Throwing practice pots

When throwing is what one needs to practise, that inevitably produces pots. These are not always the best, but each is a labour of love in its own way and short of creating a dump pile for either reclaiming or returning clay to the earth, there remains the challenge of what to do with them.

I’ve created a number of pots on the wheel which fit the labour of love category, I’ve glazed them with combinations of Potters Choice glazes: blacks, greys and metallics. Interestingly enough, they are all similar in size and fit inside each other. Now then, a professional potter who makes a number of pieces for let us say, a dinner service, will throw pieces which are exactly the same. In the case of my pieces, this was a complete fluke! However, all the pieces do fit together, so as I am in water feature season, here goes...

Firstly I had to drill a hole in the base of each of the pieces. Where the glaze in the base was thick, I used a diamond tipped drill bit. Then I threaded a rigid plastic tube between the holes and constructed the feature in a concrete planter which I bought, as to make a piece this size would not fit in my kiln. 

Now for the fun bit - threading the pieces together with the pump...