Monday, January 26, 2015

Production progress and plastic chasing

Setting goals does seem to work. I spent the weekend in the studio ( I managed a solid 12 hours) and was able to trim and throw way more than I normally would. I have a list of items that I will need to have for next fall which has helped me immensely. I know what I need to make now. In the past, I would walk into the studio and would not get down to business right away as I did not know what I wanted to make, or should make. This solves that problem. Now I just need to decide which items to make that are on the list. I managed to bang out some shallow baking/serving dishes. At first I was going to make them a bit square, but thought they looked contrived, so I stuck with the round ones and altered the rims a bit. I am continuing to try to make a new butter dish form. The way I make them is to throw the lid as a closed form and measure the outer diameter, then the base is thrown and I use the measurement from the lid to determine where to place the seat that will accept the lid. The only difference with these dishes is that the area where you would put your butter is actually a 2.5" - 3" tall cylinder that the dome lid fits over. The idea is that when people use a traditional butter dome and scrape their knife off, butter gets into the lid seat and then the lid gets all buttery and it can't be placed on the counter/table without getting butter all over the place. I am hoping that this will allow people to still clean off their knife without gumming up the lid. The trick is getting the lid to fit properly. I have added a little ledge right at the base of the butter reservoir that acts as a stop for the lid. I want to glaze all but the base of the lid and it's seat and didn't want it to accidentally move when being loaded into the kiln and becoming permanently welded to the base. This little ledge will hopefully help keep the lid seated properly during the glaze firing. So far I have made 6 of these new dishes and the proof will be in the glazing.The rest of the time I was throwing bakers, salt and pepper shakers, trimming, attaching handles and generally just chasing plastic around as things were drying.

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