Blue Moon

Here's the second one in January, thus a blue moon.  The first one was well covered by clouds.  This one doesn't look like a super moon to me. But those mists are rolling around the mountain air.

And no, I didn't use my iPhone to take these.  Maybe I would have had better luck, but that moon would have been teeny tiny.

Today's Quote:

We hold onto material objects because we think they make us feel secure, when in reality they are cluttering our lives.

And then there are miniatures (and cat)

The little pitcher led me to make a little sugar to go with it...

 And how about a little container for toothpicks, or packets of non-sugar sweeteners?

And maybe also some little tea bowls for drinking also?

Panther is photo-bombing the tiny pitcher...I must have left some scent of food on my fingers...thus to the pots

These were all thrown off the hump, one big hump of clay.  Sorry, I forgot to take pics as they were made...it's tough when your hands are covered with clay and all wet to click a shot.

This group was glazed with Nutmeg.  They aren't quite as small as real miniatures, but they are still less than 4 inches each.

Quote for today:

Gratefulness is that fullness of life for which we are all thirsting.

Br. David Steindl-Rast

more on piecing and piercing clay shapes

It's a real mess onto the iPhone when I'm trying to take still photos, then work in wet clay, then take a photo.  I've just cleaned off the phone and deicded that's all I'll do with wet work and picture taking.  So here's the last of it!

First you throw a form, mainly vertical, because that works so well to change the shape.

On this pitcher I went ahead and formed a spout in the wet clay on the wheel just after throwing it.

 Since it was a sunny day, sitting outside about 15 minutes brought the clay to a suede stage...still very soft, but not sticky...a suede finish to it. Opposite the spout I draw the area I'll remove with a pin tool.

Then I carefully cut it out with a blade and remove it. 

I use both hands usually to push the sides together (but one hand was taking the photo this time)

Once it's together, I smear some slip on the inside and the outside of the joint.

And let it set up for a while.  This time the clay was soft enough still that I didn't add any little coils of clay to take up the gap.

Here's a simple vase shape...and I start drawing the cuts I'm going to make.  After finding this wasn't enough definition, I cut it larger to make a bigger indent.

This vase shape had just been thrown, and this was the first time I tried cutting and reshaping in earlier stage of the clay.

 In a way it was easier to work with, but the whole thing was much more fragile (of course.)

 I pulled some handles, left them out in the sun to firm up a bit.

 Here's the larger tuck taken out of the bottom of this one.

 You can see in silhouette the smaller tuck in the higher profile, and a larger one lower down.

Before wrapping it for tomorrow's work, I pulled the edge at the top into a spout, so it will be a pitcher also.  And I attached the handle to the first one already, and am letting it set up overnight.

Oops, learn by my mistakes.  It was pretty easy to push the clay into place when the piece had just been thrown and cut.  BUT it didn't stay over night.  The technique I used when it was a bit harder (suede) and using some coils of clay worked MUCH better.  I added the coil and some more slip the next morning!

Today's Quote:

There are many ways to raise your vibration including thinking positive and uplifting thoughts.