The summer months and early autumn were spent trying to clear out some excess materials from my studio. Most sensible people would try to give away their surplus stuff, ala Marie Kondo. I sought instead to put the supplies to work. With a barrel of locally mined clay used up in making small sculptures and vessels for my pit fires, I turned towards my bags of hopelessly hardened up red earthenware clay. I had written some years ago about the process of reconstituting hardened clay but this bears repeating.
The clay had to be broken up with hammer and chisel, then soaked under water to soften. The slurry was spread out onto plaster bats to dry, then wedged into usable, pliable clay. After being put under wraps for a few weeks, I took the clay out to make tiles, vessels, and small sculptures.
The vessels that I made also required a bit of reconstitution work, as a number of glazes had hardened up as well. The glazes were restored by grinding them with water onto a marble slab.
The stamps that I had previously used on my giant “Liberty Snakes” were put to work again on the clay. The free-form leaf-like stamps were used in the ceramic udu drum below. The colors here were made from burnished terra sigillata.
Some of my specialty glazes were not food safe, so this little covered jar, however charming, should not be used as a sugar bowl.
Finally, because I was uncertain about how my hand painted ceramics would work out, I remade the bed and pillow ocarinas over again, this time with stamps and commercial glazes.
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