Lots of Finished Ceramics

[Ethanol_Emillee]

I haven't been on here in forever so I've got lots of completed ceramic projects to update. I put most of them in my photo gallery but here are just a few of my favorites.

My Ice Cream Bowl
Made by throwing one bowl, letting it dry a little, flipping it over and throwing another bowl on top of it.


My Whale with a mustache


My octopus with a top hat


Porcelain Plate
Has crushed up glass melted in the bottom


Tree Stump


Snake Teapot


Sorry those last two are so blurry. It shows the difference in picture quality between an iPhone 4 and....all my past cell phones.

Hopefully this should link to the rest of my photo gallery, I've practically forgotten how to do anything because it's been so long since I've been on here: http://www.craftster.org/pictures/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=164952

[tcmatteson]

I love that ice cream bowl! The colors really pop on it and for some reason reminds me of old school ice cream shops! And for some reason your whale reminds me of a smiling Totoro   But I think my favorite of these has got to be that gorgeous plate. I think it's so cool that you used glass on the bottom and the colors are really pretty!

[BeaG]

Oh, wow, that first bowl is so pretty and intriguing!
I love it.

[Ethanol_Emillee]

Thanks for the compliments!!
Most of these projects are ones I've completed recently - after I had time to develop my ceramic skills. 

[maxxev]

i love your icecream bowl! such gorgeous colours! (not perhapse the shape i would have chosen for an ice cream bowl..but then i have been known to lick the bowl clean )
the whale is awesome too. he looks such the gentleman in his top hat and tash

[Puppy_girl]

everything's great!  i really like the whale with the moustache. 

[Ethanol_Emillee]

Haha. Yeah....it's not the shape I would've chosen for an icecream bowl either...but that's just how it came out. I think the shape sort of looks like an egg cup for an ostrich egg.

[Hippie9]

I'm curious about the throwing-on-top-of-throwing thing. Obviously you don't want to throw down your lump of clay onto a bowl that has a shape already---it'll collapse, won't it?

[Ethanol_Emillee]

You have to throw one bowl and wait for it to dry partially, the leather hard stage. At that stage it can support the weight better. Then you flip it over on the wheel, center it, scratch up the bottom so the new clay will stick and you put a lump of clay on top and then delicately center that. It is really hard not to let it collapse because if it gets too wet it will. Also if you put too much pressure on the new piece of clay it can make it collapse too.

I sort of had problems with that. What that picture doesn't show, is that there's actually a crack on the bottom of the bowl where I had to fix a part that broke through (which means I can't really use it for icecream, but I can use it for dry things - like m&ms!) The only thing that I can figure happened was when I was making it, I got the joining piece too wet and the pressure of me throwing it caused the first bowl's bottom to bulge out. Not knowing what had happened, I shaved off too much and it got too thin.

It's definitely a delicate balance - which is why my teacher made us do it this way, because it's a lot harder.
The easier way to do it is to just make 2 separate bowls and join them off the wheel.

Also, I think that crack is from firing it too much as well. I had the break fixed so that it wasn't noticeable but I had to put it through an extra firing because my colors weren't right after the first one and unfortunately....fi ring makes clay shrink, so the crack reappeared.     It's not the first time I've had something crack or break. If only you could see the underside of that octopus!! Those legs were a pain!!

[Bigmouth]

Excellent work.  I'm curious about your tree stump.  I am working on a couple similar-ish concepts right now.  Did you build that from a slab, or is it coil-built?  Is the texture pressed/rolled into the clay, or did you carve it?  I love how it turned out.