Throwing with porcelain - nine rice bowls - bisque fired

The latest batch of thrown porcelain bowls made it out of the kiln this weekend. And the results were pretty good.

Here are the nine surviving bowls dried to the 'greenware' stage. At this point I havent finished off the rims of the bowls so they look pretty rough.

Nine thrown porcelain bowls - greenware

Having smoothed the rims with my trusty fabric board, the bowls look a lot neater but still retain the quirkiness they get from being hand-thrown and all slightly (and some not-so-slightly) different.

Nine thrown porcelain bowls - greenware - with trimmed rims

I fired these to low bisque:

1. 0°c to 600°c @max 150°c per hour
2. 600c to 950c at full ramp
3. Cool down.

And here's the results - nine porcelain bowls ready to be glazed. In the background you can see the fabric board used to finish the bowl rims.

Nine thrown porcelain bowls - bisque fired.

Throwing with porcelain again - what a difference a lunch break makes!

A new batch (well just one bag actually) of porcelain arrived last week. I'm trying not to over-order on materials as we could be moving in the next couple of months. I've been working on a project to create some rice bowls for a friend, and its been a path of experimentation into unchartered territory with porcelain and crystalline glazes, but I've learned loads along the way. Anyway I digress...

The glaze is sorted, all I need is some well-formed bowls to put it on! As shown in my previous post, throwing is still an unpredictable event for me, especially with porcelain, which I actually now love throwing with.

I started this morning by experimenting with different weights of clay to get the perfect bowl size. I tried 400g, 350g and 300g. 350g seems about right to be able to get a bowl that fits into your hand comfortably.  So far so good.

I managed 9 bowls in one 90 minute session this morning, 10 minutes per bowl to prepare the clay and throw each one. Not bad.  Here's the results of the morning session...

9 small porcelain bowls, freshly thrown

Then I stopped for lunch. Things didn't go so well after lunch, no idea why, was I getting lazy complacent after throwing 8 good bowls in the morning?

Three bowls in the afternoon were so bad they went straight into the bucket.  One had a hole in the bottom but I kept it anyway. 12 passable bowls in all from a total of 150 mins work.

15 small thrown porcelain bowls, 11 acceptable standard

Throwing - it's like riding a bike (or is it?)

Some days I just struggle with throwing. I don't know why - if I have to be in the right frame of mind, concentration at the right level, pure luck, practice, right weather conditions or some other black magic.

It's apparently not like riding a bike - although I do cycle every day but don't throw every day. If I cycled like I throw some days I'd be broken and bruised.

Anyway here are the pitiful offerings I have to show for a throwing session at the weekend. Porcelain again, which I'd been OK at previously.

Some shoddy attempt at throwing porcelain - ha!

If I'm honest I don't think I prepared the clay well enough - possibly it had started to dry out a bit or affected by sub-zero temperatures as it felt uneven as I was throwing it, and lumps seemed to appear in the walls of the bowls.

Well its all practice, and reclaimable clay. Gotta take the rough with the smooth.

First attempt at throwing with porcelain - disaster or first tiny step?

I had a go at throwing with porcelain today - and what a shock I got! I thought I'd got fairly competent at throwing, earthenware, heavily grogged crank - I stuck to what I knew. But oh my goodness what an eye-opener it was to have a go with porcelain.

Of course I had a quick read-up of some tips before I started - don't overwork it - be careful of 'flopping' use minimal water etc. Of course my first attempt was a disaster - I was treating it as if it were white earthenware - the first 'bowl' flopped into a sort of shallow dish and the next three bowls wibbled and wobbled shamelessly. By attempt number five I was starting to adjust my technique - throw as quickly and as simply as possible - minimal water - using slip or slops of clay to keep the pot from sticking to my hands - throwing a basic cylinder then turning that into a bowl with the minimum of work. Still not a great result but I feel like I have progressed.

Can anyone else remember their first attempt at throwing with porcelain or does anyone have any tips for a newbie?

First attempts at throwing with porcelain - ouch!

I'm a bit embarrassed to post this photo - I can throw honestly! Note the flopped 'pot' at the back. None of them are great and I didn't seem to improve much after the second pot. Early days - back to the wheel at the weekend!