Exceeding his grasp

A chihuahua is the perfect intersection of short stature and minimal jumping ability to allow you to keep whatever you want on your counters. Nothing stops me from keeping his food out except that I don't want to see it. So I have to keep it on top of the fridge which luckily is out of line of sight for me. Combine that with how easy it is to function in the morning while I heat up water to rehydrate my instant coffee and his freeze dried chicken, I drop his food from the top of the fridge about once a week. So, what if it could be beautiful, like him? Then it could go on the counter, unlike him. 

This (above) is the first reach toward essentially a ceramic cookie jar in the shape of my dog, to hold his food. He is a little bit smaller than a cookie jar (maybe. 12" tall standing and 15" around), as well as quite a bit smaller than his bag of food. So far I still have to learn how to throw shapes that big, and shapes that go together. The skills are as far away as the counter top is to him. But, he is a very similar color to the clay I am using in class. So, it's all coming together. 

The vet explained that his rolls are just his skin, not fat. They are so cute. Sometimes a shape like that forms while trying to pull clay upward into the sides of a pot. So it seems pretty accessible to make them. 

This is my reference photo for the top of his head from the front. Verrrrry easy to form. Doesn't he look like a cartoon in that photo? To make the jar playful it would make sense to exaggerate his features but nature has already done it. 

He's actually a pretty poor live model. He bats at your hands to show that he wants them for petting him,  and he goes under the blanket. Which he only knows how to do by himself if no one is there to do it for him. 

Frequently people joke that he is my child. Is that who you all are making life size ceramic models of, in which to keep their food? Oh. 

Xena's Wheel Thrown + Handbuilt Serving Bowl

 

The serving bowl was given and graced ("graced") our Labor Day table. As planned, it coordinates with Mom's Fiesta ware. She also said it is one of her favorite shades of blue, even more so than her lighter and deeper Fiesta ware. <3 The glaze is called Spotted Purple.

The Swedish horses are special to us- our Swedish family was from the same area as the carved horses. I hoped the glaze might accent them even though the stamp (speedball speedy carve) was designed for paper and not for clay, which meant they are so shallow. 

This exact glaze didn't do that. It filled them in and smoothed them out. But the horses are still nice- a little secret- and it's interesting to see how the studio's glazes differ. 

As promised by our instructors, the clay remembered being wonky and went back to it in the final firing. One said you are not even supposed to let the piece flex when you take it off of the bat. Mom loves dishes and has every dish so to find something wheel thrown she even kind of needed, I had to make something beyond my Intro to Wheel skills. In class we keep making mug after mug, essentially by accident after setting out to make something else. Maybe because mugs are the size and shape of our cupped hands. But Mom has a shelf full of her favorite size and shape mugs plus a display shelf of her mom's favorite (which are small because you used to sit down and drink coffee as an activity, and just keep pouring cups from the... carafe). So it had to be this.