Project 6: Teapot

First of all my apologies for the huge gap in my posts. I have moved abroad so I was a bit preoccupied. Hopefully I will be able to be a bit more consistent with my posts. Project 6 is another teapot; however I decided to try to increase the amount of clay I was working with. I worked project 6 & 7 together and the body of the teapots both started with 1 kilo of clay. This time I tried a couple of new techniques. One was to square the body of the teapot after I threw it. 

The next was to make a rim underneath the lid so it would sit inside of the body of the teapot.

Before I turned the bottom of the teapot and worked on the lid I threw some spouts and pulled some handles so they could dry enough for me to work with them. Here is a picture of a handle in process.

Assembling the teapot.

Here is the assembled teapot.

I decided to carve the sides of this teapot and take a slice of the spout to make a more appealing shape. I was only going to do about five diagonal lines in the sides; however my instructor suggested I should be less precise and just carve randomly.

This was the result.

Here is the lid.

After carving I sponged off where I carved so no rough bits would be left after firing.

I decided to go with the ginger glaze. It comes out a deep brick red with some dark black areas. It is a beautiful and very consistent glaze.

Here it is after being dipped in the glaze.

Next the wait to be fired...

The most exciting part of the ceramic process for me is the final firing. Sometimes it can be a bit disappointing but most of the time it's wonderful!

Here is the final result from both sides.

I am getting better and better at my teapots. Each one I learn more and improve part of my design. Overall I am very happy with this one. I still have not got the smoothest pour but I am working on it.