Arizona Again! Part 8 (Clay Studio Projects)
It has been two weeks since I returned home from my lovely visit in Arizona. I hit the ground running, and have not posted for ten days. I recently realized I had one more post to do in this particular series, so here it is, at last.
My sister and I had some time to pass while waiting for her group's turn to use the kiln. We spent part of that time inside the clay studio, admiring the assorted works in progress. I love this vase, featuring Wile E. Coyote, the Road Runner, and Elmer Fudd.
As you can see, this fellow was working on a HUGE vase. He had previously shaped it using two half-vase molds, and was in the process of putting them together.
He added more slabs of clay around the top, and then cut it and smoothed it to make a nice, even rim.
He explained to me how he had purposely left a long lump of clay along what was to become the inside "edges". Then he used a long-handled wooden tool with a round head to smooth that lump and cover and fill the crack where the two halves came together inside the vase. He had already been working on the right side, but the left side is still lumpy.
Here he is working with that tool to smooth the inside. If I remember correctly, he put the mold around it again and strapped the two halves together firmly, so it would hold its shape while he worked on it. The next step was to let it dry in another room. I have no idea how long that would take for such a large piece.
This is my final post in the Arizona Again! series. If you would like to read the previous posts, here are the links:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Surely that fellow cross hatched the two halves of the large vase
and used slip to join them?
I've not done any clay work since high school (gasp) back when we
Had art class in the shade of the pyramids ha ha...
Great post. I miss Az.
You are probably right about how he put the vase together, but I don't know enough about the subject to even use the correct vocabulary! Love the photo!
That photo was around 1976, bottom of Sabino Canyon