Monthly Archives: April 2016

Sunday April 10th, 2016

A big company in Xeirotechnika Athens

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This was the second time I was invited to participate in Χειροτέχνικα to host a DIY workshop. The first time was last October were we made a cement vase while this time we also made a vase (really, vases don’t really mean anything special to me, it’s just a coincidence) with wood and glass bottles. And you know, DIY is better with friends so I invited my friends ikariastore.gr and  Black+Decker for help and they came to my assistance!

Black+Decker brought all the tools we needed while ikariastore.gr brought for us the necessary glass bottles (filled with traditional ikarian lemonade and orangeade I <3 Ikaria) to complete the project.

 

First thing we had to do was to drink the refreshments and get to know each other!

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Then we had to cut the wood. Yannis from B&D was there to help, so both of us showed the participants how to use the saw. xeirotexnika3xeirotexnika4xeirotexnika5xeirotexnika6xeirotexnika7

Then we had to glue the wood together and create the Π shape. xeirotexnika7b

Some pieces of wood needed a little sanding. xeirotexnika8xeirotexnika9

Then we had to open the holes in the wood, with holesaws. xeirotexnika10xeirotexnika11xeirotexnika12xeirotexnika13

At this point I need to say that I finally had my cards printed! Design by mr Belias of course. xeirotexnika14

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A! Flowers! xeirotexnika16

We finished the vased, put our flowers in and took a “family photo” 🙂 xeirotexnika17

Special thanks to Yannis from B&D. We’d still be there if it weren’t for him. xeirotexnika18

And of course, special thanks to my man who took pictures of the whole thing and made us look good!

Saturday April 9th, 2016

Clay

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I couldn’t give any other name to this blog post. It’s just clay and it is the most perfect material in the UNIVERSE.  Maybe it’s because it’s a natural material and that’s why I feel I understand it so good. Maybe I just found the most perfect teacher and she is the one who makes it all simple. Maybe my fellow students at pottery class are just amazing and give me inspiration. Or just maybe it’s all of the above combined.

Anyway, this post is not a “how to” but I can show you what I made. And I must admit that I am really proud! (so please, don’t judge to harshly!)

So, this box was actually an exercise for us to learn how to make clay joints.  Yes, the wheel is not the only way to make pottery (something like Ghost and stuff!). There ARE other ways! It’s like making pizza dough, you cut it at the pieces of your preference and then you stick them together.

This is how it looks before the oven.

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After the oven (the lines are some tests I did, but I didn’t like it in the end) pottery_box1

And then, color! pottery_colors

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And a saucy detail!

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Now let’s see my plates! These were simpler, but the details are quite challenging.

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And now the glazing with liquid glass remains. Anyway, it’s this glazing process that makes pottery OK to drink or eat from. Very impressive but you need to be precise and really know what you’re doing. When they are 100% ready I’ll photograph them again to show you.

PS. As you can figure, this is not air dry clay. It’s a totally different thing, harder, more interesting, with history and tradition (And Greece has a tremendous tradition in pottery!)