Clay Wheel

As promised, my first adventures on the wheel :)

I quickly learned that terracotta clay (being nice and soft) was the easiest for me to throw on the wheel 

You can see how different the clay body is before it gets fired!

I haven't glazed all of them just yet, still waiting to put through some at a midfire glaze range but I wanted to share this post with you anyway :)

I made Peachy a new cat bowl because the last bowl (which was hand built) had developed some cracks.

Since this is my first time working with terracotta it's also my first time glazing with it and I have to say, it threw me a curve ball. I love the look of raw terracotta so much that it definitely influenced my reaction to seeing the clay body clear glazed and fired - not a fan.

Since a cat bowl will have food in it and also needs to be washed there isn't really the option to leave the clay raw and porous. I have since thrown another bowl on the wheel and this time I dipped it into white slip - I'll keep you updated on the cat bowl saga!

I kept this pencil holder nice and simple! The clay used is BRT, slightly harder to throw on the wheel but not as difficult as JB1, which you'll be able to see below.

Some more uninspiring glaze work on terracotta!

JB1 - aka poor mans porcelain which I found so hard to throw that I decided to keep the first thing I was able to "successfully" throw on it. Not bad, not great :p

A bowl Ben threw but wasn't impressed with so he let me go crazy on the glaze. I used a combo which came off the glaze test tiles I've been working on :)

Lucky last, a plate which got a 'meh' reaction out of me :p

My plan in the future is to either keep terracotta raw, pour white slip over it or use a black out glaze that completely covers the clay body.

Stay tuned for more clay adventures in the future!