Week 3 Materials experiments

I threw some bowls to practice simple forms for casting and also to make sure that I didn’t ‘waste’ my Crail clay. I have put some slip on some and burnished them after trimming the bottoms.

I also made a pinch pot with colis out of some of the Crail clay, again it needs trimmed and burnished. The ceramics workshop room is very busy at present so I haven’t thrown the Crail clay yet.

I had two days on the beach following up local bricks as they link to clayfields and have found an Anstruther brick; I’m very taken with the colour they have fired (blue in the middle) and the pleasing shape some have become.

I forged part of some wrought iron that I found seriously rusted on the beach and the heated rusted parts have also come a great colour.

With John Scott’s assistance I twisted and flattened a billet of two steels and I like how that looks when etched, sanded and oiled. I have since heated colours into it.

Materials experiments – Week 2

I forged one of the pieces of iron bloom that I smelted, with the assistance of John Scott. We took it as far as it would go and achieved some cracking and a generally great surface and shape. I shall try running silver onto it to accentuate the texture.

We also forged one of the pieces I made last year by forging two strengths of steel together. We went for a general bangle shape so I learnt how to use the pegs for bending. The best bit was where the steel started burning off because it got too hot.

I tried different surface finishes – sand blasting, filing, disc sander and finally heating and dropping in oil. This final effect I like. I don’t like the form though and next week I propose to forge it further to see what happens.