Sunday 16 August 2009

A Bit Closer


A bit closer to what I want, it's coming back to me in leaps and bounds. The clay, an anonymous buff stoneware is not my favourite for throwing, but it's behaving really well in drying with no cracking at all so far, but of course, that's all from a very small sample batch, no idea how it fires yet, either. I can't believe I let my hybrid fastfire wood kiln be bulldozed only a year or so ago....
Depression does that to you. You feel unable to make decisions, so you just let it go..... At the time, I suppose it was the right thing to do, I had nowhere to stack the bricks, nowhere to build a fire-gushing box of hotness. Still don't.


5 comments:

  1. SOUB! Your work is awesome! I wonder, is that skittering for texture, something like that?

    ReplyDelete
  2. When I first started learning to turn, the occasional corrugation would plague me, usually due to, maybe, a woodsplinter, or a piece of grit in the clay, causing the too loosely held tool to bounce in my hand... Then we get a self sustaining oscillation, which might just bring us to a discussion on.... no... stopit! stop digressing, Mr Soubriquet.
    I learned to instigate it, and to some extent, to guide it, but the results are hard to accurately predict. I like the surface textures which can result, though, obviously some are better than others.

    Please keep up with these remarks containing words like "awesome", because they make me feel like an eastern potentate, having petals strewn in my path, choirs singing my praises, so for a little while, I can pretend that it won't be my job to be fixing a toilet seat tomorrow!

    I seem to recall a few awesome big vases on your blog a couple of days ago, by the way....

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can almost hear the conversation....
    Man: "God, how did you make all this stuff?"
    God: "I learned to instigate it, and to some extent, to guide it, but the results are hard to accurately predict."

    Hey Souby!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dang, that Bulletholes got me there...
    What can I say, Steve, in my defence? Yep, sometimes I read it over and it sounds pompous and a bit crazy. I suppose all of this sounds a bit bizarre, and it is.

    If I recall rightly though, God, or one of the gods, Khnum, to be precise, was a potter:- "Then replied Khnum, "Oh mighty Amon-Ra, as
    thou hast commanded so shall it be done. Thy
    daughter's beauty shall surpass that of her mother,
    Queen Ahmose, and of the gods, and it shall be in
    keeping with her glory and honor." Thereupon
    Khnum fashioned the body of the maiden out of
    clay by means of his potter's wheel, and the goddess
    of birth stood by his side ready to hold out the sign
    of life to the clay which he was molding so that
    the child might be filled with the breath of life."

    Pretty neat, ha?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like what you said better! God the instigator, the watchmaker blind!

    ReplyDelete


Spam will be reported and swiftly deleted. I will put a curse upon you if you post spam links.