last four bottle forms for this series

Four tall necked bottles to have separate stoppers

Four tall necked bottles with over the top attached stoppers

These have been fiendishly difficult to make and to keep in one piece. I set myself a challenge and in the end, the toppers look as if they could be separate anyway so the next and last eight will all have separate stoppers and I will be much relieved.

stoppers mark three with separate stops

Not there yet - columns not narrowing towards the top but all good practise. The stoppers are all to have the manganese slip on the greenware before bisquing, something I haven't tried before but if works, will reduce the firings by one.

stoppers mark two

After researching Tiffany glassware and antique perfume bottles, I made these forms last week. It was a fairly painstaking exercise and they are far from OK but they have provided me with great practice at model making. Today I start on 'stoppers mark three' which will hopefully be more refined as well as having the tops as real stoppers i.e. are removable
open seed pod
twigged hat
leaves

stoppers mark one

I decided to make stoppers using the top of the bottle shape and adding a stopper form. After making these, I had a critical analysis of the stoppers with Neil and now realise the error of my ways. No transitions, coil outline too pronounced but they will serve as glaze tests.

jugs

These jugs were accidentally fired three times with a very different result than expected. An element failed in the kiln which I did not realise; the kiln didn't reach temp and stopped which I thought must have been the result of a power cut so I turned it back on again. The Colin's chrome on the body has gone from acid gold to cinnamon but apart from the mess on the bottoms, the result is quite pleasing.