Squirrels, platters and how to store your butter...

 

As many of you may be aware, the world did not end in 1954.  The planet Clarion did not come to call but Dorothy was undeterred, even though the doctors were watching.

I was actually going to write this up last night, but firefighter duties put a stop to that.  Which brings us to the PSA portion of the blog post.

Fire Prevention Tip #089:  Do not allow squirrels to store their acorns and such in your electrical fuse box.

Oh well; so it goes.

I am firing a bisque today, so I don't really want to be out in the studio anyway.  Air conditioned blogging sounds like a much better option.  I did get a large platter trimmed before the studio got too hot, though.

Here is the platter in question right after being thrown.  I say it is large, but when it is all said and done it will only be around 14 inches or so across.  That is pretty weak considering I used about 18 pounds of clay to make it.  I have not made very many large platters, so it still a bit difficult to stretch the clay to where I really want it. 

Here is the platter in question after a lot of trimming.  I may not be great at throwing platters yet, but I think I got it trimmed up pretty nice. 
I did not take a picture of it, but the foot is undercut on the inside to allow for easy hanging on the wall.  I have tried making holes for a wire, but that just seems like and extra, unnecessary step when this works just as well.  And this way I do not have to worry about orienting my decoration to the wire.  I'm not saying I have failed to do that in the past...I meant for those pieces to look crooked. 
I am going to be making quite a few more of these, both because I need the practice and because that large surface area presents some very enticing decoration opportunities.

Speaking of decoration...

I am totally digging how this one turned out.  This fancy little french butter keeper thing is in the kiln right now.  I have made regular butter dishes in the past and liked the end result, but they are pretty laborious to make.  These are not as complicated (less components to put together) and are probably more practical.

And finally, Mitchmatic: Why Don't You Know?
Hip-hop-ish music, but not really.  Fun stuff.

Up next...ligers!