Techniques.

The first firing will be done as naked raku. That means that the clay objects will be fired bundled in wood shavings which will give out smoke. The latter leaves beautiful marks on the clay where it touches it.
Some examples.

 Here the vessel has been glazed and scraped. The smoke left dark patterns in not covered areas.

 Not glazed square piece where the white areas were covered with special slip that peeled off after raku firing process. The rabbit statue also made by using pinch pot method and raku fired.

These pinch pots are made by Kieran Whitelaw that were part of exhibition  called Then and Now, 

June -September 2011.

Raku fired, based on a bead.

Wheel throwing a bowl.

On Tuesday we learned how to throw a bowl on a wheel which was some experience. Some amount of force is acquired to make the clay do what you want it to do. Plus the concentration on doing few thing s at the same time as in using your foot to control the speed.

It is kind of mesmerizing to watch someone else do it though. Just a few Ghost movie moments there :)

Had a lecture today about the history of ceramic. It is interesting to find out how recent the industrially made ceramic is. Also had discussion about  handmade versus industrially made.

Ceramics a fargile history. To look up for interesting facts about ceramics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zivocu4DXjw

Since last time.

After brainstorming on Monday with and on the paper I got plenty of ideas to carry on with clay.
Tutors showed us on Tuesday how to make pinch pot. It is not hard to make beautiful small bowls just by molding the clay in ones hands. Once the wall of the bowl is thin enough you can give it some more volume and shape by using big spoon. The edge should be left bit thicker so that it wont crackle and also you can join two bowls to make a hollow ball. Next step was to join two bowls together and let them harden a little. Once the clay is bit firmer it is easier to shape it into perfect ball. 
As clay is quite forgiving material it is fun to try out different ways to shape it. 

 Here are some samples by the tutors: Pinch bowls and hollow balls. Some coiling attached.

 Different stages of pinch bowl making. Also some examples how to translate your ideas-object to clay.

My first pinch pot/ ball.

And here are the creations that came out.

They look kind of abstract and little organic.

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