Snazzy Tricks and Inspiration

"Make your mistakes work for you"

That's what my elementary school art teach always told me.  Don't get torn up and defeated when things go a way you didn't expect- accept what happened and make it beautiful.

I've always loved that advice and try to refer back to it just about everyday as it can apply to a multitude of situations- and not just art.  And he always seemed right.  Once you continued to work with it, the mistake was simply a part of the piece, and it was beautiful.

One of my student's rims stretched a little too wide in class this week.  It was perhaps 11 inches wide and the base was only 9.  So,  we just gave it a wave curve and it was beautiful.  She inspired me to give the same treatment to one of my bowls this week and I loved how it turned out... until I realized I needed to trim it.  

Trimming takes place with your piece upside down on your wheel head.  This bowl needs some major trimming because it has a lot of clay in the bottom and will be placed on a small thrown foot so the base needs to come in a couple inches.  But, if I set it upside down on the wheel, it will sit crooked and damage my piece by placing too much stress on the raised lip.  What is a girl to do?

Here the raised lip hangs off the ware board.  Sitting upside down helps pieces dry evenly and the lip is undisturbed as it hangs off the edge.

Basically, I need to raise my bowl up so the curved rim can hang free.  So, I threw an 11 inch ring to fit my 11 in bowl.  The ring must be dried off to keep from sealing to your bowl and making a mess of the rim.  A rib works fine for this. Then, with my wire, I cut out a section of the ring the width of my waved section plus a little extra.  This clay is saved to be wedged back up for reuse as is the rest of the ring when I'm done with it.

Then my bowl fits right on top of this ring with space for my lip to rest unharmed.  I center it up on the ring and then give it a nice tap downwards to secure it.  

Then I go to town trimming!  Big difference, huh?!  It is not the same bowl after this magic. 

Then I came back the next day and added the foot.  The wave was a bit to work around but it adds so much interest to the piece that is balances out just fine.

The new kiln should be in today so watch closely for some actual finished pieces in the next week!

Love, 

Lisa