I was looking for some information on what size tea cups normally are and I came across the AMACO site and found they have several lesson plans posted. Here's two tea cups from one of their lesson plans I managed to make, in between going to a friend's house for lunch and getting all my watering and farm work done. I'm using the Cassius Basaltic clay again.
These tea cups looked like a good form to practice my hand building skills on. The cups are really green; the slip isn't even dry. I am hoping the cups will shrink some, they might be a bit too large for tea cups, but then again it depends on how much tea you like. They are comfortable to hold in both hands and I was thinking how nice it would be to hold a warm cup of tea in the cup when the weather turns cold.
I like the pedestal the cup sits on. I want to develop a pedestal to use with cups, soup bowls, serving bowls and maybe salad bowls. I realized when it came time to decorate the sides of the cups, I didn't have just the right sprig. I'll have to devote some time to making a few. So I rifled through the kitchen drawers and found a meat tenderizer mallet and used that. The mallet makes a nice impression in the clay.
I use Cassius Basaltic too. I absolutely love it. I've read though that it's not to be used for food items because of the high Magnesium content. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Laurie, I am going to do a acid test with this clay; I will be putting a liner glaze on the inside but leaving the exterior natural I think. I think you are thinking of Manganese which I understand is dangerous, Magnesium isn't so bad. I also read the content was high iron so there is some conflicting information about this clay and where it gets its black color when fired. I have yet to bisque these, I will be getting to that this week. Thanks for visiting my blog. Do you have a blog? I'd sure like to see some of your work.
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