Pinch Pots COMPLETED

Before:
Below is a picture of my three pinch pots for this first unit in Ceramics. I wanted to have a record of my pots before they go into the kiln for a second time, just in case they broke or anything fell off. The pinch pot in the back is my pot with feet and it's feet consist of a coiled up piece of clay spiraled into a circle. The pot in front of my footed pinch pot, is my bellied out pot. Along with it being bellied out, I wanted to make my pot look like and beaker and that's why during glazing I will add lines and measurements to fulfil this design. My final pinch pot is organic and shaped like a tree. The top of the tree is a squared pot, and the bottom flows out into a stand covered with clay shavings resembling fallen leaves.

After:

Below are pictures of my three pinch pots for this first unit in Ceramics. Unfortunately, my footed pinch pot isn't done yet and that's why there are only two photos, however, it will be done soon and I'll update my blog post when it's done! Along with my pictures I'm just going to tell you a little bit about my vision for each pot, the techniques I used, and the glazing process each piece went under.

Bellied out pinch pot-- I constructed my bellied out pinch pot in the shape of a beaker, because I like science and thought that this would be a fun little pot! In the end, I decided to raku fire this pot, because of it's unique shape and I wanted it to get that look shiny and luminous feel that raku fired pots give off. While glazing this pot, I went all out. I first painted on multiple layers of lustrous copper, then a splattering of tarnished silver, copper patina, red speckle, and a blue raku fire glaze, and lastly, I painted on white coat at the top which really stood out in the end . Overall, I'm very happy with my pot and I like the contrast between the white and mix of different colors on the pot. 

Organic pinch pot-- My organic pinch pot is constructed of a square pot and a footing covered in clay shavings, that represent leaves. I only came up with the idea of a tree when I was done shaving the once thick sides of my square pot and realized that I had so many shavings left over and wanted to put them to good use. To glaze this pot, I decided to use high fire glazes and blend them all in while still inlaying colors into the texture of my pot. While glazing my pot, I started off with pouring on a layer of smokey merlot and then dipping the top of my pot in blue root teal, oatmeal, and celladon. I really love how this pot came out because of its unique mixture of colors and how the shavings are still visible, though everyone thought they wouldn't be.

Footed pinch pot-- My footed pinch pot is constructed of a wide circular pot that goes out at the top, has two extruded flat, rectangular parts as handles, and a coiled up piece of clay as it's foot. The reason I really like this pinch pot's footing is because it's unique and the fact that I was able to make it out of only an ordinary piece of coiled up clay. I also found it fun to experiment with the extruded parts and use a more flat and rectangular piece as a handle, compared to the common circular pieces. To glaze this pot I decided to only use low fire glazes and layer them onto a cool design. The first color I brushed on was a dusty rose from the teacher's pallet glazes. Then I layered on a speckled blue grey LJ glaze that went all around the middle of the pot. Lastly, to give the inside some color, I poured in the jewel brown LJ glaze that gave the pot a contrast in colors. Overall, and mainly glazing wise, I decided to use more bright glazes to decorate the pot as most of my other pinch pots are relatively dark. Though, this pinch pot didn't turn out to be my favorite, I still like how it's different compared to my others and now that I've experimented with low fire glazes I think that I will do better with them next time.