In summary

My time at CIT Perth is winding down as the Artist in Residence and the big platters I made in the first few weeks are either cooling down in the kiln or drying out really, REALLY slowly like this one  ...

 and I quite like this fabric 'corsage' I found the other day on the net, which echoes my work.

My platters are made from BRT clay - a coarse terracotta like body that can fire high, but these are for low temperature textural glazes I've been developing.  I've lost a few to cracks during the drying phase - what can you do, say 'meh' and carry on, recycle the dry clay and start again.  No point in getting stressed over it, it happens despite precautions, and there are far more important things happening in the world.
Meanwhile, I've been in then glaze room or on the wheel with a few bags of Southern Ice.  The TAFE students are on holidays yet a surprising number of them are wandering back into college to finish off or collect a few things - such is the pull of this fantastic space and the facilities.
Below is the kind of stuff I've been throwing, focussing on thin walls, flat bases - hopefully with zero 'S' cracks, and thin sharp rims to attain the most translucency I can as suits the Southern Ice porcelain so well. I need to get a few more of my nest forms through the kiln too as I am about to sell a number to a 'collection' - my first collection.  Of the fine cylinder vessels, I intend to glaze the interior with clear glaze and leave the outside polished but with laser decals of the twiggy leafy, nesty imagery that is often characteristic of my work.

Did you read my last post with all those crazy coloured glaze tests?  I'll fire them next week, a set for each of three different temperatures, just to see what happens.

Remember those glaze tests I did the previous week for the reduction firing, and I must photograph the huge kiln to show you, well here are the results.  Nothing that makes me want to jump up and down with excitement and I think the firing was more reduced than I would have liked - but they were snuck into someone else's firing so no complaining.  These are Anne Hirondelle's old glazes I found in an old ceramics magazine and hoarded till now - she used to get some great variegated and metallic golden/pewter results.   It is hard to convey with these pics the great surfaces I achieved.  I will continue with the tests.  Her current stuff is hyper modern looking if you click on the link her name leads to.

There is so much to tell you but I think I will have to do a few more posts later on today or tomorrow.  The deadline for The Mud Colony is looming and I want to be included in this weeks collection of clay related blogs.  Hop over to The Mud Colony, there are eleven other potters there already and new clay bloggers who'd like to link up there are welcome.
Anytime you want to check in on my blog just look for Elaine Bradley on Google - I am the one who is NOT a drummer in a cool Rock band - I wish.

Testing times

Most potters know that the majority of ceramic materials are white or off white powders. This is a quadraxial blend of materials I am doing at Central TAFE and you'd think, 'some pretty zingy colours happening there!'.  The coloured tiles are misleading because it is the materials causing the colours you see and one of them is very soluble and toxic, but the kiln firing will change all that and melt them to show their true abilities and potential. This is not a tame or 'safe' combination of materials and it is not designed to be used on your average coffee mug.  I expect one or two of the results will send me in a new direction of more tests and more predictable but exciting results.  I am the kind of person who finds rust, cracked paint or crazed plaster visually thrilling at times. I'm excited!

Coming around again

Oh dear, a cliché already, using a song title (Carly Simon's) for a post title.  I mentioned before that I am doing a residency at Central TAFE - aka Central Institute of Technology, Perth in the ceramics department so I will talk a little more of that.  I applied to Central about eighteen months ago when I only had a small but purpose built studio in the back garden.  Then I was lucky enough to rent a second work space for hand building and printing in Fremantle, close to home but up a stairs, albeit a very handsome stairs in the historical Old Customs House Building in Phillimore Street.   At Central I've been making large platters and purging the need to do just that, to explore engobes and textural glazes and now, unexpectedly, after making about ten platters, finding myself wanting to get back to the wheel, play with porcelain, make fine, thin vessels - what for? To glaze, to decorate, to light from inside with candles to make best use of the translucency of porcelain, to get glowy thin melty glassy rims, to put flowers in, or small fruit, to hang glazes on the white canvas of Southern Ice porcelain - did I say I had the answers yet?  I still assert that throwing with Southern Ice feels like I imagine throwing with Philadelphia Cream Cheese would feel.
I'd show you, but I keep forgetting to take photos because time is running out and I am getting quite a lot done.  But this lure of the potter's wheel got me thinking, and trawling and I found some good videos to show you that kind of illustrate the contentment and zen-ness of working with clay.

Anne Mette Hjortshøj

I went back to bed this very cold morning after sending the lads off to school,  got under the king sized electric duvet (or 'doona' to Aussies), snuggled up with Poppy - my cocker spaniel and we watched pottery vids on Vimeo on the iPad such as  Anne Mette Hjortshøj in Denmark, I have shared that one before, and

Rocking Bowl by Karin Eriksson

Karin Eriksson of Manos, in Stockholm, Sweden and Phil Rogers in the UK.   I think new pottery students should see these vids, to be inspired and excited and embraced into the world of throwing.
Now back to real life, supermarkets and work.  I hope your day treats you well,  especially you AC, hope 'the power' comes back on so your (magic) power comes back! Now get off your computer and make something.
Oh and did I mention yet that you lovely readers should hop on over to Mud Colony regularly, at least every week, to see what a growing number potters who blog have to say about their week and work.  Maybe you could join in with  your blog?

Phil Rogers throwing a Yunomi

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - Beatrice Woood.

I really enjoyed this clip of Beatrice Wood on her work, found on a super blog here -
http://janestreetclayworks.com/2012/06/15/video-the-great-beatrice-wood-ceramist-extraordinaire/

Maybe you should subscribe to some of these great blogs to have regular information and clay related entertainment come into your day.

Oooh, that's nice!

I don't often go looking into the background stuff and analysis of the impact of my little blog but I was well chuffed (that means very pleased indeed) to see I am on some other blogger's blogrolls.  Like here on The slipcast blog, and a heap of my 'traffic' has come via Zygote Blum's blog Fetish Ghost.
So to anyone who has me on their roll, I say a heartfelt thank you.  :>D
Elaine