One more face pot. Nothing fancy this time. I just wanted to finish it up quick so I can pursue some other ideas I have. Why not make a pot-like hollow cone, stuff it with tissue, flip it over and sculpt it into a figurine of some sort? I’ll give it a try after this.
Actually, I posted this one when it was still wet and gray. It’s back from a second firing, and confirms my idea of using color on the inside. This was one of the first on which I used my primitive manual air-brush sprayer for the underglaze and glaze. It looks like some kind of drug paraphernalia, but you blow into it to generate the airstream, suction and a crude mist. And I stand UPWIND from now on.
Just couldn’t resist making one last face-pot before calling it a night.
After a month-long perfect storm of dense tech-work, a harmonic convergence of the kind of freelance raining and pouring that can keep a translator busy from six a.m. to well past midnight, producing a warm, fuzzy feeling in the duodenum of the self-employed, it’s now time to … take a breath. Deadlines pass. Phones quiet down. The dust settles. And the face pots reassert themselves.
After a month-long perfect storm of dense tech-work, a harmonic convergence of the kind of freelance raining and pouring that can keep a translator busy from six a.m. to well past midnight, producing a warm, fuzzy feeling in the duodenum of the self-employed, it’s now time to … take a breath. Deadlines pass. Phones quiet down. The dust settles. And the face pots reassert themselves.
I usually rough out the shape just with my fingertips and no tools. I have dozens of ingeniously designed and crafted little clay tools, most of which I will never, ever use. You can do 90% of sculpting with thumb and fingertips, which give a constant stream of feedback through the sense of touch. After the fingertip work, I usually add detail and do a lot of fussing around with tools. But this this time I left well enough alone.
Here’s another face pot. This one had a very quick-‘n-EZ feel to it. More than just a labor-saving device, the potter’s wheel seems to open up a lot of new opportunities for finer craftsmanship before exhaustion sets in and I get antsy to move on to another project.
Another face pot. I’m trying to improve the flames, but am not satisfied with them yet.
A new face joins the growing ranks of the latest batch of wheel-thrown clay face pots I’ve taken to calling the Council of Arbiters.
This face made it through the kiln one time. Now I’m going to have to resist over-glazing it for a second firing. Light touch. Light touch.
