out, hopefully well :) I did an accent color of glaze R (white) which I love, but this combo could look great or awful...






Next, black and red stone mix cup and bowl. Glaze C with glaze R accent, same as above slightly metallic, this combo could be great or ugly...









Last red stone bowl with glaze W and glaze R. Glaze W is a nice brown glaze with yellow undertones, this one should turn out well.










Only a month and half left at Sara Yama Studio....time to hustle! Until next time!