Making Pots

Just like the post title, these are inspired by my youth. I wasn’t good enough to be a prefect at shool. Just not really smart enough or motivted to boss people about. My head of year took pity on me and gave me a prefect badge. I didn’t have to do anything for it, and I could still shout at… Read more →

You know what it’s like. Ages without sex then there’s sex. Thinking about sex all the time. Love sex, also love Mishima inlay technique. Look at these lovely little trinket dishes, Dick and Fanny… https://flustermakes.etsy.com Read more →

I like nonsense things. I saw someone making ceramic rings, nonsense, so had to have a go. I got a ring sizer and just started. They are in the kiln at the moment, god knows what size they will end up after fully shrunk! I think these will end up in bright primary colours. I really want to work out… Read more →

I love discovering new techniques. New to me that is – if it sounds Japanese, it’s likely thousands of years old! Mishima is a way of inlaying clay in clay. You draw or carve an image into leather hard clay, fill the carving with coloured slip, and then scrape back the surface so you get a neat line in the… Read more →

I want a midnight blue with cobblestone. So this is one coat of black, two blue and two cobblestone This one is orange under 2 coats of Cirtus splash. Read more →

Just to keep track of my blues. All Mayco. These are all on red clay, bisque fired first. Not sure about the crackles… 2 issues… 1. The rust colour, while lovely is not intentional, must be colour seeping through from the clay when it fiees. Not seen this before. 2. Not a lot of crackles. I do know the cracks… Read more →

I saw a video on Instagram, it looked so simple. Luckily you can trust what you see online. haha. Not simple, out of about 8 I have 3 left to fire. Let’s see what happens. They are sooo thin. I loaded up the glaze inside and out to make them a little thicker. No idea if they would stand up… Read more →

Something wrong but getting this Read more →

1 full coat blue yonder, patchy second coat. 3 coats of Classic Crackles transparent Read more →

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 →

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 →

So I do love tiny pottery, but I’m also trying to make some functional stuff. The latest is Expresso cups. It’s been a couple of months of development so far; here’s what I’m doing: Make/get a 3d model Print it Make plaster molds of the prints Make slip Slip cast cups. Dry them. Fire them Glaze fire them. Phew. So… Read more →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

So I’m a potter now. Never really did it before. A bit on my art foundation, but none on my degree or since. I saw a tiny potter’s wheel online and thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen, so naturally got one. It sat mostly unused for 6 months because what’s the point if I can’t… Read more →

I really have no idea what I’m doing. It’s what I love about making stuff in my kitchen, there is no-one to tell me how to do things the correct way, so I make it up! This week. Raku firing. 2 Youtube videos later, I’m a freaking expert. So I have this cobblestone glaze, as it fires it contracts and… Read more →

So I use a microwave kiln, there is no thermometer, so it’s a little hit and miss, but I think I have the sweet spot for Mayco Stroke & Coat. darker base shows better..15 mins/15 mins.. Try thicker cobblestone. No good on the yellow. 15mins/15mins. It’s smooth and shiney but maybe could be a little smoother. Add 2 more mins… Read more →

I think one reason that I don’t really think of myself as an artist anymore is that I just don’t have time to do anything. Single dad with 2 teens(ish), various family medical conditions to help manage, job to hold down… There is just not much time to consistently devote to getting something to a level that I’m happy to… Read more →