Expanding on an Idea

Jason and I fetched more wood for the kiln yesterday and there is a few years worth on the site now! Wood has been a struggle lately and my friend Rudi's connection to the old saw mill in Massaponax is the gift that keeps on giving! We will go back again next month for more. 

9" high - this is a (successful!) prototype modeled on a drawing I did of an ancient pot.

Today I was able to spend the entire day in the studio. I threw parts to make a half dozen more of these 'carafes' (above) which I think are quite jaunty. I'm thinking that they need some kind of a stopper. After the last firing and the success of the birds I filled pages in my composition notebook with sketches of new possibilities. Making a totem pole was one of those ideas. I'm not a great big-pot maker, but I can stack forms to the moon (or rather, to the top of the chamber...)

the first bird totem  pole in progress

This will have 4 birds in all...that's 4 beaks, 8 eyes, 8 feet and who knows how many hundreds of little balls of clay for feathers...it might take a couple of days to finish making it...I'm thinking about a bird bath next.

44"high/18 pounds...reminds me of those Volkous/Soldner pots from the '50's!

By the end of the day I had attached these bits to the lids and 'beaked' them. I'm enjoying the character variations that different bases and body shapes seem to take on. I hope to finish these in the next couple of days.

future bird jars

I was trying to make a bowl-shaped pot here below, but it ended up being too much like a teapot missing a lid. I have another bowl that I pulled oval and I'll put a head on each 'corner'.

another prototype...it might pour...