Thursday, August 09, 2007

OMG! I made a sink!

So I had this wild idea the other day... I am working with an architect here in Seattle on finishing my attic and one of the finishes I needed to choose was a sink for a new bathroom. After looking at some sinks and considering all the glass/metal/porcelain options... I thought, "I could probably do that." The last set of pots that I did had a really nice aquatic looking interior with a nicely repeatable set of glaze steps so I decided to try my hand at making a sink.




I first threw a nice tall (but mostly cylindrical) pot out of 14 lbs of Dove porcelain. There was not so much grog in that stuff so I had a hard time with it wanting to flop over at the rim... so I figured that I would try again with a denser clay.

I switched to 16 lbs of CKK6 (with grog) and after a marathon of centering, I pulled up a nice tall cylinder about as tall as it was wide (maybe 10" at the base?) Then I used a nice tall rib to compress and normalize the walls. Then (using an 10" board as a stupidly long rib) I gently leaned the walls out to create the bowl shape. In a week or so when it gets 'leather' hard I will trim out a drain and carve a nice looking foot to hide the pipe.

This is by far the largest thing I have ever thrown and with a little luck, it will survive the trim and make it to the kiln without getting too screwed up. I don't know... it's a pretty full class at the community center this term any anything can happen in the next two weeks. Wish me luck!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Crafts man, handy man, and family man combined! Wish I could do that!

laoqinyou said...

Very nice Brunson. Do you think you
could make me an entire bathroom now for our attic :->.

jrb

brunson said...

Jrb, Hi Jim! I will look in to the entire bathroom thing but don't hold your breath for it... My friends at work have been joking that I should a throw a hot-tub and a toilet now and become the master of all bathroom ceramics. Just wait until you see it with the glaze on. It's going to be the centerpiece of my whole remodel. (Fingers crossed.)