Friday, April 13, 2007

Thursday Mixing

I spent yesterday finishing up these jars and getting them slipped and I also cut the feet on 6 plates and two 16 inch bowls. I got them slipped later in the day and will put some pours on them today. I also mixed up a new bucket of white slip and my blue/black slip. I have been putting that off for months. My big 20 gallon buckets of slip needed screening too because little dry flakes have been falling off the sides into the mix. So getting all of that sieved and taken care of should do me for a while. Today I am going to mix two racks of clay. I am not committing to more than that right now because I want to test this clay with some silica added to it or a combination of silica and sand. I mixed up a 5 lb test batch yesterday with silica added. I'll get that test in the next kiln load.
It is amazing how much time is taken up doing things other than making pots. Lots of things have to happen before a pot can actually be finished. Glazes and slips have to be weighed out, mixed and sieved, clay mixed or pugged or wedged, shelves scraped. Making pots is a small part of what we potters do. I bet many people think we just sit around and throw pots all day. Wouldn't that be nice.