February Patreon ceramics

One of the (many) things I do over on Patreon (shameless plug) is make ceramics for those who are in the highest tier. This is what I made for February. Well, I successfully made this one... I tried again multiple times and the others all broke. Sigh. I tried and tried. I don't know if it was the new clay I'm using (which has shown a fantastic ability to crack when doing anything that isn't flat... don't worry, I'm not trying this clay again.) or if it was that the more one got ruined and I had to make another, the more rushed and under pressure I felt so I made mistakes..... Meh. I guess in the long run it doesn't matter. I will be trying to to make these again at some point, for the Patrons who didn't get one and then also later for the shop!

Part One of Three of handbuilding a tray. Part One here is impressing the texture into the slab, forming it, and putting the foot ring on. Every pro tip I've read on making videos (which I still consider myself pretty new to) says to never, ever, ever make a video without showing the finished piece at the end of the video. To that, I say, pff. I'm here to celebrate the slow work that goes into making a thing with your own two hands, and that takes time. You will see the finished project, but not until we're done sharing everything that went into making it. So coming up next, making and attaching the handles! 

Part Two of Three of handbuilding a tray. Part Two here is making the handles and attaching them to the tray (and cleaning the tray up a little). I love building 3D handles like this, using sprig molds. Either one sprig mold, like this, or many different ones that have the same theme and I can put something fun together. What do you think? And coming up next: underglazing the handles and glazing the whole tray once it's bisque fired. And showing it off when it's finished! 

Part Three of Three of handbuilding a tray; a little longer than Parts One and Two but I promise it's worth it to see the finished work at the end! Part Three here is underglazing the handles, a bisque firing (suggested but not shown because time), showing how I made the impressed stencil stand out, and then glazing the whole tray and glaze firing it. And most importantly, showing it off when it's finished! 

I want to end with ... I've really been struggling with how to post these videos. I want to put them everywhere, but I also understand that hosting costs money, and hosting videos is heavier than hosting posts that say "hey I've got a video over there!". I've been posting longer videos on Patreon, and that will continue for my Patrons. And I've been posting these individual videos on Facebook, Insta, and TikTok, and that will also continue because those platforms are rich AF and can afford for me to sneak in there every now and then with a video they're only going to show to about four people anyway. But for things like this, I'm uploading the videos to YouTube, and then when I have the entire set of what I did to make a THING, all those videos will be shown here in one post. Anyway... I hope all that makes sense!