Welcome back! The pots shown in the last blog entry were thrown on the potter’s wheel. They then had to dry to a ‘leather hard stage’. This means they have moisture remaining in them but can not longer be pushed in with ones fingers. The British call this ‘cheese hard’ because it does feel like maybe cheddar cheese!
The pot to the right is one of the mugs turned upside down. It is leather hard
and the foot is not finished.
The next step for this pot and all my pots is to trim a finished foot. This is a
design element and a functional element. With a finished foot the pot has
lift or a visual lightness to it. The finished foot also makes the pot have a
smooth area on which it will sit on a table and not scratch the table surface.
Directly above is the creamer with a
finished foot. The pot to it’s right is
mug which has been trimmed but does not have it’s handle yet. To the far
right is the creamer with the handle. All of the mugs were given handles.
The handles are attached after the foot is trimmed while the pot is still leather hard. All pottery then has to air dry to a ‘bone dry’ stage. This means there is no atmospheric water left in the clay. If I were to put pots in the kiln with any water still present in the clay they would shatter in the firing. Water expands and blows the clay particles apart.
The next step is to load them in the kiln for the bisque firing. This firing is the first of 2. The temperature reaches 1800 degrees F. There is no glaze applied at this stage. They will be porous when they come out of the kiln and ready for the glaze and flower design to be painted on by hand.
