Same Clay but Different

I've never come across this before.

While I was assembling an oval bonsai pot, I noticed that the bottom layer of clay seemed to be a lighter colour than the ovals sides. Oh I thought,.... perhaps the sides are just that little bit dryer than the bottom. I need to be careful as its quite important to have everything the same level of dryness when joining pieces.

Its just the bottom layer that's different, the darker area above is where the clay was compressed on the join and has got slightly burnished a bit.

I carried on and completed the pot. However, I kept looking at the difference in colours and thought that perhaps in the morning when the moisture level evens out it will all look the same.

I waited..... and waited....checked and rechecked, and no the clay colour was certainly different.

After checking the bag I got it from, I realised that it was from a new batch of the same clay that I'd received recently.

"Oh gosh...bother I said!!". Perhaps I even said a few other words that I'm not going to mention.

Lots of things went through my mind. The main one being "what if the two different coloured clays had differing shrinkage rates when fired? Will they pull apart? Will the sides and the bottom be a different colour? I'd just spent a couple of hours making and completing this pot, and I certainly wasn't going to smash it up just at a whim.

I pushed together all the scraps of left over clay and this is what I found. Certainly a different colour.

I wedged it all up and used it for another small pot.

Back to the original pot. I decided to bisque fire it.........no problems there although a slight
difference in colour remained. I took a risk and continued on and put it through a glaze firing. And guess what, it turned out perfectly!! I'm not really sure what happened with that particular bag of clay, but having checked the remaining bags, they all seem fine.

Lesson learnt....................always construct and complete a pot out of the same bag of clay?

Out of all the bags of clay that I've used, I've never come across this before, hopefully it wont happen again, but its something to be aware of. Clay is dug from different areas and its composition may be just a little different. That's my explanation anyway.

Happy potting.

Some New Little Bonsai Crescents

I've started making 3 or 4 smaller crescent type bonsai pots for someone recently.  Thought I share some pics of them as they are drying. 

 They will have to be bisque fired before they are oxided to a light brown colour and then fired again to 1260-1270 degrees celcius.

Normally when I make a pot for someone I dont just make 1, I always make at least 2, preferably 3.  The chances are that one will suit, and the other two can be used by someone else.

The overhanging piece on these crescents is quite hard to get right without it sagging or wanting to drop backwards. Especially when the clay is quite soft.

I cheat by helping it firm up with a $3 hairdryer from the second hand shop.  I wasnt too popular when I pinched the teenagers hairdryer and managed to get it covered in clay!

The white looking sandy stuff on the bats is a bit of coarse grog.  It just helps the feet from sticking to the bat, I also use it on some pots for texture.

Some New Shelves and Bonsai Pots

I was getting a bit sick of squishing up my pots together onto the two shelves in the husbands man cave.

Splashed out a whole $19.85 each at the Warehouse and got myself 2 sets of aluminium shelves.  The other two were screwed to the garage wall and the workbench so it was only a matter of screwing the two new shelves to them as well.   You just never know when an earthquake might strike and rattle these pots to a sad ending on the concrete floor.

Its much easier to see exactly what you've got, instead of lifting up/moving over and shuffling them around. 

It was all good for me, but the realisation that his garage space was being decreased a little more, made me feel a tiny bit guilty.

In an act of defiance or marking his territory, I noticed a mower in pieces plonked fairly and squarely in what was once his parking space.  Almost as if to say no more space for you....THIS IS MINE!   Oh well..... perhaps when he's at work I might just give his mower a tiny wee nudge further over, after all I need room to move about. 

The big plan was to make quite a few more pots so I could get rid of my old plastic containers that are floating around my bonsai area....yes, I was going to keep more for myself this year.  I made a few large ovals and round bonsai pots.  However it doesn't seem to be enough and I have plenty of gaps once again.  The beauty of it is that I can always make another.

I seem to be accumulating a few of the smaller pots.  Some are made to test out glaze experiments and others are to try out new shapes and textures.  I know I wont use them myself as our annual shortage of water makes keeping too many small potted bonsai a risky business.  However, they are lots of fun to make.

These wee cascade pots I made turned out to be quite a revelation.   The glaze on them had lots of room to move down.  It gives them a bit of life and character instead of a plain block of lifeless single colour.

I seem to be having a bit of a run on the textured dark brown pots.  I've tried using a couple of different oxides and have found that some react quite differently when a glaze is put over the top.   Others look good with out anything, the texture speaks for itself.

The kiwi style pots seem to face a bit of opposition.  I can guarantee that if I'd put a Chinese or Japanese marking on them they would more popular.  Yes I know that bonsai originated from these countries and that tradition has alot to do with what people think is acceptable as far as pot styles etc go, but what is so wrong with trying to create your own style?  Are we all too scared of being told that "that's wrong you shouldn't be doing that"  Frankly, I don't enter in serious shows or conventions, its my garden, my trees, so whats wrong with using something that I like. 

