Just for fun…

I have an overwhelming urge to make something – it’s been such a long time! I love ceramic bottles, so I decide to make a little one just for fun. I use one of the darker shades of clay to make the bottle using a combination of slab and coiling techniques.  I then decorate it using patches of darker slip in random places. The bottle is floppy because the clay is too wet, but I’m too impatient to let the clay dry and just ‘go with it’. The clay is incredibly shiny and I think it’d be nice to make it even shinier so I dig out my burnishing stone and get rubbing. The shine is amazing! I feel like I may have wasted the day but am happy to have made something. Once dry, the bottle is fired to 800oC. It’s lost some of the shine (it would have been perfect for a pit firing at a lower temperature!), but is still quite cute. I dab bits of the wood ash collected from my wood burner over the bottle and hope that now my kiln is working properly and I’ll get a better glaze results… I AM SO PLEASED! The wood ash glaze has worked and looks great, and WOW, the colours on the bottle are gorgeous – well I think so anyway! This little floppy bottle has given me the confidence I need to carry on. THIS IS GOING TO WORK!!