New bowls for Craig

These are some new bowls made from some horrible (awesome) clay. Extremely short, the only things I could get out of it were guinomi and small teabowls. I ended up having to add about 30% other finer local clay to it to make it practical for larger teabowls, but it was still quite argumentative and I ended up smashing many and re-wedging, about 4 times in all. What I finally came out with we’re these.


You can see how they all are on the verge of stretching beyond the limit, and are just starting to tear, but the insides are smooth, and the trimmed surfaces are just really juicy.

-Posted from iMike

Location:Taku,Japan

5 thoughts on “New bowls for Craig”

  1. Hi Mike,

    The Tea Bowl workshop images were great. Sounds like it was amazing. In regards to your “short” clay…I thought I was short but you win. Did you add your sandstone dust to the clay? My experiments with different aggregates was very interesting. The pink granite worked great but do I really want to smash all that granite from discarded countertop pieces!! The decomposed granite which you said was a terrible mistake by one of your fellow potters was OK at cone 6 and gave the body a lot of tooth and crepe effect in trimming. Firing at cone 9 was not good…little white zits all over…not pretty. I finally ended up with “Bluestone” dust (feldspathic sandstone). It really is blue and the feel of talcum powder. I put some in the bisque firing and the blue was gone. Now it’s pinkish tan and doesn’t feel like powder…just dust. It provides the crepe effect in trimming and tightens the body a little bit. It’s free and I have 50 gallons of it so I’m good to go. I enjoy reading your blogs. Later, Ron

    1. Hi Ron,

      Yes, the workshop was a success, I think everyone had a good time and learned a lot. Sounds like you have found a good material in that Bluestone, and the price is right!

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