Wednesday, May 14, 2014

The Pottery Shop Update

Yes, it has been almost a year.....I have only a few months of the year not consumed by real life - but I have made slow progress on my two buildings.
The kit I used for the pottery was just too small. I had already removed the original back wall & re-constructed one with a doorway, so it was fairly simple to extend the back a few inches. I wanted to extend the width instead of the depth, but that would have taken skills... I have none, I just wing it, although I am attempting to use rulers now...
 So, while I'm making a  small change, I might as well add a second floor as well...living quarters.... so I started by mocking it all up with foam board
 And NO, of course my back wall doesn't exactly fit.....and my doorway is crooked.... I'll fill it in with something inappropriate & cover it with paperclay when I'm frustrated enough.
So, while I'm struggling along with structure it's more fun to ready things for the inside. Some inspiration for the walls......
Some glaze ingredients & tools
 I've so far used actual, real ingrediants....copper carbonate, red iron, flint, whiting, ball clay..... I intend to fill the glaze buckets with real glazes too, or at least splash them up a bit with the real deal. (The red iron has already stained the floor!) I have a  better scale coming as well....
A rack of fully readable Ceramics Monthlys ( though not replications of any particular issues, each is just a dozen pages of assorted misc real ads & articles.) 

 Normally, no frothy beers at the wheel......but this is not reality, so why not?
But now that I have an idea of the layout I must pack it all up & work on the darned building & making all the rest of the stuff I'll need..... a bunch of clay boxes with real bagged clay, more pottery tools, dry ingredients, glaze recipes, spills, lots of splatters, a floor drain, etc... and I'm also already starting to work on the kiln yard out back.... brick kiln, kiln shelves & furniture, a water pump.....

In other town news.....new products for Uncle rooster's: tried to make some cigars & boxes & some medical maryjane (no, sorry, nothing actually authentic in these baggies!!)

that's all for now..........