Holidays

 I do not have anything to photograph. I have constructed and glazed my candelabra, two small items on the wheel, glazed my last extra credit project, and constructed a pitcher.

•  Bone Dry - Clay that is completely dried but not yet fired.  Clay forms are most fragile at this stage.
• Leather Hard - Clay which has dried sufficiently to be stiff, but is still damp enough to be joined to other pieces.

 It is important to wait until clay is leather dry, because it will hold its shape without folding in on itself. But the clay won't be too dry, so more clay will be able to hold to it if needed.
 

Glazing Part 2

On the middle part where the coils are exposed I used four coats of chum plum, I then put wax resist on that part. Then I put two coats of transparent on the rest of the pot and dipped it twice in shino. The chum plum did not show up everywhere I painted it on the coil part, and it dripped some at the bottom, the shino/transparent mix didn't mix together a well in the final coloring either, making it look splotchy or drippy. I will probably stick to simpler glazing methods from now on to try to prevent this from happening. The inside glaze on the pot came out really well though.

Coil Pot and Glazed Pinch Pot

It's important to wash your hands before touching bisque ware because the oils from anything that has been touched before hand or from sweat can make it so the glaze won't absorb into the clay, same for the dust. Wax resist needs to be applied when dipping into a bucket, and when you dip into the bucket it should only stay in the bucket for about 1.5-3 seconds. You can't brush on bucket paint because it runs.

Coil Pot

Making coils is extremely hard, I have somewhat gotten the hang of making them round but at first they were really rectangular. Making the coils even is probably the hardest part, because they need to be the same thickness and have the same curve. The circle coils are especially hard for this because they need to be folded the same way to be even. The process is just very long, but my pot has mostly matched my silhouette except it is slightly larger because none of the circles to make the floor were the exact right size.

Coil Pot and Finished Pinch Pot

The pinch pot did turn out the way I wanted it to, but it was hard to make the curves as deep as I wanted them to be. Making the handle and the top symmetrical was also hard to do. It just took a lot of patience to get the pot to eventually shape the way I wanted to. I also had to score and slip some more clay onto the area where I originally scored and slipped the top to the bottom the surface even out. If I could change something on my pitcher, I would have spent more time on the handle because looking at it now there is a small dent on one of the edges.

Pinch Pot:Pitcher

Slip and Score: Use a dull blade to scrape up the clay you are attaching and the place you are attaching to, then spreading slip, really wet soggy clay, over the scored places ad connecting them, then using slip to work the two together. If the two pieces are not slipped and scored it will fall apart or break in the kiln.
To make the bottom of my piece symmetrical I used "lazy susan"(turning table) to even out the sides and make sure it looked the same at every angle. The top part is not symmetrical, but on each indented edge I faced them towards me to make sure that a straight view from a side would make i look symmetrical.

Margrit Betke

Margrit Betke is a computer scientist who has developed attachments for computers so people with mobility handicaps can use a computer by moving their head. My father has multiple sclerosis and this device is made for people in the advance stages of the disease. Her camera mouse, camera canvas, and Animate! programs have enabled people who cannot move their arms and hands well or at all to usea computer, draw on a computer or make animations.