Mediterranean olive jar style

A stormy day outside and so a good time for a quick blog. Here's some-more-a large terracotta pots in the Italian fashion.

these pots are 1.5cm thick at the base tapering to 1 cm at the widest point(560 wide 700mm high before firing). Nearly 40 KGs of clay in each pot

one day I'll stretch a goat skin over something like this for an awesome dejembe drum.

horses sure like their water fresh. they stand around the watering hole all day drinking a average of around 50 liters of water a day, its a good thing they only eat grass.

 more research on that Italian plaster moulding for handle finishes.They do the same detailing to ceilings as they do to pots and probably furnishings too.

Saddle Hill on a fine day.

Today the weather ain't so good .

Direct from the source

This month I've been digging clay from behind the barn about 30 meters away where I have the wheels set up. The clay is quite sandy and a bit short (not very plastic) so its been a challenge to throw and hard to get a good pull out of a coil slowing down progress some. I could mix in some ball clay and maybe a little bentonite but the challenge was to make a large pot straight outta the ground, little bits of grit and stone and other impurities left in to give a natural texture that will blend in well with the local environment.

Clay in its natural state, simply crush and add water. Just have to be careful I don't end up with 10 bags of river silt!

Two good sized terracotta pots based on Mediterranean olive jars

A nice fat rim and a triple coil lug as a finishing touch

Another great way to warm up and also a fun way to kill some time between coils - jungle drums.

Now its time to get into a rhythm of making more big pots and the challange of firing these can be an art in itself. The secret is long and slow.

Spring...almost

Some wierd light

its good to take a break and wander about taking photos.

Some nearby terracotta clay, straight out of the ground, then pug milled little stones and all for a natural textured body .I hope to coil some large pots with this local clay in the upcoming spring and warmer weather.

Coil Master

Some people score and slurry between coils, others use no slurry at all.Whatever works for the individual. here's a guy that's got it sorted, wheel or no wheel.

Cold As Clay

More snow, another day off work. Not only was it a one in a hundred year event (the same thing happend three weeks ago) this front came with stronger gale force winds ,big seas ,blizzards etc.
As for potting, its a good time to do a bit of maintanence, tests , some coiling or sculpture maybe but just too cold for throwing.

I wasnt going to work or anywhere till i spent a couple of hours on the chainsaw, a great way to keep warm.

Deconstruction: Old wheel in need of a rebuild. This time itll be plywood instead of custom wood that swells with water contact.(sigh)

Extruding Test Tiles

To speed things up a little, I made a wooden dye for my pug mill for extruding test tiles.And in less than the time it took to clean it, I had about 70 southstone tiles cut and drying. I am planing 2 consecutive firings,both using straight canola oil, one in oxidation the following in reduction with 30 glazes on 2 stoneware bodies white and buff.About 60 tests in each firing in all.
I have been blogging for 1 year now, its made a great visual diary and it definitely helps steer a course.Mainly this year I have extensively tested a  batch of glaze materials, prepared a terracotta clay body,that will be a year old by the spring, building and firing kilns and... pottery stuff in general. Its been good times.

T shaped extruder dye, made out of plywood and placed inside the nozzle of a small home made pug mill.

Rapid fire test tiles.

Not a bad winters day. 12 degrees cel. approx.

Firing a minigama kiln.These wee kilns really rock and use the same principles as bigger kilns.A good way to spend an afternoon. Looking forward to more of this and have always wanted to scale one of these up.

Orange and black.Now that's an atmosphere.

So pretty, Oh so pretty

Winter's arrived in all her glory. With snow falling to sea level from one end of the country to the other. Not much fun for doing pottery although I did some turning yesterday, but it will give me a chance to photo and log the salt glaze tests I've done recently. Here are some images of the icy conditions.       

So cold -minus 5 degrees Celsius according to the pyrometer.

                                         

From the inside looking out. I won't be doing much down here today. I have more turning to do but drying times have gone from two hours in the height of summer to three or four days in the middle of winter.

Yesterday the snow began falling but I still got some plates trimmed up.

Horses turned out and given a feed.

Summer studio and house in background. I won't be potting here till spring,when I will get into making big pots again ...can't wait.

The woodshed well stocked with dry kindling (sticks, leaves and twigs) along with split pine, macrocapa, acacia and eucalyptus.

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting that the olive oil has congealed with the cold, but not the canola oil, something to consider at this time of year when trying to get the stuff through a fuel line.Not that I'm in any hurry to fire anyway as I have to pick up more second hand fire bricks for the wicket, at least three large shelves that will be cut down to size and switch to a buff stoneware clay for some more pots.

Two blogs I've been looking over this week are peters pottery  by Peter Gregory, who has been blogging since January 2009 and appears to be specialising in crystalline glazes, raku and kiln building amongst other things, and Brandon Phillips' blog Support your local potter blogging since February 2007,  has some great pottery books and equipment up for sale at the moment. Well done fellers, have a good week everyone.

PS Rest in peace Amy Winehouse,another brief but bright candle added to the infamous 27 club.