"The chief source of art is man's pleasure in his daily work, which expresses itself and is embodied in that art itself."
William Morris (1834-1896)

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Busy Sunday

Today has been a busy day. Steve is throwing again while his decorated pots are drying. I finished the second holly and am getting ready to decorate a thistle. Here are some photos I just took.

Sometimes customers notice that the sizes of our production pieces aren't what we have described online. This pile of clay balls shows you the difference between the amount of clay used to make a Small or $120 pot and the amount used for some of our medium special pots.
All the "Small" size of pots are made individually from the same amount of clay. The same goes for the "Mediums" and other sizes. What makes the variation between different pots of the same size description is humidity in the studio, moisture in the clay and Steve's ability on that day to manipulate those factors! When the clay is too wet, it has less 'body' so it doesn't throw as well. If the weather is too humid, the clay absorbs some of that moisture and doesn't set up as quickly while throwing. In both those scenarios, Steve may throw a pot with thicker walls and not as tall. This variation is the reason we request that customers wanting 2 similar pieces order them at the same time rather than our attempting to match an existing finished pot. On the other hand, humid weather is great for decorating pots because they don't dry too fast while we are working on them.

Here are the completely decorated hollies I've been working on. If the pots are drying fast, we turn them over after a while so the bottoms don't crack from uneven drying.

and the thistle I am starting now.

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