Before and after

Before and after shots are neat.

Finished work

Here are some of the pots I made this semester.

The process

I know I have not posted anything in awhile and I apologize, so here is a really big post to make up for it.

I thought it would be neat to document my process of making pots and naturally I picked a project with a lot of steps.

Step one: A nice wheel thrown bowl. I enjoy step one, but I find it is what I do the least here in grad school.

Step two: Trimming of the bowl. This bowl has no foot, you will find out why if you continue reading.

Step three: Cutting out the windows. This takes a lot of time and has a process of its own, but I figure if I went into every detail you probable wouldn’t read past step one.

Step four: Cleaning of the sharp window edge. No one likes sharp window edges.

Step five: Adding of the stamped slabs. This also takes forever and has a number of steps that would bore anyone but me to death or at least tears. But we have our prototype!

Step six: Claying up the prototype to make the mold. Making molds is hard work, but I enjoy it because it has a lot of steps.

Step six A: pouring the plaster.

And we have a mold.

Step seven: Casting, I find this step to be very rewarding. I get to see all my work start to payoff.

Step seven A: pouring out the excess slip. This really is not a step but I had I picture of it for some reason. See how nice the inside looks!

The first successful cast

Step eight: The clean up. With a little bit of cleaning we are back to step five.

Step nine: Adding the foot. I add the foot after because I want a nice inside plane.

Step ten: finished bowl. Not actually a step, but ten steps sound better than nine.

plate

From the start of my graduate school education my wife has been pleading with me to make some plates, but of course I’ve put it off. The other day my professor made a comment about me not making plates and BAM a plate, go’s to show that if you want me to do something just ask my professor.

new stuff

Here is the pitcher and tumbler I have been working on. I’m going to make a mold of the tumbler so I can cast a set of four. I love molds

Evil egg pepper shaker wha ha ha ha

Ok everyone I know this has been a long time coming, you can stop asking yourselves “I wonder when Deric is going to post his bad egg pepper shaker?” because here it is

Here is a little ewer I’ve been working on for I don’t want to say how long, but summer is over I feel the need to post something. Just a few more touch-ups on the handle and it will be finished.

Summer activities “Is this a good activanie”

Well its summer and here are a few things that I have done to take my mind off of school. First of all I am now the newest member of the dollar tree Inc employee family as a part time sales associate. I knew all these years of college would pay off, and just think I’m not even done with graduate school. PS I did not make my name tag

With that here is my other part time job, mowing the grass or in other words hewing down the crazy jungle of plant life that seems to reappear only hours after I mow it, but on the bright side the mower was given to us by a good friend

This is my buddy Philip. Philip and I go way back to the time when I discovered him burrowing under my garage. It was all fun and games at first until Philip started chewing on the siding. After that we had a long discussion about who would move and who should stay, and to give Philip some credit he had some pretty good arguments, but in the end I proved to be superior and Philip decided to move. So we found him a good home by a dumpster next to the church. I think he will enjoy his new home. Goodbye Philip the trunk of my car smells a little of your feces.

Now some of you might ask “where’s the excitement in your summer Deric?” well hold on to your boots and look at this, a cool St. Christopher pendant I found while metal detecting in my own back yard. You can not get more exciting then that! And I also went to the zoo and saw a hippopotamus Thanks Blake, Lillian and family we had a great time!

Well that’s about it.

Good egg salt shaker

here is the good egg part of the set, I'll be sure to post the bad egg pepper shaker when I'm finished with it, but don't hold your breath it going to be awhile.

Finished work

Finally I have some work to show!

No more glazing it’s time to fire.

Bronze casting

We learned a cool why to make small bronze casted in mold making, and of course I made a spider.

Glazing

I gave myself a week to glaze and I am enjoying it for once. I hope the outcome will reflect the time I’ve put into it, but you never know what’s going to happen in the kiln.

Glaze tests oh boy

Just a new form I’m playing with

new pot

Here is a new pot I have been working on, just trying out some new ideas and having fun.

As you can see I added a few hidden treasures