Cathy Allen loading her kiln

Cathy Allen is the artist on the front of this year’s advertising for our sale.  Here are some images of her work out of the kiln and ready to glaze for the show. Everything is so colourful!

We are so looking forward to seeing everyone again!

Busy with Try Clay and visit from Hill’s Potters

We had a busy day with “Try clay” being a HUGE success! All spots were filled and everybody had a great day. The Hill Potters dropped by for a visit and tour of our studios too! They were in the area to tour some local potters’ studios and we were happy to oblige and chat!

The Peterborough Medical Brigade also came for a visit to talk about the donation that they had participated in. Wonderful things for the children to learn about – where the money from the leaf plates will be going! Great cause to purchase school uniforms for Ugandan children, the stories from two front line workers were inspiring to hear!

Click on any image to enlarge and view the entire group of pictures.

Map locations

Some of our members have allowed us to list them on a map, this shows the areas that these members come from to be part of our guild.  We hope in future that more potters will want their information on this map too.  If the member has a website address, the link is listed in their name.

View Kawartha Potters Guild member location in a full screen map

Terrie MacDonald’s Workshop

Part 1

What a wonderful day we all had, learning a new decoration technique with Terrie on Sunday July 6th.  Here are some photos of our workshop and some of the work we all completed! We can hardly wait until next week!

Angelo di Petta

Our long time mentor, judge and presenter, Angelo di Petta, has launched a new website. It has a great look back at his designs from the past forty years.  He says that in future, he will be adding more in the way of video, and instruction.

angelo

A Potter’s Tip

Taking Helpful Notes

Most potters today attend numerous workshops throughout the year, and demonstrations at guild meeting functions. There is so much wonderful info to keep track of!! Lots of people take notes, but I have a fun and easy way to keep a record of that valuable information that you can refer to regularly, which is both informative and visually appealing – notes with photos.

Any good quality sketchbook will do. I found ones which have lines on the bottom of the pages and blank space on the top. I take photos during the workshops, along with notes and space the notes evenly in my sketchbook to accommodate my interests and photos. I print my desired pics and use a glue stick insert along with the appropriate notes. It is a fantastic way to keep a good record of what you have learned.

Here are a few samples out of one of my sketchbooks.  Click on any image to see the full sized picture.

You’ll have fun going back through the pages to find a useful tip and even just to reminisce!

Cathy Allen

Casting from a Plaster Mold

After the mold is cleaned and left to dry for a few days to a week, it is time to make your first cast.

This mold is held together by inner tube rubber, cut into pieces
This mold is held together by inner tube rubber, cut into pieces
Pour the liquid slip carefully into the mold up to the top.
Pour the liquid slip carefully into the mold up to the top.

You should put on a timer for about 15 minutes at first, keeping a look out for the level of the slip. As the water is absorbed into the plaster, the level of slip will go down.

Top up the slip as the moisture is absorbed
Top up the slip as the moisture is absorbed

You will want to experiment on the timing, but for this casting, 30 minutes is about right to cast a piece.  However, this could change depending on how many pieces you cast and how damp the mold gets.

When you feel that the casting is thick enough, pour half of the slip back into the container and then swirl the remainder of the slip around the casting for a few minutes before pouring it out.

Place the mold onto an elevated prop to allow the remainder of the slip to drip out.

The mold will now take an additional time to dry enough to remove the piece from the mold.  In this case it is 30 minutes of drying time.

Clean the spout hole, being careful to not let the trimmed pieces fall into the sculpture.
Clean the spout hole, being careful to not let the trimmed pieces fall into the sculpture.

When dry and ready to remove the piece, clean the spout hole.

Take the bindings off from the cast and carefully pull the two pieces apart.

One side of the cast has been removed, if the piece is dry enough, carefully pull the sculpture out from the second part of the mold
One side of the cast has been removed, if the piece is dry enough, carefully pull the sculpture out from the second part of the mold

In this sculpture, the third piece can now be removed as well.

As the pour spout is located at the bottom of the sculpture, we now have to close that opening.

Pour a bit of liquid slip onto a flat plaster bat and place the sculpture on top.  This will quickly adhere to the sculpture and create a smooth bottom.

Trim the opening.
Trim the opening.

Your sculpture will have seams that can now be cleaned up and you can cut out the opening to the vase, again being careful not to allow the piece to fall into the sculpture.

bisque-fired
ten castings coming out of the bisque kiln.

And there you have it, the end result, bisque fired and ready to glaze.

Kawartha Potters' Guild