I did it!

For the longest time, I have been trying to make a basin sink. They are huge and I failed several times. Paul keeps begging me to try again because you can sell a handthrown sink for starting at $500. The reason it is so difficult is because of the size. The hard things about trowing a bowl of this size are these..centering an entire 25 pound bag of clay is really physically exerting. Once you have the clay pulled into a cylinder, you have to move the walls down into a bowl shape and because of the weight of all that clay, the walls generally fall down. Usually I can salvage the base and end up with a normal serving bowl as you can see in my second attempt tonight. first of all don't mind my hair. My sleep is all turned around after staying up for new years, so it's the middle of the night. Tonight I had major success though!! I used a different clay that is a rough sort of clay that holds it's shape well. I also used a lot less water than usual, because less water helps the walls to stay strong enough to not fall down. This is difficult though because if there isn't enough water & your hands stick, it throws it all off center. I am not super in love with the shape but I am so happy I finally did it! I can't wait to show Paul when he wakes up!! It is 20 inches wide and probably the largest thing I have ever made in one piece. A problem though because my kiln is only 16 inches wide : )
I thought I was on a roll so I should try again, but this time I used a different dark brown which is a lot softer & it fell. but I made it into a pretty serving bowl. I also made 11 mugs tonight.

Etsy treasury

Please come & visit my treasury at

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=103023

Thank you for your support!

Success and Shame

It is a slow pottery time of year now that the mad rush to get Christmas present projects is done. I unloaded the kiln recently to find some good ...
and some pretty bad. I am excited though to have a place to show the things that are just a shame before I put them in the trash. This piano bowl had loads of potential. It was terribly tedious to carve the eys and the bottom showed signs of cracking early on & I should have given up long long ago, but you see I had already devoted probably hours, so I trudged on carving and hoping. But alas the bottom cracked clean through! A whole lot! I keep thinking I'll make a mosaic with broken pieces of failures, this would be a great pattern to use for that.
Here are some other things I am proud of that came throgh and will be for sale at
www.magnoliapottery.etsy.com shortly!!

In other News, Minnie Mouse has rad taste in pots. We just got back from Disneyworld. This awesome tan vase was in Minnie Mouse's house & it has inspired me! I also got some ideas for carving patterns from "It's a Small world"

I can't believe I'm a blogger

I never understood the blog thing. I'm starting to get it and totally see the use for a pottery blog! So off we go! I am excited to have a place to show and talk about new ideas & things I'm learning and working on and to showcase the awesome progress of my wonderful students who quickly become girlfriends! I'm super excited and hope you will enjoy our life in the studio and be grateful you don't have to experience the cussing I do in there or
the various states of undress that I work in : )

I bought a new book recently and have gotten tons of new techniques and ideas from it. Part of it features a lady who makes super tall skinny vases up to 28" high! She makes really weird faces while she works. I have made a couple of attempts and am super e excited at what I can actually do. This is my first attempt which ended up being a vase 19 inches tall. The tallest thing I've ever thrown in one piece! I covered it in dark brown slip and carved a vine swirl pattern in. Here it is waiting to be fired...I'm really into teapots right now. I think they offer so much room for creativity. here is my latest. it is huge and I love it's proportions. My students Patti & Merideth made teapots too! Merideth already took hers
home but here is Patti's darling daisy teapot!