Uga Buga Bowls: I've been neglecting you

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. This next paragraph may have a little TMI so feel free to skip it if you're not in the mood for my self indulgent ramblings - I'll mark the pottery topics when I get there so it's easy to find.

Most of March was spent doing an IVF attempt. So I've been shot full of hormones that had me logey and moody and I couldn't really put together the concentration enough to form sentences. Unfortunately, I had a bad hormone surge at the last minute so the attempt had to be stopped right at the zero hour. There's a chance we were able to recover the attempt naturally so hopefully I'll have a whole new announcement posted here in 3 months, but the chances are pretty slim. So that's why I've been so neglectful.

POTTERY CONTENT

I've spent a whole lotta time in the past making standard bowls and mugs but lately I've been moving on to more complicated items. I think I've been doing so because I keep wanting to play with the Steve tool.

I tend to be quite the gadget person. If a new something comes out, I have to have it! And then I never use it again. This time it seems to be different. Ever since I've gotten the Steve tool, I can't seem to put it down. Now anything I make without texture seems really unfinished.

Well, I decided to challenge myself with a few new things. I've been working hard making chicken roasters and so far only 1 out of 5 has survived the drying process. We still need to see if it survives the kiln or not. I seem to be having a problem with cracking. Especially the lids I make for casserole dishes. Anyone have any suggestions? I guess I need to review those tutorials on compressing.

While we're talking about lids, I've found that I really prefer to make them right side up so I can make the knob along with the lid itself rather than attach it later. That's probably part of the cracking problem. A big concentration of spun clay at the center of the lid. The problem comes with trimming off the big giant pad of clay that the lid sits on when it's being made. When I turn it upside down, I want the weight to be spread across the body of the lid but there's that darned knob in the way. I'm thinking of getting a big piece of foam, about 3 inches thick, and dig out the center of it and use that as a trimming pad.

So there's been some demand for garlic holders. I've been working on making a few of those. The shadow kind of masks the lids. Sorry about that.

And I've also been working on butter holders. I've made one that worked out and we're using it in our kitchen. The second one I made at the same time didn't fit once it was glazed. That sucks. So I have a few more waiting to be fired.