Flasks and More Flasks

For the past couple of weeks, we've been working on stoneware flasks. Alex made a few for Christmas and we fell in love with the form and flasks began to fill our shelves.

Bone and Iron Red Flask

The flasks are hand built with thrown tops. They are larger sized flasks - more for coat pockets than pants pockets, but Alex can fit one in the back pocket of his baggy jeans.

Butternut Flask

I like leaving the seams showing. It gives the flask a more touchable presence. Plus, I love rustic pottery.

Teal Flask

Most of the flasks are made from slabs cut with a wiggle wire, but this one was made with paddled slabs. We make our own clay paddles, which you can see here.

Cobalt Blue Flask

We fire the flasks on wads even though we are working in ∆6 oxidation. I like the look of the glazed bottoms and we can be sure they won't scratch your table top.

Wave Flask in Deep Lagoon

Stopperless Salt and Pepper Shakers

Our friend, Keith Phillips, wrote a wonderful article about making stopperless salt shakers in the May/June 2010 issue of Pottery Making Illustrated. The article gave detailed instructions on making these and referred back to an Etsy Mud Team challenge from a couple of years ago. In that challenge, we entered a stopperless salt shaker that we carved with a detailed wave design.

Finally, we have come back to the form and have created a few more of these carved salt shakers. Here are three that will go into our next bisque firing. One has a dandelion design, one has a lotus design, and the third is carved with a funky cityscape.

Dropped Platter Video

A few weeks ago we posted a Dropped Platter tutorial. We got some great responses and several requests for a video. So, for y'all who requested to see it in action, here's the video!

Tapas Plate Demonstration

This is a demonstration of our making tapas plates using slabs of clay and a foam cushion. We use this method to make a number of items we sell including olive trays, candle holders, prep bowls, and more.

Bamboo Brush Tutorial

DIY Shrinkage Rule

One of the tricky things about making pots is that clay shrinks as it dries and fires. It is not all that bothersome until you have a custom order for mugs that need to be a specific height and diameter or you drop a casserole lid while unloading a too hot kiln.

10% Shrinkage Rule next to a standard ruler

 Whenever I have needed a pot of a specific size, I have sat done and done the math and then  proceeded to make the pot to the size I computed. This works fine, but is time consuming when done over and over. Finally, as I walked out the door to go to Highwater Clays, Alex said, "Honey? Why don't you just buy a shrinkage ruler?" He's brilliant, I tell you!

But I got to Highwater and they were all out of shrinkage rulers.  When I got home, I decided that since I could do the math, I should just sit down and make a shrinkage ruler specific to my clay.

We use Highwater's Speckled Brownstone, which has a shrinkage rate of 10%.

The first step is to subtract 10% from 100% giving us 90%. This means the size of a fired piece is 90% of the size of the thrown piece.
Convert 90% into decimal form, or .9.
Next we need to figure out what one fired inch equals in freshly thrown clay, so we'll divide 1 by .9, which equals 1.11. So, 1 fired inch equals 1.11 inches in wet clay.

Now we have enough information to create our ruler. I used a paint stick for my ruler. A) it is free. B) I have them laying around all over the studio. C) Did I mention free?

Now, I find it hard to figure out on a standard ruler exactly where 1.11 inches would fall, so I converted to centimeters. 1.11 inches equals 2.8cm. I marked my ruler down to quarter inch increments (every 7mm) using an ultra fine tip Sharpie marker.

I converted to metric to more easily mark my ruler.

Considering that most shrinkage rulers cost about $13 and this only took about 5 minutes to make, I think this was certainly worth my time.

Wabi-sabi Dishes

We've been creating some dishes with the wabi-sabi philosophy in mind. While not letting go of our ideals of good craftsmanship, we have tried to let the beauty of imperfection remain in this line of work. 

Wabi-sabi is often defined as "flawed beauty" or "wisdom in natural simplicity". 

Lined up on ware boards.

Glazed in Deep Lagoon.

Glazed in moss green.