While most of you are vacationing, my husband and I will be staycationing here in Raleigh. We've made home improvements and plan to enjoy them while replenishing our stores. Knowing I won't be going anywhere is a great reason to think big in terms of clay. Oversized ceramic pieces need to dry slowly; in our humid summers, that is not a problem, so now's a good time to think large.
A few of the birdhouses I’ve built this year.
My birdhouses are spectacular; therefore, they need something better than a 4" post to display them. The plan is to build ceramic columns as foundations for the houses, keeping the house high enough for the birds to be safe, five to ten feet.
Since I'm not sure where I'm going, I'll start and see where it takes me! I have two paths to explore, hand-building and throwing. Hand-building opens a world of possibilities. I plan to begin with half-inch slabs to build stone-like columns that I can fire separately and stack to the desired height.
Two stacking boulders I built over the weekend, I’ve got a few more to go. The two together measure 23”.
I want to investigate throwing as well; thrown pieces give you a solid and centered foundation to begin. However, throwing large isn't my forte, so I hired clay artist Jennifer Siegel to get me started. Last Friday, she came to the studio and threw three 25 lb bowls that I'll turn upside down and use as the base of the column. From there, I can add thrown or hand-built pieces to any height I fancy. Come with me on my studio staycation, and discover what evolves as I do.
Jennifer making sure the last bowl is secure on the counter.