Saturday, May 22, 2010

Rocky's Video and more of the fountain saga

Rocky has complained that he hasn't gotten as much Blog space as Cleo, so let me share a video my son Jason made of Rocky playing with his favorite plastic cup. You can tell he's really grown a lot since those kitty photos!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0HOlBglh6c
Now - back to the fountain!
Slab construction was used - this means that the form is cut from a large "slab" of clay. The studio has a contraption which rolls out the clay similar to those old ringer washers that preceded our modern ones. After I wrapped the clay around the form, I used a hair dryer to stiffen the clay so that I could slip it off the form. As the clay dries, it shrinks and would crack if left on the form. I textured the clay with an old log which I rolled across the clay before it went on the form. The "mushrooms" were then attached and proper holes cut for the water to come out the top and back in the reservoir at the bottom muchroom. At this point, it had to dry before bisque firing. Next time we'll look at how glaze and stain was applied.

Here's Rocky!! checking his daily email

4 comments:

Debora Hoffmann said...

Very neat, Donna! Fountaineer, indeed!

Donna Griffin said...

Why thanks, Debora!! It's lots of fun and I must say, I'm picturing fountains everywhere! My next project will be one to take to shows and will have little perches on it for the tiny bears!!
This first one had a few design issues, but, on the whole, turned out as I expected!

Debora Hoffmann said...

Oh, that would be great to make a fountain to display your bears on! Great idea!

Forgot to mention that I love the picture of your cat checking his e-mail. :-)

Donna Griffin said...

I'll certainly record the effort and will post it. I really enjoy the pottery studio and the wonderful people there. It's so neat to see what others are doing and to get their input for my own projects. We are lucky to have the art center (Peninsula Fine Arts Center) in our area. Their lovely motto is: "Art is what you make it" Isn't that grand?!