Too hot to pot?

It feels that way at the moment! We're well into our second week of very hot and sticky (by our standards anyway) weather, and we're just not used to continuous sunshine without regular downpours of rain. Certainly not complaining though, this is the first dry and sunny July we've had in many years.

The heat is making me rather sluggish, but I am potting on, and I even did a bisc firing yesterday. This little pot was re-fired in the bisc to 950 C .. it's the one I already fired to stoneware in the saggar, when it came out a rather insipid beige colour. Usually when I re-bisc a saggar-fired piece it goes from dark to light, but this time the opposite happened:

The differently coloured patch underneath is still there, and has turned a very strong reddish brown, still with a metallic sheen to it. I think I'll call this the Meteorite pot.

Also from the bisc, a pot with experimental cracked texture:

The effect is interesting, but the technique involves applying texture and then throwing the pot from the inside only (i.e. pushing the clay outwards), which rather limits the forms you can make with this method.

I've also been throwing some taller, slimmer pieces like this simple Iga-style vase:

(Photo taken with Retro Camera)

And a form made in two parts and joined together:

Quite a tricky process joining the two sections when you can't get your hand inside the pot. Next time I may throw the base section with no floor and add it after joining. That would also allow me to create more of an oval form.

Time for a cold beer I think. Thanks for reading.