Loosely Painted Landscape

Decided to paint today. Started late – only a couple of hours of daylight left – so thought I would just get on with it. In fact something told me that today was going to be a different sort of painting day. So I got the easel out, some paints and brushes, then filled some jars with water.

Square canvas. As for subject: I hadn’t really thought about it. I have a selection of photos and sketches of landscapes which I take regularly when out walking or cycling – mostly fields, low hills and riverside scenes in late winter. In the end I just picked one of them at random and worked straight from it.

To start with I drew a few loose lines across the canvas in charcoal to mark out rough boundaries, but could already notice myself thinking too much about it. So instead I forgot about colours, composition, the ‘correct’ brush to use or any sort of pre-arranged ‘design’ and just grabbed whatever tube of paint seemed nearest – which happened to be Hookers Green. No thought to careful quantities, I just mixed the paints, and then whatever looked like an interesting colour on the palette would end up on the canvas.

It’s good to paint like this for a change: good not to worry about results. In the end I actually quite like the result…but the main object of today was just to paint freely and loosely. It probably helped that the light was running out – no time to think. And choosing colours randomly instead of planning them brought out a few interesting results, especially when I didn’t always clean the brushes properly between application, letting the old colour bleed into the new.

Here’s a list of what I used:

Titanium White, Hookers Green, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine, Ivory Black, Yellow Ochre, Lemon Yellow and Raw Umber.

Doing Some Homework...

One area I’ve been meaning to read more about is the Chemistry side of ceramics. Of course it’s perfectly possible to be a potter all your life using all sorts of different clays and glazes without ever needing to know what they’re actually made up of. But that’s not how I do things! I’m one of those analytical creatives who like to know the nitty gritty details of where the materials come from, what they’re called and how they work together. So to brush up on my Chemistry homework, I recently popped into my local library and booked out a rather formidable looking AS level textbook…

It took me a few evenings to read through and gave me quite a lot of head scratching. But once I got past the scientific/robotic language and reassured myself no one was actually going to test me on this (!) I started to get more of an understanding of things. There was even a chapter dedicated to oxidation and reduction featuring pottery kilns as an example, which made me feel justified in making the effort.

Once I got through it, my next point of call was my copy of ‘Minerals, Rocks and Fossils’ published by Philip’s. I’ve had this on my shelf for ten years now and whenever I’ve tried to read it I couldn’t quite get my head around it. It’s full of chemical formulas, geological language and pictures of pretty rocks in crystal form. This time though it all made sense! In fact it read like a natural progression from the Chemistry book and now the poor thing is covered in post-it notes and scribblings about minerals with particular colour properties.

Getting this background information and putting a context to the chemical side of ceramics has cleared-up a lot of vague fuzziness in my head. I feel much more confidant about what the ingredients in a glaze actually are, instead of just taking the names written in a glaze recipe book for granted. I’ve still got more reading to do though before I can start doing some experiments of my own: but it just goes to show that doing a bit of homework really does pay off!

Here are some links to books I was using:

Minerals, Rocks and Fossils (Philip's)

The Glaze Book: A Visual Catalogue... (Stephen Murfitt)

Making Handles

I’ve been making small cream or milk jugs recently. These are about the size of a mug, just enough for serving milk with tea for instance and for general purpose around the kitchen. I was inspired by the ‘penguin’ silhouette I’ve been throwing recently (see my last post) which suggested to me it would make a very nice simple jug shape on a smaller scale. So I thought I’d make a test batch: and I decided the design of this type of jug really would benefit from a handle.

Handles are one of those additions that I both enjoy and feel nervous about, however many times I make them. I’m not sure why that should be: perhaps I’ve inherited a phobia or paranoia caused by other people saying they’re difficult to do and get right. Thankfully I got the hang of handles fairly early on in my making (unlike some other methods – I can’t make pinch pots at all for example!) I was shown a simple but effective method, which I’ve adapted and now I’m very comfortable using. It has its limits, but so far I’ve had none of that ‘my handles never work’ business that other people complain of. Touch wood! I don’t want to tempt fate but my method rarely causes cracks, broken or weak handles.

My method for making handles is to take a small blob of clay and roll out a coil as you would for making a coil pot. I make sure the coil is absolutely cylindrical and smooth before gently squashing it flat between two wooden boards. This creates a flattened strip. I then smooth and stretch this strip of clay on both sides using my fingertip, turning it over each time until I get the thickness and width I want. Then I trim the ends to a standard length before bending it into shape. I always make a couple more extra handles than I need in case of accidents and for a bit of choice (they never look completely identical!) Finally I put them on a wooden board on their ‘sides’ to dry (I used to put them ‘upright’ but I found this could make the shapes sag or crack). In the meantime I turn the base of the jugs or pots I plan to add the handles to, and when I’m finished I usually find the handles are ready to fix.

Of course it’s not the only way to make handles, but I find it works very well for my needs at the moment! As you can see from the last picture on this post I often use the base of the handle as a place to put my personalised stamp: it helps fix the handle a bit more and provides a nice softer area of clay to make the impression. To ensure the handles get a good chance to adhere without cracking or sagging I also turn the pots upside-down to dry. This means gravity works with the sweep of the handle rather than against it, keeping its shape. Secretly I suspect most people’s problems with handles are to do with this drying stage rather than any other: as long as the body of the pot dries out at about the same pace as the handle, it all should work!

Nevertheless I still worry about my handles and hope they all work out OK. No way of knowing until the pots are completely finished…

All About The Making

I’ve decided that 2012 will be all about the making. It’s so easy to get sidetracked and caught-up in the other aspects of this pottery/painting lark. Admin, marketing, planning shows, queueing at the post office, buying tissue paper and scrounging cardboard boxes from local supermarkets. Sometimes it can seem like all I do is the business side of things. Of course this stuff is a crucial part of what I do and can’t be ignored. But in the meantime my poor wheel sits patiently waiting for things to calm down and for me to start making again. I won’t even mention my poor old easel…

And this explains why I haven’t blogged for four entire weeks. It’s the longest gap in posts since I began Pots and Paint back in 2009. But I decided it was good for me to ‘go dark’ for a while, gather some thoughts, and (after the rush of Christmas) concentrate on making. So here are a few photos of some recent throwing.

Above is a photo of my wheel, prepared with a wooden throwing bat, and below is a shot of me in the process of throwing. It’s a slightly staged picture because I had to wash my hands to set the camera on timer!

Above is a photo of a freshly thrown pot. As you can see, the wooden bats come right off the wheel complete with pot on top; this minimises distortion of the shape. Below is a photo of the pots a day or so later, drying. They were taken off the bats using a wire and then the bases briefly smoothed with the thumb – no turning involved. These pots are part of an order of wine carafes featuring a pouring lip at the rim. They will be fired twice and glazed all over in an ash glaze – all being well of course! When making an order it’s always best to make a few extra pots than needed in case of accidents along the way.

Anyway, I quite like the way these pots look in a small group: they remind me of penguins. And so far 2012 is shaping up nicely since I’ve been on my wheel enough times already for my back to start noticing!