My mother used to refer to her mis-matched china cups and saucers as her ‘Harlequin’ set. I remembered her fondly as I contemplated the fifteen teeny snack plates I made as a special order in June. Friend Christine had read my blog about the plates I made for d-i-l Jennifer in May and asked if I would make very small ones, with similar random and cheerful designs on them for her. How about fifteen?

Using just 1 lb of clay for each one, and throwing them all to a width that I figure would shrink to roughly 5 1/2″, and all with the same size interior depth and with the comfortable rim I like on thrown plates, I got 15 done quite quickly. Each one then required trimming underneath after drying carefully for a day, but I rather enjoy doing that. The fun part, for someone who has lots of runny, coloured slips and a rainy June in which not to listen to the news, was to apply one colour to the top and bottom of each. Then I chose two other colours to add rings (hooray for the wheel!) and traditional-style slip brushstrokes which could be flowers, leaves, stars and patterns as the fancy took me.

As ever, I had to wait for these, and all my earlier new designs to dry and be bisque-fired before I could see whether I’d made good choices. After the glaze firing with my usual clear glaze the results were even more exciting and they all wound up almost exactly 5 1/2″ wide. Al photographed every single one for me so I can replicate any that I like, in the future. But for the purpose of showing you them all I used a ‘lay-out’ app on my iPhone to assemble them into groups of four, with the final three completed with a photo of how well the 15 stack!

Using the same app I then put all four groups together and, hey presto! I have a pretty plate pattern.

Christine, bless her heart, has decided that she’d like the whole Harlequin set so will come by my studio for a ‘distant’ visit one day soon. She tells me that they will be used by her Bridge-playing group for snacks, so that they don’t take up too much room on the tables.

I also threw a couple of large, deep dishes and decorated one of them with the same sort of traditional design, in blues.

On the other one I chose to paint my ‘dazzle’ pattern again, this time with tree colours, light green, brown and black over a Naples Yellow base.

My new salt (or pepper) shaker generated some interest so I made some more. They are a generous size and as before, unglazed, just coated with terra sigillata. Ours shakes salt nicely onto buttered corn-on-the-cob. If you’d like one, they’re $40. Here is a photo of the first one, from the previous firing, to show the cork at the base.

Finally, to help fill my July firing, there were some more of a new terra sig-ed mug design. Although I think it’s better not to micro-wave earthenware mugs (being somewhat porous the walls can become damp and that makes the mug too hot for safety) they are quite OK in the dishwasher and I enjoy using several of mine. The handle feels comfortable, the new rounded interior is nice for stirring and cleaning, the interior glaze is food-safe and I love the terra sig colour and satiny feel over throwing lines and stamps. $35.

Now I really must stop procrastinating (is that what blogging is?) and tomorrow, fish out more clay and throw. No word on any upcoming soda firings so it’ll be earthenware for a while.