Hi guys and welcome back to my channel, Blue Nose Trading. My name is Tori Solis, and today I'm working on a series using the clay Laguna Speckled Buff. This video's going to be a little bit different than some of my past videos that I have made with different clay bodies. The biggest change is that I am going to include the entire process in this one super sped up video. I'm going to see how this goes, and unless everyone overwhelmingly hates this new format, this is likely going to be the standard going forward.
I've thrown with this clay before, but, never made a video specifically about it. Because when I first threw it, it was my first time working with it, and my first time working with anything. So I had no point of references to go off of.
This clay is very hard, or it was very hard for me right out of the bag. I don't know if it's just my luck or if it's always going to be like this, but it was hard last time I opened a bag of this too. Having no point of reference before, I didn't realize how hard this clay actually was. I thought that wedging was super difficult because this clay was so hard when I first got started. The clay being so hard definitely made it more difficult for me to wedge and center. Especially when I was starting out. Once I manage to get it center, it's not really that bad.
This clay is a bit gritty, mostly when you're centering. If you have your hand against the wheel head for too long, you can get you a good raw spot there on the side of your hand. Unless you have macho hands that throw groggy clay all the time of course, and then you will be fine. But if you have porcelain hands, this is probably going to be an uncomfortable clay body for you to work with.
The control and glide while I'm pulling with this clay is pretty good. As it softens, it feels like it gets a little more slippy and temperamental. It's not really that sassy but just a tiny bit when you're throwing with it. It can get a little sloppy and be a little messy to throw with.
I've got another 25lb bag of this, and I'm probably going to soften that bag a little bit first before I throw with it. I'm definitely going to make a video on how to soften that bag. I'm going to link that above and below for anybody who wants to see that.
It's summer as I'm working on this series right now. It's over 100 degrees outside. By the time I finish throwing, the older pots are going to be ready for me to trim.
Trimming these was pretty straight forward. I have a style for the bottoms that I generally prefer most of the time. I like to have an angle towards the bottom. That angle helps to lift the pot and give it a vision of liftedness, and also serves as a safety zone for any glazes that might run off the bottom. I like a quarter inch to a half inch wide foot ring on the bottom, really just depending on the size of the pot. I like to add a little spiral with the end of my MudTools trim tool, and then it's trimmed.
I have a clay stamp that I use to sign my name onto the bottom of the pots. It's from claystamps.com. It's a brass stamp. I highly recommend it. I really love using the stamp for the bottom of my pots.
I forgot to record the carving and adding handles part of the process for this. Which is actually a substantial amount of time. But I had to get these in here and there as I had time throughout the day. I was pulling them from my damp box, working on one or two every day over a couple of weeks. So that process really isn't in this video. I did make a video on the process of pulling handles. I will go ahead and link that above and below for anybody that's interested in the pulling handles that aren't included here. Although it did happen for this series, because there are a lot of mugs here that have handles.
As it is, we are skipping to a segment of the glazing process. I am brushing on my glazes still. I'm making sure to mix them up really well with my immersion blender before I'm applying them to any of my pots. This series is much larger than what you are seeing here. Just for the sake of time and for how my life works with recording, there's going to be a lot more pots that are finished in this series than actually ended up recording in this watching the process.
By the time this video is live on YouTube, most of these pots are probably going to have been already listed on my website at bluenosetrading.com. In the ceramics section of the shop. Or at least whatever is left of them.
If you want to see all of my work first, and have first dibs on everything, you should consider becoming a patron of my work at patreon.com/bluenosetrading. I post all my videos on Patreon the day that they are created. So patrons will always have access to the freshest of my work, and the latest videos that I've created. The series review for all of the completed speckled buff stuff is going to be coming out this upcoming Sunday morning at 10am central time. So you will be able to see all of these pots that we have worked on in this video with their glaze on them.
Of course, these are going to be coming out as short form videos with close ups of every single pot for about like 8 to 10, maybe sometimes 15 seconds if it's something really detailed. So lots of shorts. You can look at my past work in my shorts playlist on my profile. I like to take close up videos of pretty much everything: the good, the bad, the ugly, the fantastic, and share them as shorts.
If you'd like to see more of my creative work, including those shorts, and a weekly full length art video, you can subscribe to this channel, Blue Nose Trading.
Remember that you have great ideas, drink lots of water and go hug your friends. I will see you guys next week.
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