Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Inspiration pieces

                        Today I worked on pieces inspired by workshops taken the past few months.  The pitcher above used the technique of making legs with a triangle shaped slab attached to the bottom. I tried this a few weeks ago on a few candy dishes and liked the look.  Alison did her demo on a bowl (left).  The cup was faceted, one of the techniques Bill Van Gilder showed.

 At the Potters Conference this weekend Martha Grover made a lidded box out of porcelain (above). I really enjoyed her style so I decided to give it a try.  See my attempt at a butter dish/lidded box below
I am not very adept at handbuilding, so this is always alot of work for me.  I hope it turns out.  The jar next to it is thrown in one pieces then cut to make a lidded jar.  I have seen this before but never attempted it.  Both Ronan Peterson and Bill Van Gilder had a version of this so decided it was time to try.  It turned out well. 
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5 comments:

Michèle Hastings said...

it must be one piece lidded box week... check out my blog post a couple of days ago along with the link to Michael Mahan's post.
my late partner, John Zentner and Bill Van Gilder were high school classmates and later business partners. John tried to teach me the one piece box technique but I could never get it right until this week!
i would have liked to have gone to the Clay Matters workshop to reconnect with Bill.

Marian Williams said...

Love your pitcher! Check out the Sumerian Pitcher on my blog http://marianwilliamspottery.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/dreams.html#!http://marianwilliamspottery.blogspot.com/2011/12/dreams.html
Very close in design, eh! Classic! Very cool!

Unknown said...

Michele, Your boxes turned out beautifully. I need more practice. Sorry you missed the workshop, I learned so much. I still have a bunch more things to try this week.
Marian, Funny, it was very similar, and here I thought I was so original. Goes back to the saying that every pot has been done.

Linda Starr said...

You are so lucky to live close enough for the conferences and workshops there, they are good to push ourselves to make new pieces in clay, love your pitcher.

Unknown said...

Linda, Thanks, I was thinking that you are the lucky one, living in Florida.