Saturday, January 19, 2008

Handbuild Salt & Peppers

I'm drying these handbuilt shakers at home. They're made of terra cotta, freely cut out and constructed. I brought them home because I didn't have a good pattern for the cork holes for the bottom. So now they're rounded up and are sitting on my kitchen counter so that I can look at them and decide how to glaze them. This is foreign territory for me, having never worked with this clay. I slabbed the clay out, then flung it on a table top until it began to develop a texture. I like the look of it and would like to preserve the surface. They are interesting to hold. It's a guess as to the size of the holes, not knowing how much this clay will shrink in firing.

I'm tempted to use a black underglaze and paint a strong line down each side seam, make the base and feet black and maybe the pouring part. I'll either do it in class on Tuesday or drive across town today to the supply store and pick some underglaze up along with a few other things to work with.

3 comments:

chaetoons said...

Jeanette
Dearly love your salt shakers. They are unique and clever and i wish i'd thought of doing them myself!
Since New Year's have been focusing on bowls . . . .
Last evening, after much struggling, managed to get a chatroom posted on my blog and i'd dearly love for you to come over, check it out and let me know what you think of it!
Hugs
Chae

Sister Creek Potter said...

Bill Van Guilder once mentioned on a show that if you cut a hole the size of the big end of a cork the shrinkage will make the cork fit about midway into the hold after firing.

They are really cute! Gay

Clay and Fiber Artist said...

Thanks for the invite, Chae. I'm such a spaz I don't do well with chatrooms, though.

Gay, Thanks for that tip on corks. I've never heard that one. I much prefer corks to the rubberized discs because they have a range of diameters so your chances of getting one to fit is better.

I also heard that you can put a fat toothpick into the holes of a shaker and they will all burn out in the firing. Uniformed size holes that way. But in this case, rather rustic shaker holes are okay--they are a bit large, but then again, I like lots of salt and LOTS of pepper.

Thanks again, guys.
Jeanette