Face Jug Play

My engineering side has been dominating of late and I have been throwing on the wheel. So to shake things up a bit. I decided to try my hand at some face jugs. This has been on my to-do list for about the last 5 years (don't want to rush things). The first one is in the kiln undergoing a very long preheat to dry it out.



While that is going on, I finished number two.





And another is under plastic waiting to be smoothed out tomorrow. Got to admit, I have been having fun.

For some pictures of the results of the last firing, you can see them on Facebook

Juiced!

The electric kiln is loaded and waiting on a few bowls to dry enough to fire. The kiln is a Cress E27 which has about 7 cubic feet of space. Therefore, it takes roughly about 3 loads of bisque firings to fill my gas kiln. Plus or minus a bowl or two.

I threw some "juicers" yesterday and they dried enough to trim today. I got the idea for these from Elizabeth Priddy. She is a North Carolina potter who lives and works in Beaufort on the coast. She had a "how to" on her web site a couple of years ago that I adapted. She has put this along with other "how to" projects on a DVD which she sells. She also has one on doing brush painting that looks interesting. Take a look.

The thing she didn't explain was how to trim them once they were thrown. The juicing cone makes working on them difficult. The first ones I did, I just carved off the extra clay with a fettling knife freehand. It worked, but I then thought up this system were I use a tin can, a coil of clay and my griffin grip.


The can is put in the griffin grip and the top edge is softened with the coil of clay.


There is a lot of extra clay around the bottom of the cone that needs to be removed. Below is the before.


And a couple of minutes later, here is the after.


The trim tool is one of Philip Poburka's Tungsten Carbide Cutters. I have had it about 3 years now and I still cut myself on it yesterday. Ouch! But it is a joy to use once you get used to it.

Trying to listen

I know I am not very punctual about posting, but then again no one is waiting there with bated breath to hear what I have to say. It is my intention to do more... What is that quote about the road to hell?

The pictures of the pots from the last firing have been taken and are converted to "dng" awaiting my processing them. I just upgraded to Adobe CS5 so I am working through it slowly trying to catch up to the new software. Do I spend way too much time playing around with software? Aaah, yeah. Latest round has me lusting for a 64-bit box and operating system and the latest Cintiq tablet. Did I mention a Camcorder? Anyway, I will post some of the refined images soon.

I stumbled onto the following video. It was a couple of clicks away from one a friend pointed me to. That one was good, but this one really struck a note with me. It is by Evelyn Glennie. To quote "In this soaring demonstration, deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie illustrates how listening to music involves much more than simply letting sound waves hit your eardrums." She talks about music and listening, but it applies so well to art and life. Listen.




And for a little comic relief, my cousin posted this on Facebook. A good chuckle for us who are exploring aging in real time.

Old Rock Star Songs from comedian Tim Hawkins. Classic Rock Songs updated for the singer’s age.