During ClayShareCon I was enamored by Alexandria Pottery's handbuilding jig. I bought the travel mug jig with the cutter and an extender. It essentially a 3D printed flexible tool with a "key" that has two positions - one for building and one for getting it out. Alexandria did a video on this and I highly recommend watching her if you're interested. She's much smoother at it than I am having practiced. I started with the simple shorter practice mug. Alex makes 3 holes in the top, but that felt like a lot at once so I'm starting with one. In all likelihood I'll find that she's right and I'm wrong, but my plastic travel mug only has one hole so in my head it doesn't make sense to have 3.


My second one is slightly better than my first.




Using the extender its only 2 inches taller, but it made a world of difference. Cornstarch was helpful with the regular jig. With the extender it was necessary! I lost my third tall one when I forgot the corn starch.




For the first one I made I wasn't really thinking about where to put a handle so I ended up creating an indent and a little nub to help hold it up. I think it will be ok, but it's also all an experiment.




For the second one I went with a handle. I had to rethink the handle to make it proportionally big enough for this cup.

I'm continuing to play around with my new GR Potter Wallie forms. This is made with the 10 x 10 caserole form. The handles were made with a Diamond Core tools XL extruder. These are both ClayShareCon purchases. I bought less than last year, but still a lot of things to work through.

This dish was surprisingly simple to make. I rolled out a slab that was just slightly thicker than 1/4 inch. I put the form down, made relief cuts on the corners, and then flipped the whole thing over. I smoothed down the sides with a red rib, slip and scored the corners, and secured them. I extruded the handles and laid them on top so they would start drying together. After about 2 hours (I was doing other things) I flipped it over and took the form out. It was still pretty wet, but if I had left it on longer it could have cracked. I stamped my crabs and did minimal smoothing of the rim and attached the handles. The sides weren't dry enough to support it so I put underglaze bottles under them.

This picture was taken the next day when it had dried just enough to pull out the underglaze bottles and do some more clean up on the rim. Now for slooooow drying.

Just made a new batch of mushroom jewelry boxes. It's all simple skills that when they come together produce something new.


It starts with a slab and a circle the same way you would for a mug.




The sides have to come together and the bottom put on.




Looks like a mug. Now is when I'd start bellying it out if it was a mug. Since it's not I shape it, but don't add volume.




I neglected to take a picture of the larger circle that will be the top, but it needs a flange. I shape the flange on the flower pot to make it circular.




The top starts in something that is rounded to give it shape and then I add in the flange with a coil on the inside.




It gets shaped to being as circular as possible.




Then it gets flipped over and the worm gets added to the top.




8 pots on the shelf to be covered in plastic and dry for a couple of days. I want the pot to setup enough to carve the bottom and use the hole cutter.




I use a fluting diamong core tool to make the ridges on the bottom.




I use my fingers to flatten out the edge and make it a little wavy. Not required, but I like the look. I also give the worm little eyes just because.




Now we painstakingly do holes all the way around. The biggest challenge is to not go too close to the edge or too close to the previous hole.




Tada!! This is mostly done. Just some final clean up left.

Here are the luminaries from last week lit up. Also yes I clearly need to work on my night time photography skills.

This kiln is a bunch of experiments and new things. The new puzzling vase forms came out amazing as did the vases that were extruded. For a couple of the extruded vases I used my glaze chips on a vertical surface for the first time. Not going to lie I was worried they were going to pop off. I had one tiny drip, but with my advancer shelves it was no issue at all.

The new luminaries are awesome as well. I did some tests with Georgie's interactive pigments on Laguna 60 that make me wonder why it's taken me so long to do this. I think I like the satin glaze with the glossy chips slightly better, what do you think?

Also there was a lag in when I glazed things to when I put them into the kiln. I've stopped writing things down and I think there are a few things that are going to have fallen out of my head in that time. We'll see how well I do at remembering glazes.

