Plan B

My long line jug is now seeped in a plasticy wax. It was hot when I poured it on but I'm sure the jug will survive. Although technician M said I should say goodbye just in case.

The cottle has pictures of rescue greyhounds on it. This has to be a good sign. Guardian greyhounds. All will go to plan. Plan B.

Jug of the Month - January

This was a Christmas present from J from her holiday in Japan. Lovely pinch marks and a dribble of glaze on the snip. And it's all glittery.

It's from a ceramics market where makers from lots of different regions sell once a year. Jugs are hard to find apparently. She also bought me these chopsticks. And Vivienne Westwood socks.

Alginate

Went to see M in sculpture to make an alginate mould of my long line jug. Filled the jug with clay pellets then a clay seal...

...built a plastic cottle around the jug...

...poured the alginate over the jug...

...ready to cut in to the alginate and separate jug and mould...

...should be all nice and smooth like this...

...but did not go quite to plan...

Apparently this is the only surface M has ever come across that the alginate has stuck to. Of course it was. It usually works. Of course it does. Still smiling. Plan B...hot press moulding.

In the Kiln

Chris Taylor

Had two days of demonstrations, talks and tutorials from RCA MA student Chris Taylor. Day one he made paperclay, demonstrated screen printing and dicsussed his recent projects at the Royal College. Day two he did a throwing demo and gave tutorials. Some of his thrown work here. http://www.christaylorceramics.com/

His throwing demo...

My tutorial was brilliant. I had a full throwing MOT. Kneading the clay, how much water to use, how to centre, compressing the bottoms, lifting the sides. I threw and he watched and advised and then he checked on my work again later. Brilliant. He liked the way the thrown vessel becomes a jug with just one finger movement at the end of the process. Gave me lots to think about in my tutorial too. Do I want people to look at my final show and see functional jugs, or an installation of vessels which are no longer primarily functional? 

Other Rooms

I'm not the sort of student to venture into other departments much but I was quite adventurous last week. Prompted by T the technician I went to sculpture to discuss making an alginate mould. I survived that, made notes about seaweed and peppermint and made an appointment to go back next week. Without sitting down to worry about it or rewrite my list about how to go about it, I immediately made myself go to the photography studio to discuss how to go about printing some of my images. I didn't crumple when I was asked "What resolution were these images scanned in/at/up/at?" I answered that I had put the thing to be scanned on my scanner and pressed the button marked scan. Apparently more information is required and I'm to go back next week with images on a memory stick for further investigation.

Daniel Allen

Daniel Allen is now Head of Arts at Bath Spa. Saw his talk and demo at Aberystwyth International Ceramics Festival two years ago. A asked if he would be coming to the ceramics department to do a talk or some tutorials. How exciting would that be? Apparently we might ask him after he's had time to settle in a bit. So there's something to look forward to. Possibly.

Test tiles

Extruded some test tiles with some help from E. Didn't believe the clay tube would come out of the extruder because the bar across the hollow die confused and baffled me.

But I made a tube in spite of the baffling bar. It was a miracle. Then decided I didn't want tubular test tiles so recycled all the clay and threw the tiles instead. I think they might be the best test tiles I've ever made. Might be all there is to exhibit at my imminent mid term review if the kilns keep being naughty...

Naughty Kilns

Last two kiln firings have both proved to be a little bit disastrous. Element went in both kilns so did not reach temperature. Both glaze test kilns. If I like the glaze...can't recreate it again. If it's grotty...don't know whether to blame the kiln or the glaze recipe. Tut.

Maths

I made 19 jugs in two and a half hours today.
150 mins divided by 19 jugs equals 7 and a half minutes per jug.
If I wasn't on the squeakiest wheel in the world sitting next to a blocked sink I might have thrown for a while longer.

Sound of breaking glass

Put some work in the glass cabinet today and am hoping it's all in one piece in the morning. I've stuck some jugs on the back wall of the cabinet and some under the shelves, as shadows of the ones above. Given them all a good wiggle to make sure they're stuck, but what if I've wiggled too much? Might be a very short lived installation.

Over complicated

Had a good tutorial yesterday. I need to have them early in the day because I convince myself that there's no point really starting something before the tutorial. I'm easily convinced when it comes to not getting on with it!

I went into the tutorial with a list of projects that had come to a dead end. And we were all in agreement that my holiday drawing hadn't really resulted in much. I knew I wanted to do more throwing but had decided that the tutors wouldn't agree. I thought my ideas were too simple and that I needed to move in a different direction. But I was reminded of my 'tendency to over complicate things' and reassured that throwing is the way to go. For now. Big smiles.

Quad Jugs