Mastodawn

I’m making a custom clay body for my upcoming workshop using #WildClay I collected just south of where I live, and combining it with a midrange commercial clay to give it the durability it lacks on its own. The sample on the right was fired to over 2100°F, just under its melting point, and is still fragile and easily broken. The color transformation is lovely, though. I’m excited to give workshop participants a unique opportunity to work with local clay.

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Pottery by Osa Mar 13

I test fired a small pot made with the wild/commercial clay combo I’m using for my workshop this weekend. I think it’s beautiful. It will give participants the tactile experience of working with our sandy native clays but the resulting piece will live up to our modern expectations of ceramic durability. Also, the fired color is influenced by the nice burgundy hue of wild clay. I fired to cone 3 (2126°F)
and it seems vitreous at that temperature.

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Pottery by Osa

From today’s clay workshop at Reflections of Manatee house museum in Bradenton. I really love doing these community coil building sessions, especially outdoors. I hope participants left with a deeper sense of connection to this strange, gritty subtropical peninsula of limestone, sand, fossil and shell. #pottery #clay #ceramics

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Pottery by Osa 5d ago

I’m ending the week by using the leftover wild/commercial terracotta mix from last weekend’s workshop to coil build a Nigerian round-bottom pot. I’m going to stop here and let it dry for a bit and then wrap it up in plastic. On Monday, I’ll add the neck. The point is to let the bottom dry enough to be able to support the weight of the neck, but the clay still needs to be damp enough that fresh clay can attach to it without cracking. Timing is everything when working with #clay.

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Sibylle 5d ago

@potterybyosa you just explained something I always struggeled with, when I tried to make little vessels.

Good to know.

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Pottery by Osa 5d ago

@sibylle A lot of ppl who learn in the two-hour weekly class timeframe at most community studios struggle with this kind of thing bc it’s hard to control moisture and catch your pot at the exact right moment if you’re only there once a week. Idk if that’s your situation.

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Sibylle 5d ago

@potterybyosa absolutely not. I had learned some clay basics for sculpture in art school when I was 16-19.
Then I got myself some clay years after that and made incense burning bowls.
Being rather a sculptor than a potter I just made them more robust until they were solid enough to support their weight. I shaped them without a turning platform.
They are really heavy.
This is how I learn. My weasel brain picks up random things like this and will nag me with it until I try it in 25 years.

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Pottery by Osa 5d ago

@sibylle Ha! Awesome. Just make it work however you can. I think sculpture can be more liberating than pottery. I don’t mind a heavy pot at all. Did you pit fire it? Looks like there’s smoke markings.

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Sibylle 5d ago

@potterybyosa yes, I use it for burning incense. I put some sand under the coals to insulate it from the direct heat. I'm not sure if it would tolerate that.

I didn't use glazing because I couldn't afford letting it burn twice.

Art may be more liberating than craft, but I can't stand the ongoing demand of people asking to give interpretations all the time.

When you craft, you can make beautiful things, and those who see it will sense the meaning or not.

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