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Thrown on Foot

I learned this trick from Chris Chaney.

I needed to use it this week on several bowls as I was skimping on clay and made the bottoms really thin.

Porcelain is ideal for this for two reasons:

1. It doesn’t have any grog or grit that comes to the surface when you run a sponge over it and

2. Porcelain is actually pretty great at rehydrating. So when you throw wet clay onto leather hard and then wrap it up again-better yet if you slip it as I do- it will redistribute that moisture nicely (usually!-you can only push it so far!)

So I trimmed the bowl to have even walls throughout- a curved bottom. Then I drew a circle where I wanted the foot to be and scored it.1 the trimmed bowl scored and ready

I hand rolled a coil slightly longer than the circle I’d just drawn. Remember to keep your fingers together when rolling so it’s smooth. It needn’t be perfect, just get it as even as you can.2 rolling the coil to be appliedthen score one side of the coilscoring the coil

Wet the scored area on the pot,wetting the pot

Set it on the pot, cut through both ends and really take some care to bond the two ends together.setting the coil on, trimming the ends

I used the back of my fingernail to blend the coil on the outside first and then on the inside so I can support the outside with my hand while I press outwards to do that. using the back of my nail to bond the coil to the pot

Don’t worry about creating little ridges; they will eventually be erased.the coil bonded but not smoothed

After the whole coil is firmly attached, take a wet sponge and with the wheel going, smooth the coil, slowly adding pressure to squeeze it up and smooth those little bonding marks.using a sponge to throw the foot on

Any irregularities can be pulled to the top and cut off with a needle tool as you would when throwing with an uneven lip.

When it is even you can compress it down again into the shape you want your foot to be. At this point, take away as much moisture as you can. If there is still lumpiness, you can trim it off with a trimming tool while the wheel is moving.

And voila! a very nice high foot that will not scratch furniture!after the foot has been "thrown" and smoothed

Make sure you cover the whole pot to even out the moisture you’ve introduced!

Special thanks to Moe for taking the pictures!
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KELP!

I’m so excited about these new carvings that I am posting pictures of green, freshly carved pots.

I was recently in Santa Barbara, visiting a family member and once again, I saw a lot of kelp washed up.washed up kelp "rope"

Last time I saw it in the water while looking down from the pier. floating kelp It is most likely giant kelp which grows several inches per day!

This time I was struck by the almost formal arrangements that lay in the sand.

formal kelp arrangement

They reminded me of bookplate designs in old books.


When I got home, I looked at photos online taken by people who were swimming amongst the kelp forests.

The difference between beach-bound kelp and underwater kelp is that the blades (or leaves) are floating every which way. Additionally, the blades are often ripped away by the time the kelp has washed up leaving only the rubbery stem and bladders.

In the (extremely copyrighted) underwater photos, you can also see the overlapping as the leaves are actually slightly transparent and although I couldn’t replicate that translucent quality, still, I was really happy with the result.

open vase with kelp decoopen vase versoYou’ll also note that I’ve taken pains to make my carving marks as watery and curvy and flowing as the kelp.open vase kelp

I tried to capture that feeling of motion; the swaying back and forth with the currents and surf.

kelp

I think what makes this pleasing to me and also creates good visual tension, movement and balance is the contrast between these wildly unpredictable twisting and flowing forms  and the dependable regularity of the spacing between each bladder where it comes out from the stem- each one continuing on into a blade. I know there is some correct botanical  term for this…

2nd vase detail

Okay, so I looked up Kelp on Wikepedia I found this:

In most kelp, the thallus (or body) consists of flat or leaf-like structures known as blades. Blades originate from elongated stem-like structures, the stipes. [that’s the word I was looking for!] ……. Gas-filled bladders (pneumatocysts) form at the base of blades of American species….and keep the kelp blades close to the surface, holding up the blades by the gas they contain.

and most interesting to me and other potters :

Through the 19th century, the word “kelp” was closely associated with seaweeds that could be burned to obtain soda ash (primarily sodium carbonate)….The word “kelp” was also used directly to refer to these processed ashes.

and what do you know?  The slip that into which I carved the images of Kelp on contains Soda Ash!!

So I can’t wait until these are fired – stay tuned!