Tuesday 2 June 2009

The Clay Thing

I can't believe it has actually been a whopping 6 weeks since I last got a lump of clay out! I'd wrapped my second tree fairy vase in a damp paper towel a long time ago, but it has long since dried out, and the vase with it. Here it is, dried out and cracked, and decorated in mouldy shades of blue...


I know I'm not the sharpest knife in the draw, but I now realise why using a plastic container that isn't round to wrap my clay around probably isn't the best idea I've ever had. It's well and truly stuck. (In the photo you can only see the round opening - further down the jar is more oval)


So I will probably have to cut it out like I had to with the tube in the last one.

In the mean time, I have wrapped it in a wet towel and a plastic bag to grow more mould rehydrate the clay. It's working very well, so hopefully I will continue with this piece soon.

To ease me back into the clay thing gently I decided to work on something simple over the weekend. I started this piece which was originally going to be a vase...


...but then I decided it would make a rather nice bowl.


I smoothed the inside and let it firm up over night so that I could remove it from the plastic lid it was sitting on and smooth the outside the next day. Well... that was the plan anyway...


...umm... yeah. It was kind of stuck. Not like "Oh it's a little damp and sticky, maybe I'll give it a bit longer" kind of stuck, but more like "Flippin' 'eck! This thing is stuck down with turbo suction and super glue!" kind of stuck. It gripped that plastic lid like it's life depended on it... and it... died. So that was the end of my little coil built bowl. When I have a more suitable surface to work on I will make another one.


Next post: More glazing successes!!

7 comments:

mona said...

I know nothing about clay but would some wax paper between the plastic and object help? Or does the plastic form serve some sort of important function?

mona said...

Oops, I meant to say "the unobstructed plastic form" as in no wax paper. The form of course serves a function. :)

Undaunted said...

Hi there Mona! It's great that you can comment now!

I'm not really sure about the wax paper - my Mum suggested the same thing. There's no special reason for using the plastic lid to build my bowl on, only that it's round and easy for me to turn as I work on the piece. Scott is going to cut up some pieces of ply-wood for me. The wood soaks up the moisture so the clay shouldn't become too stuck.

As for the tree fairy vase - the problem is that it has shrunk around the object!

mona said...

I finally figured out why I can comment now. We changed out operating system from windows to linux a few months back. I think it just took me awhile to notice that at that point I could comment.

I hope the plywood thing helps. It's got to be very frustrating to create something to have it fall apart when trying to remove it.

Undaunted said...

Thanks Mona. I wasn't really bothered about this piece coming apart because it was a very simple piece and I hadn't spent long on it at all. I'm glad I decided not to coil a whole vase because then I would have been very disappointed!

Kathy L said...

Hi Linda

Trying to catch up now. Kids are out of school, had 8th grade graduation and have not been near a computer in two weeks. Talk about major withdrawl. I have 3 teens and they are all on various sites like facebook! Anyway...great to see you are back at it and thanks so much for your comments. It will probably be a bleak summer for me interms of art!

k

Undaunted said...

Lol, 3 teens, 1 computer - I can imagine!!

Thanks for popping by. It takes a while to catch up doesn't it?

I can't imagine how you find the time for art with all the running around you do for your family! I hope you find some time for it though - I find it takes a while to get back into the swing of it after a break.