Way back in January of 2018, that innocent time before Covid-19, I wrote a blog post about leaf-shaped hump molds. You’ve likely forgotten, so here it is again: https://www.mimistadlerpottery.com/mimistadler-potteryblog/skr142g4m6q9wqscebeklt74lbtwvm
But, truth be told, after I made them and bisque-fired them, they ended up gathering dust. Let’s just say life got interesting, and leave that there.
A couple of months ago, things being relatively normal again- thank goodness- I took down the hump molds from the shelf, dusted them off and rolled some clay slabs. I tried making templates to cut the slabs into shape first, intending to then cover the hump molds with them, but that got too complicated since the templates would need to curve around the form and that would require darting, like in sewing. So I did the easiest thing, some draping and shaping of slabs over the humps, which worked just fine. Now I have to three sizes of chubby canoe shapes I like. Reminder to self: Nothing wrong with the easy way; don’t complicate things.
Next came flipping the clay-covered hump form over onto my trusty Shimpo banding wheel (can’t praise this thing enough), molding the clay to the bisqued form with hands and red rubber rib.
I raised it on kiln posts so I could get to the edge for a neat cut.
3 leaf-shaped bowls from 3 hump mold studio-created hump molds.
Next: Glazes!
These were glaze electric-fired to around 2130 Fahrenheit, aka Cone 5.5ish. The glazes are made in my studio, called Price Jade and Shelley’s Blue, and the white was trailed over the center where the two glazes overlap, as if stitching them together. Finished sizes are approximately 7” - 13” long.
Leaf-shaped pots from studio-created bisque hump molds, Cone 5.5, electric fired. (Mimi Stadler Pottery)