Guy Ballard

On Monday, I went to class with the intention of throwing a couple of vessels and another birdhouse.  I arrived and as usual I put my keys and phone in the side pockets of my backpack. At the end of the night I went to retrieve my keys from my backpack and leave but, the keys were missing and when I went outside to look for my car it was missing, too.  I called the police and they took my statement and filed a stolen vehicle report. The next day, I called the insurance company and rented a car. Of course, my house house were on the key ring and I had to have the locks changed.  What a week. Last night I threw a teapot and made sure the the two vessels and the birdhouse would not dry out too much to trim in a couple weeks as the shop will be closed for the holidays.  Happy Holidays!, he says, semi sarcastically.  

The composite clay vase experiment fell apart when the two halves that i had intended to join did not match up.  In an attempt to make them align I tried to throw and trim the two halves.  It just kept getting worse. I decided I had put enough time into this and that I needed to move on. Scrapped. The white clay birdhouse, that I had intended to scratch the surface of was still way too thick and heavy. So I tried to trim the pot to make it thinner and in doing so kthe clay was too wet and grabbed the tools sending it flying across the room. Literally.  Lessons Learned; Don't trim until the clay is almost leather hard. Don't throw a pot and leave the walls thick, thinking that you will trim them later. it is not efficient.   On the bright side, I did learn to make slip and decorated two bowls and a birdhouse.  And I did learn that paper can be used as a stencil.

In preparation of tonight's class I stopped at Dick Blick last night and purchased 4 different colors of underglaze. I plan to experiment with underglazes on a few different pieces for this next firing.  Here is the plan; 2 teracotta colored bowls, natural clay slip around the outside and 1/2 way down the inside and ring of colored underglaze on top of the slip. Terracotta birdhouse, white slip dabbed on leaf patterns with carving in the veins of the leaves and then adding slip to the veins Composite clay vase experiment, add decorative elements (various colors of underglaze  to the vase after it is assembled and then going over the whole thing with a semi transparent glaze. Finish, white clay birdhouse, scratch the surface to the base, then add a colorful glaze. place the holes in the birdhouse, maybe a dripping type glaze.

I've been working on the idea of placing some of my pottery on Etsy to try to sell it. If the experiment goes well, I would not have to give them all away as Christmas gift. just so that they do not pile up. One of the most important parts of preparing items for sale is the picture. I've read that a picture can make or break a sale.  Some of the suggestions for photographing the item is to make sure that the lighting is good and to include a picture of the item in it's proposed environment. I thought that outdoor shots might give me the lighting I needed but, I not sure outdoors works for the vessels (maybe the birdhouse).   

I started the evening finishing birdhouse #2 and trimming 2 bowls that I had thrown a couple of weeks ago. I had tried to make matching bowls but they seemed so different in shape that I decided to trim them differently. Results: They are not a matching pair. I still want to do some work on them before they are put in the kiln, so I wrapped them up until next week. After trimming I threw 2 cylinders that are intended to be stacked on top of each other, The base is made of red and white clay mixed together to give a striated look.  The upper portion of the cylinder is made of red clay. Once the 2 pieces are are stacked I plan to cut it into 3 pieces length wise and put it back together in a triangular shape. This is my introduction to what is called a composite piece.  I had a little time at the end of the class to try to throw a bowl/plate like I had seen on a youtube video.  Starting with the classic cylinder shape and stretching the side down after the cylinder shape...

Using the following quick start checklist,  Have the following items ready to go when you start to open your shop to ensure you can do it in one sitting. 1. SIGN IN TO ETSY.COM If you do not already have an Etsy account, you will need to create one. Go to www.etsy.com and click Sign In, then click Register to create a username and password. Etsy username Etsy password 2. START YOUR ETSY SHOP You’ll need a shop name to open your shop. Have a few options ready, just in case your first choice is already taken. Try adding the word “shop” or “boutique” to the end of your desired name. Shop name ideas: 1. Unwind Ceramics 2. 3. CREATE ITEM LISTINGS (Bird House)  Handmade Ceramic Birdhouse Have at least one item ready to sell.  O verview Handmade item Materials:  Ceramics, Pottery, Stoneware, Bird Safe Glazes, Sturdy Cording Only ships to United States from  Chicago, Illinois Have digital product photos of your item ( 800-1000 pixels wide). (need wh...

Last night, I picked up two pieces of pottery that came out of the glaze kiln. One was another bowl, a little taller and "v" shaped than the bowls I have done before and the jar with lid you see in the picture. The jar with lid is a good piece in the sense that the form and the fit of the lid are nice. The only problem is that the glaze was supposed to be blue black and came out almost completely black. I suspect that red clay is the reason and that the glaze that I used on it was better suited to white clay.