Pots series 19 - Less conventional shapes

Here are a couple of pots a bit more experimental in their shape - probably not to everyone's taste!

Simon's pottery

Simon had a go at throwing pots on the wheel and he did very well! Here are his pots.

1 x Lucie Rie Matt white, 1 x Matt black

1 x Matt transparent, small overlap with 1 x T-Red

1 x Shiny black, 1 to 2 coats of ?dry blue

Inside: Halla's Red, Outside: 1 x Shiny black 

Halla's Red, Shiny black

Sea Mist

Inside: matt transparent, Rim: Dark iron oxide, Outside: ?dry blue

T-Red

Pots series 18 - Soft curves

I like throwing soft curvy vases with a narrow neck, and I experimented with carving concentric circles or spirale while trimming them. It creates gouges that some glazes can enhance.

Light spirale, 1 x Honey

Deep spirale, with 1 x Green transparent

For this one, I carved concentric circles instead of a spirale,
which I find a lot more homogenous and evenly spaced.
Picture took before first firing.

1 x Honey (this glaze becomes slightly 'rusty' when thin)

I also lightly glazed the bottom! 

Pots series 17 - Pastel bowls

I struggle to glaze bowls. I have trouble finding a glaze interesting enough to use alone inside and do not manage to make it uniform. This time, I used an assortment of five pastel colours: shiny pink, grey transparent, matt white, lavender and spotted green. I pour them in on a side, then out. I used either Lucie white (matt white) or lavender on the outside (lavender being a lot more forgiving and uniform).

My wall project

One of my projects during my time off was to put some wood panelling on our entrance wall. My parents came to put it up and sort out all the technicalities we encountered in the process! We are very happy with the finished result and with the whole experience. A big thanks to them!

My colour palette was made of: 

- leftover of matt emulsion peacock blue paint (Dulux Diamond Blue #1), 

- leftover of black chalkboard paint (Rust-Oleum), 

- tester pot of grey/blue matt emulsion paint (Farrow & Ball Stiffkey Blue #281)

- pot of Dulux mid-sheen brilliant white satinwood (the only one that was actually recommended for wood).

The wood was 8mm redwood. 

I used several colours on each plank, blending them, sometimes layering to make a 'distressed' look. Some would say we could do it haphazardly, but let's be honest, I wasn't. I tried to keep the colour balance I had in mind for the final project.

Next step was to sand off two thirds of the planks. After working on the first plank with sandpaper and elbow grease, we bought an electric sander for this!

We applied wood dye on some of them (mainly Liberon water-based Teak and Antique Pine).



















In the mean time, my parents prepared the wall with regularly spaced battens.

We got ourselves a mitre saw to cut the wood planks. It helped us obtain a neat finish, and saved us lots of time!

We were lucky the walls and ceiling were rather straight. We started from the top so that the cut on the last plank (which needs to at an angle to follow the slope of our floor/ceiling) would be hidden by a skirting board.

We chose each plank to put on so that they were homogeneously arrayed. This was my task, and it took more time that my dad had anticipated.

Almost done!

Details of the extended door frame: