I haven’t been motivated to recap the last two weeks because as you can tell from my pieces count, there hasn’t been much progress. I’m still not spending as much time in the studio as I would like – particularly on weeknights – but I’m working on it! More significantly, I didn’t account for all the time I’d need for trimming and glazing in addition to the actual throwing. Very duh…but I forgot to calculate that time. Anyway, despite the few pieces I made, I’m pretty excited with a few pieces.
I’m so curious how these planters will turn out! I haven’t worked much with slip aside from using it to attach handles, but with all the clay I’m recycling/reclaiming at home, I have a loooot of slip. The original plan was to apply slip then carve a design, but the foam roller I used created a cool texture along with a marbled effect so I’m going to leave as is and see how the color and texture ultimately come out.
When I was setting up my studio, I bought a little handheld extruder. One of the shape options is a tube so I decided to try using it to make handles. It works great and now I don’t dread making mugs as much as before. Unfortunately, shaping the handle and hoping the handle actually stays on are still very much part of the process.
I had two pieces flop where I used too much water and applied inconsistent pressure so that the top was much thinner than the bottom. The pieces weren’t really salvageable so I decided to cut them and check the thickness. Most of the thickness felt okay but the top was definitely too thin.
After two flops, I made a mug that I was satisfied with. I haven’t attached a handle and want to apply some underglaze so will include a photo in my next update.
rachel om pottery 
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