Laguna 60 Clayscapes Cream painted on. Clayscapes Coastal Blue poured. In retrospect Coastal Blue needed 2 coats to get what I was expecting, but I'm not complaining with what I got	Clayscapes Spearmint, Starry Night, Crown Heights dipped
Laguna 60 Clayscapes Pitch Black Poured, Cream swipes	Clayscapes Spearmint, Starry Night, Crown Heights dipped
Colors for Earth Bright Violet and Laurel Green Mayco Lavender Mist x3 2167 Clear	Colors for Earth Bright Violet and Laurel Green Mayco Lavender Mist x3 2167 Clear
Laguna 60 Various Mayco ug Coyote Mediterranean Sea x3	Refire I added more Opulence Emerald and also stacked them together. It made it a better color and slightly less boring
Clayscapes Lily of the Valley dipped Glaze chips pressed outside	Amaco Moss x3 Glaze chips pressed outside
All birds - Mayco Bluebird x2 with a Dandelion tip Noses: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral Left: Body Opulence Sea Spray, Hat Opulence Floating BLue Middle: Opulence Sea Spray Right: Body KY Mudworks Dandelion x3, Hat Clayscapes Spearmint, Stary Night, Crown Heights	Noses: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral Far Left: Hair Mayco Dandelion, Body Mayco Bluebird, Hat Clayscapes Spearmint, Stary Night, Crown Heights Left: Body Opulence Sea Spray, Hat Clayscapes Spearmint, Stary Night, Crown Heights Right: Body Opulence Pebble Bearch, Hat Clayscapes Starry night?? or maybe coastal blue? Far Right: Hair Mayco Dandelion, Body Opulence Sea Spray, Hat Clayscapes Starry night?? or maybe coastal blue?
Noses: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral Far Left: Body Opulence Floating Blue, Hat Amaco Green Satin Left: Body Mayco Amarylis, Hat Clayscapes Lily of the Valley Right: Body Amaco Green Satin, Hat Opulence Pebble Beach Far Right: Body Amaco Green Satin , Hat Opulence Pebble Beach and Clayscapes Crown Heights??	Noses: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral Far Left: Hair Mayco Dandelion, Body Mayco Amarylis, Hat Clayscapes Crown Heights?? Left: Body Opulence Pebble Beach, Hat Clayscapes Spearmint Right: Body Midnight Ceramics Boogeyman, Hat Opulence Sea Spray Far Right: Body KY Mudworks Dandelion, Hat Clayscapes Starry Night?
Spectrum Sangria x2 Spectrum Soft White on the rim	Left: Spectrum Texture Moonscape x3 Right: Laguna 60 Spectrum Texture Moonscape x3 Lesson learned this glaze is awesome, but it runs
Mayco Rose Quartz x2 Amarylis x3 this has pin holes inside, might try to reglaze	Laguna 60 Clayscapes Lily of the Value bottom Himalayan Blue Poppy Top
Antlers Mayco Java Bean x2, Hooves Mayco Tuxedo x2 Nose Mayco Hot Tamale x2 2167 clear all over	Mayco Sandstone x3, Norse Blue x3 Light Flux sweeps
So I am 90% sure that I have the zinc free and the super clear right, but its possible they are backwards Laguna 60 Top Left: Georgie's Sand and Surf interactive pigment Super Clear Bottom Left: Georgie's Sand and Surf interactive pigment Zinc Free Clear Top Right: Georgie's Indigo interactive pigment Super Clear Bottom Right: Georgie's Indigo interactive pigment Zinc Free Clear	So I am 90% sure that I have the zinc free and the super clear right, but its possible they are backwards Laguna 60 Top Left: Georgie's Winter Storm interactive pigment Super Clear Bottom Left: Georgie's Winter Storm interactive pigment Zinc Free Clear Top Right: Georgie's Autumn Foliage interactive pigment Super Clear Bottom Right: Georgie's Autumn Foliage interactive pigment Zinc Free Clear
Laguna 60 Mayco Tuxedo x2, Java Bean x2, I can't remember the yellow Mayco ug maybe 2167 Clear	Laguna 60 Clayscapes Nutmeg x2
Laguna 60 Mayco Northern Woods x3	Laguna 60 Mayco Blue Yonder x2 with touches of Hot Tamale 2167 Clear
Laguna 60 Georgies Autumn Folliage Eggshell Wash	Colors for Earth Bright Violet and Laurel Green 2167 Clear
Midnight Ceramics Sexy Mermaid x3 2167 Clear	Laguna 60 Mayco Black UG wiped back Mayco Norse Blue x3 Light Flux x2 Hot Tamale x2 2167 Clear
This is just bad. I tried to pull out the tree and the roots with different Georgies pigments and then use Eggshell wash. It's just garbage