Legalize Pottery - Creative Content Coming Soon Late May 2017 – On a sunny Sunday, I spied a shiny black beetle at the side of a path whilst hiking in the Heritage Grove Redwoods, La Honda, California.  I realized instantly that this bug would make a perfect model for a ceramic insect that I would coat with some recently-purchased Black Luster overglaze. Luckily, my hiking partner had his iPhone and took this Photo. Research revealed that this creature has the fantastic name of Darkling Beetle. I sketched what I had in mind for making a ceramic bug. My idea was to make antennae and legs f ..read more

Legalize Pottery - Creative Content Coming Soon Various fantastical bugs have invaded the Legalize Pottery Ceramics Studio — here they are on one of the shelves. And here they are shown invading the kiln. These insects still need to develop deep shiny coloring.  Then they’ll each grow some antennae and multiple legs.  And, I’d like to see them perched on pieces of driftwood.  Stay tuned for more about this swarm of captivating bugs. Insect Invasion ..read more

Legalize Pottery - Creative Content Coming Soon Here are the preliminary results of my quest to make symmetrical pedestal bowls using a slump mold.  They progressively grew in size and stature, with the bottom-most being comparatively big, middle bowl being bigger, and top-most being the biggest and tallest.   So far, the process has involved cutting large slabs into large circles, and pressing them into a plastic-wrapped mold, and gently beating the clay into submission.  Then, the insides required seemingly endless smoothing, and m ..read more

Legalize Pottery - Creative Content Coming Soon I just can’t seem to stop creating fish ceramics.  Here’s the latest creation, still pretty fragile, in the process of hardening (greenware stage).   Notice I’m using ‘fish wrap’ to cradle the piece while it is drying. Below is a smaller fish which just survived bisque firing, and now ready for glazing. Legalize Pottery’s School of Fish Continues to Grow ..read more

Legalize Pottery - Creative Content Coming Soon Summer 2016 marks the 4th year of my foray into pottery. Here’s the first picture of my initial effort (June 2012): Here’s my most recent project, currently in the drying-out stage: Along the way, there have been some disappointing results. I was advised early-on to smash up anything that turned out sub-par — we don’t want future archeologists to dig up 21st Century crap and declare that we were really, really lousy potters. Below is a photo of my latest landfill contribution. It was disappointing to accept that all the hours spent on ..read more

Legalize Pottery - Creative Content Coming Soon This Summer has started out auspiciously — with a rare “Strawberry Moon.”  A full moon shone on Summer Solstice (June 20) — the longest day of the year.  Hasn’t happened since 1967, and we all know what a great year that was!   Won’t happen again until 2062 — pending intervening unknowns. So, I’m trying to make Summer plans that are equal to this auspicious start, involving heretofore unknown feats involving ceramics.  I was inspired by attending “Open Studios” last month, in particular one artist who recently switched from 2D ..read more

Legalize Pottery - Creative Content Coming Soon Glazing is my least-favorite part of the ceramics process.  I know I’m not alone in this.  Classmates of mine are always griping about not knowing what glazes/glazing techniques to use and being disappointed with the end results.  Also, googling “Hate Glazing” reveals a bonanza of complaints. Of course, every step prior to glazing has ‘failure’ possibilities.  But, as a piece survives the gauntlet, your attachment grows. With glazing being the final creative step, and fraught with problems, there’s a good chance that ..read more

Legalize Pottery - Creative Content Coming Soon I’m continuing to add sgraffito to some of my recent projects, including these two sets of square dessert plates.  On the 1st set of 4 plates, I applied 4 coats of jade underglaze and used sgraffito tools to incise a design of branches around the edge.  On the 2nd set of 4 plates, I applied 4 coats of black underglaze (4 coats) and increased the complexity of the carving.  These pictures were taken before firing (greenware stage).  The plates measure approx. 6″ x 6″, made of cone 10 stoneware. Square Plates Edged with Sg ..read more

Legalize Pottery - Creative Content Coming Soon To make a large classically-shaped vase, an ancient technique is to use fat extruded coils, and flatten them out — making “slab coils”.  Two large bowl shapes were made from the slab coils being wound and stacked and smeared together.  After resting a bit, the two bowls were joined rim-to-rim into a roundish vessel.   A foot and neck/rim were added from more slab coils. A band of underglaze was applied to the belly of the vase, and I used “sgraffito” tools and a linol ..read more

Legalize Pottery - Creative Content Coming Soon This recently-completed vase (measurements 9-1/2″ tall, 3-3/4″ diameter) was made from slabs, using a cylindrical form.  A half-dozen interesting autumn leaves were pressed into the damp clay, and 3 coats of black slip were applied.  After the bisque firing, the inside was coated with John’s Black glaze, and the outside was dipped in VA Clear glaze.  The imprinted leaves turned out speckled, and their stems and ‘veins’ show up nicely.  The overall effect on the outside is ..read more