John,
This is what you have told me, correct?
There is something else about the lid that looks wrong, but it escapes me. Any thoughts?
Phil
Zinc Silicate Crystalline Glaze Pottery
A little help from John Tilton
8-18-07
John,
It feels like fall outside today. I'm looking forward to a day on the lawn then having enough gas left to throw some pots. Hopefully I can take those lidded jars to the next level.
Phil
Phil,
As you are making pots today think about how the pot has air in it and shape it as you would blow up a balloon. One of those really nice covered jars in firing 30 has a place where it is too straight just below the shoulder. It's the one in the middle sitting on top of the kiln in the August 15th photo where the goblet is on the right. The pot comes up from the base and it ends under the lid, but it has this straight place which is incongruous to the start and finish of the pot. I could also say that the widest point of the pot should be about 2 inches below where it is now.
You want to animate the form from the inside. I throw standing up but when I am making my final shaping passes, I lean to my left, and put my right hand inside the pot and shape with that. I'm actually looking at the pot in profile in a mirror, and my right hand, which is holding a sponge or a rib, is the only thing touching the pot. The key is to shape the inside of the pot, not the outside -- well you do shape the outside, but it's the inside you are really concerned with because you can trim the outside to the inside.
John
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John, This is what you have told me, correct? There is something else about the lid that looks wrong, but it escapes me. Any thoughts? Phil |
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Phil
Yes you have it exactly. The idea for the side is that it should come up from the base and continue that line through the shoulder. And you may want to make that lid a little larger in diameter. I always like for that kind of lid to hide the flange that it sits on and create a little mystery in the shape. There should be a shadow on the pot under the lid. People have different ideas about this and sometimes that shadow should be subtle, and sometimes, ...... I make them really outlandish, but that is what we are trying to do, make outlandish pots.
John
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John, I tried and think it helped, except I missed the part about the widest point of the pot being about 2 inches below where it is now. Phil |
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8-19-07
Phil
The widest point can be anywhere as long as the shape is correct. Sometimes it will be in the shoulder and sometimes it will appear that the pot has an ass. I always have to watch out, if the pot is widest at a low point, to trim enough clay out at that point, or it will be heavy there too and that makes for an unpleasant shape and feel of the pot.
A pot should weigh what it looks like it weighs.
It's really hard for me not to tell you how I would make a pot when I'm looking at yours and it's important that you be able to find what shapes please you. I think the latest pot is an improvement over the last one. The flange is shorter and it will be interesting to see it with the lid on. I personally would make the flange even shorter, but I'm not suggesting that you do so too. And the form springs from the base and follows a line to the top which I can immediately recognize as congruent to what you are thinking. You will make better pots than this one as you refine your eye, but this one is on the right track.
Now make as many as you can.
John