I know, I know. I keep starting new things and then moving on. But this one is a keeper.
Sometime in the delirium of lockdown, I saw a tiny USB pottery wheel on that there internet and decided it was the most stupid thing I had ever seen and I needed one.
It came, I make a pot and ruined a shirt and forgot about it.
Then at the end of last year, I thought of it again and gave it a good crack, but only because I had also discovered a marvel called a Microwave Kiln. So with my tiny potter’s wheel and my slightly larger Microwave kiln, I’m making and glazing pottery in my kitchen!!
I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. I love it when they work, I love it when they pop. I love it all…
And in the space of an hour, I can set up, throw 4-5 pots and clear up. Gotta love my kitchen table!
See the finished pots on ETSY: etsy.com/uk/shop/FlusterMakes
Blue Azure
Something wrong but getting this Read more →
Mayco Classic Crackles
1 full coat blue yonder, patchy second coat. 3 coats of Classic Crackles transparent Read more →
The Perfect Expresso Cup…
I love the whole process of 3D printing to slip casting, but it does take a while, so I’d love it if it was perfect the first time… Pah! I have this lovely Expresso cup; beautiful, but the maximum size I can fire is only 4cm tall, so it’s only a single-shot cup. I want a double at work, so… Read more →
Adventures in Slipcasting: Part 3
Feels like ages since I should have posted this. The paper cups were intended as espresso/shot cups, but after shrinkage, they were too small (my white clay shrinks more than my terracotta), so back to the drawing board. Something new. 3D printed originals, scaled 10% bigger than needed, made into a mold for casting. Here’s a quick image montage: I… Read more →
Specialties: Copper Metallic & Copper Penny
I really wish I write something down last year!! It took ages, but finally got it working. They were all going green because the copper oxidised too quickly. This part of raku needs to be starved or oxygen. I was using a pot with airholes because the lid kept popping off. This works for naked raku where all we need… Read more →
Specialties..
I waited for ages before I bought myself specialty glazes that I had been lusting after. Raku Copper Metalic and Transparent Crackle. I enjoyed how reliable and repeatable the Stroke & Coat glazes were, so am really disappointed how I can’t get these to work. Take a look at All-going-wrong to check out the firing notes for the tiles. So… Read more →
All going wrong!!
So 8 months into my new pottery life, and suddenly it’s all going wrong. I got some specialty glazes and they don’t behave as nicely at the Mayco Stroke and Coat So it’s time to get organised. I have fired a bunch of test tiles in the 2 clays I have, and am about to start my glaze library… So… Read more →
Adventures in Slipcasting – Part 2
I’m no good at throwing the same thing twice, so decided in order to make shot glasses, I needed to slip cast.(finished cups available on my ETSY Store: FlusterMakes) My third attempt at a slip-cast mould was a success, but how about the slip? I don’t have much space in my tiny flat; most of my pottery kit fits into… Read more →
Naked!
OMG.. My newest obsession. Naked Raku. Naked – no glaze, what you see is just the clay. The fired pot is burnished until smooth and then coated in a thick layer of clay slip & glaze before firing again. As this second layer fires, it cracks and crazes in unpredictable patterns. Then when red hot, the pot is dropped into… Read more →
Adventures in Slipcasting – Part 1
A lifetime ago, I was at art college and worked a lot with plaster and casting. I love plaster, smooth slippy, and really useful. Before that on my foundation I made one slipcast thing (actually two of the same thing). I modified a vase from a charity shop and made a plaster mould. Badly fired in an old waste paper… Read more →