Productive Day

Long day today. I put together four foot-soaking bowls, glazed three foot-soaking bowls and threw six bottomless bowls that I will join onto six large platters (bottom of foot bowl) I threw yesterday.

I've been softening up some StarWorks cone six white clay made from local clay to make the pieces, running it through my Peter Pugger after wetting it down, poking holes in the pieces of clay before adding to the pugmill. Seventeen pounds of clay is a lot of clay to center every day for three months. I have a three-month deadline to make 195 of these foot-soaking bowls.

Because of the soft clay, I set up two wheels and work on one wheel for a time, then switch and work on the other wheel, while the clay stiffens on the first wheel. It works pretty well, but tonight I experimented with using some stiffer clay on the bowl sections. I was able to throw a few of them in one sitting.

I throw the platter section rather thick because they require a rather high foot. I'm finding it extremely time consuming bringing 17 pounds of clay out to 18 inches diameter leaving it slightly concave. I might try some stiffer clay on the next platters I throw. I'm wondering if I'm softening up the clay too much. It's nice to have a mixer/pugger to be able experiment with stiffness of clay.

I'll be putting six foot-soaking bowls together tomorrow and loading a kiln with the three that I glazed today.