Making and baking

                                             After a visit to my little grand daughter Lillie
                                                              to gain inspiration and joy

                                                              and plenty of hugs :)

                                          My son pointed me in the right direction
                                                    to find the foundry in Mascot.

                                                    I was looking for foundry sand
                                         which I had been advised by Jeff Mincham 
                                                     would help to stop my large pots
                                                      from gripping the kiln shelves.
                                      
                                                    I use Clay Works 'sculptural clay'
                                       I find it great to work with on big pots and sculptures
                                              but it has a high shrinkage particularly in the glaze firing
                                                       this causes the pots to grip the shelves and
                                                              occasionally crack in the base.

                                                       The guy at the foundry was beaut
                                                                and gave me half a bag of ....
                                                                   Ummm....what ever it is...
                                                                       and that was my concern.
                                                       I'm not sure if it is what Jeff was suggesting and
                                            the man at the foundry wasn't sure what I was after either!
                                                       It didn't look like what I was expecting......

                                                Ah well in the name of experimentation
                                            I donned my mask and sprinkled the substance
                                  onto the shelf and placed my big pot onto the magical powder.

                                                               Would it work or ruin my kiln?
                                                                     That was the question!

                                                    

                                                                     I turned the kiln on
                                                         and went and did some other things
                                                                  trying not to think about it.

It has been very wet 

and the drive way has been turning to mush.

So I started to lay some paving stones.

This had the duel purpose of cleaning up my raku area

(which I will be using next week).

                                                          

                                                                           Then I made a big platter.
                                                                      As you can see here it is bigger
                                                                           than the top of the wheel.

                                   I carved into it and covered the carving with turquoise slip.

 

Then pared back the slip to reveal the carved pattern.

Quite happy with it at this stage.

It is quite a lump to manoeuvre though!

 

It is called 'Connected by the Stars'

                                          The pattern was inspired by some photos of turtles
                                               that a friend in Rajasthan posted on Face Book
                                                           So beautiful. Thank you Fiona

                                                           and another smaller platter.

                                                               a square one with legs

                                       Finished off a hand built pot with a thrown neck.

                                                and here is the big feller after it's bisque fire
                                           and at this stage it seems like the foundry sand
                                                      (if that is what it is) is doing OK :)

                                            So that is what has been happening here this week
                                           don't forget to see what the other Mud Colony peoples
                                           are up to in their studios too.
                                           It seems like a busy making time for most of us.