Simple Circle Studios: Pondering the Pig Problem

I meant to post this last weekend, but you know how things go. And quite frankly, posting crap on the internet is not really my first priority...ever. On one hand I understand how this can be used as a sort of journal as well as an important part of marketing myself and my wares. On the other hand, I just don't care. It is sometimes annoying and feels like an obligation as opposed to something I want to do.

And on that note, here we go. The past few weeks, while school was on semester break, I got quite a bit of work done. I was pleased. School started the 3rd, though, and since then studio work has come almost to a stand still. So I guess this is actually a look back at what I accomplished the last week of break.

These are a couple simple wine sets. They are pretty simple, just cylinders, so they are good to warm up with. And they are largish, so they provide a good surface for decoration. I made these with wine cups as opposed to stemmed glasses. Not that I have anything against stemmed vessels; I have actually been working on making some to include in a wine set. In my mind, though, the stemmed glasses seem much more formal. I like the idea that these are for the more casual wine drinker; someone who is taking them on a pic-nick or just hanging out on the back porch. A cup seems more suited to that.

Salt & pepper shakers. Nothing groundbreaking or anything. I am refining the shape a bit, but you can't really tell here. And aren't potters always refining the shapes of their work a bit? At least I am.

These are parts for some banks I am working on. My wife said make banks...so I make banks. I made a few of these a while back actually, and was ruminating on how best to get the money out. I went with lidded banks for these. Perhaps a bit more difficult to save money if they are so easy to get into, but I guess folks will just have to learn some self control. (A tall order these days, I know.)

So these are bases and lids. I made sure to leave enough clay on these lids to trim an ample knob. They are actually all trimmed now, but no pictures yet.

And the one below is an almost completed bank. I obviously did not leave enough clay to trim a knob on this one, but that was intentional. The plan for this was an animal knob. A pig, specifically. Easy enough, right? Well, apparently not. I attempted to make a nice little pig to stick on top there, then I attempted to make another...then I attempted to make another.

I even had a nice little toy pig to look at when making these attempts. But alas I could not come up with anything I was happy with. Part of the problem is that I want to have at least a somewhat realistic animal. I do not, however, want to spend a great deal of time modeling and carving the animal.
Solution? Obviously practice is the most logical one. The more animals I make the better and faster I will be able to make them. I am looking into other options, though, to expedite the process. I have considered finding or making a plaster mold of a small toy pig, leaving a knob and stamping the top of it with a pig stamp, carving the image of a pig into the lid, etc. I would really rather have a three dimensional animal on there, though. Any suggestions send them my way.

And finally, my wife said make salt cellars...so I made salt cellars. The lid of the one in front is small enough that it doesn't really need a knob, but I think it would probably look better if it had one. Neither has a space for a spoon, but these were fun to make so I will undoubtedly make more in the future, perhaps with spoons.