Anyway, I'd better think about what I'm going to make tomorrow.  After all, if I don't fill up these new shelves I might go out one day and find them filled up with HIS tools - the battle over garage dominance continues!!

Some New Pots Just Out of the Kiln

The kiln was unloaded a few days ago, and a couple of pots caught my eye for different reasons.

I love glaze colours that run into each other and mix and mingle.  Single block glaze colours would be my worst nightmare.  But thats just personal preference, everyone's different.

The pot below has a glaze that I added iron spangles too.  Just for a bit of an experiment to see what would happen. Iron spangles although quite fine, tend to sink to the bottom of the glaze bucket, so if you want them in your glaze, be prepared to stir it alot.

You can almost see the iron spangles melting and flowing down the sides.  I scraped the sides of the glaze bucket and brushed some "extra" along the top rim.

Another pot that I really love is a "kiwi style" oval.  Yes, I know that plain and subdued is the way that many like their pots, but sometimes I like to do something a little different.  I've made a few smaller ones of this same style, so decided to sit down and concentrate for half an hour and carve out this pattern around the rim.

The Japanese and Chinese have beautifully painted and decorated pots showing their past history and culture.  Perhaps little old New Zealand should start tinkering with their own style too......just a thought.

If I want to make a decorated pot like this, I have to think ahead a little as my normal clay has a little more grog which tends to snag and tear if you try and carve out a design. It's a bit of a catch 22, as the finer the clay is, the higher the likelyhood of cracks appearing during firing, especially on large pieces.

Any way, back to the garage, I've got another oval half done.  Just waiting for it to firm up a little before tidying up the bottom and feet.

Bonsai Pot YouTube Videos

Just for the curious, I've done a couple of Youtube videos showing a few of the bonsai pots that have been made over the last month or two -  unloading the kiln, my workspace (um...actually my husbands man cave, but I've taken half of it over!)  

I apologise for the quality, as I just use a cheap wee camera, and haven't quite got the hang of the editing just yet. Hmm...perhaps I should just stick to making pots.

Here's the links https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTODN8Y_iO4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcsZjzo-XiE

 

Fired Crackled Bonsai Pots




Really pleased with the textured fissured effect on this one, it's one of my favourites.

This one started out with a brown wash on it, but with a layer of clear glaze over the top it fired to a very dark green colour in the crackled fissures, so it pays to experiment a little.



This was a surprise as well as the clay mixture (experiment) went quite buff with the clear glaze over it.  Once again the brown was in the cracks went a black colour in the final glaze firing



This was another experiment mixing different clays together at different percentages to see if I could change the fired colour.  With a clear glaze over it, it fired to a chocolate brown.  The pot also has a bit of a "chattered" texture to it, something else that I'm experimenting with at the moment.

Bonsai Pot Gallery





Pots Just Started

After a reasonably quiet winter as far as making pots go, I decided to get my backside into gear and start creating again.

During the winter there were a few changes made. I've been experimenting with a couple of new clays, and even mixing different types together at different percentages.  Trying to get the best of both, lower shrinkage and strength.

I'm also waiting on a bit of an  upgrade as far as my kiln controls go.  At the moment it just relys on the kiln sitter to control the heating and shut off etc.  But because I want to have a more accurate guage of the temperature and enable a slow cool down period for crystal glazes and also a slower cooldown to avoid cracks, its inevitable that I need an uptodate electronic kiln controller and probe etc.

This comes at quite a cost (almost half way there!) but with my brilliant mentors advice, I feel it will be money well spent.   I had to laugh.... he said he could put up with me having a crappy kiln as long as I had a good controller etc! Its good how some people just tell it how it is.

Any way, back to these pots.

This is the first rectangular type bonsai pot I've attempted.  The top sides were thrown as a bottomless circle on the wheel.  Then when it was still fairly soft I pulled the sides out to make the general shape.  Its not absolutely milimetre perfect, but its good enough for me.  Then the bottom was rolled out and added along with the feet.   Its incredibly hard to get all of the pieces the same as far as dryness goes for assembling together.  I know they say not too, but I do use the hair dryer to speed things up a little.

This ones about 36 long by 27cm wide

This  ones an oval approximately 41 by 31 wide by 7cm high.

I've been shying away from putting a drainage hole in the middle for the time being, as if they are going to crack it usually starts at that hole for some reason. I guess it sets up a weak area structurally.

These will sit quietly in the wash house drying over the next couple to three weeks.  I usually cover them with a piece of canvas or material to slow the drying right down after I take them out of the usual black rubbish bags.

Time to go, kids are home from school....only seems like a couple of hours since they left!!