Ever since I took that Natural Dyeing workshop I’ve been anxious to start weaving again. I came up with an idea to combine my pottery and some simple coil weaving. My plan is to start with a rather unremarkable clay bowl shape and pierce the rim for a needle to pass through. After bisque firing and glazing I can begin using a coil basket weaving technique to attach a pine needle rim. If it’s successful, I could continue to add rolls of needles to develop an entirely new woven form on top of the bowl. Threw these 4 pots on Tuesday, planning to trim today and get them into the bisque fire next week.
I also tried a new surface finish. Notice the bowl with the blue surface is cracked. This happens with a coating of Sodium Silicate applied to the outside of a cylinder shape, and in this case over a coat of blue slip. This way I can get high contrast between the clay body color and the blue. After the Silicate drys a bit, it will “crackle” the outside clay layer when you push out from the inside of the pot. We’ll see the results after it’s bisque fired.
