Techniques -- Porcelain Platter

I was making my rounds of the pottery blogs that I subscribed to and saw this video on an amazing technique for throwing porcelain platters.

The artist is Harlan House and he has a blog here.  Harlan House is potter who has been making porcelain pots for over forty years. Harlan’s works of art can be found in museum and art gallery collections throughout the world.

I've viewed the video at least a dozen time and is always fascinated by what I see in the last few minutes.  I think it is a technique worth at least trying out since you can potentially turn a cylinder with a twelve inch base and twelve inch walls into a 36 inch'ish platter. I think you could potentially adapt this technique for large bowls as well with some minor adjustment.  I also think that you can use this technique with other clay bodies.  Finally, this technique also gives you a lot of surface to decorate with.

The picture above is my first attempt at using the technique demonstrated.  I started with 3.5 lbs of porcelain clay and ended up with a 12" platter.  It is a lot of fun to try and quite thrilling as well.  How low can you go?  How big can you go?

Please try it out and leave comments about your successes or modifications to the technique. Good luck!

New Clay Body: BUFF STONEWARE With OCHRE

I went to the studio last night and was lucky enough to "catch" Karen Avery using the new clay body.  The Buff Stoneware with Ochre.  She threw this plate using the new clay and, as you can see from the photo, it is a little grayer than the stoneware body that we have right now and definitely not as red as the Stoneware with Iron.

You will noticed also that Karen used some slip on her plate.  This is a new recipe and can be found with all the other slips in each work area.  It is labeled "New White Slip" and is a little thicker than the other slip so it is good for slip trailing.  If you like to brush it on your work, please collect a little container of it and thin it down.  DO NOT CONTAMINATE the entire container of slip; especially if you are going to brush the slip on your work or layer different colored slips on your piece.  This applies to all slips in the studio.  The "New White Slip" may appear a little grey in the bucket, but rest assured, it will fire up white.  Have fun . . . go crazy!