The Flipper
There have been a few enquiries about the jiggering process that I am doing over at my friends Don and Maureen Ross's studio. Don is said he is now having a hard time considering himself middle age so has to come up with methods to handle the macho jobs. this mould along with the clay is too hard and heavy to flip. Here is the process. i carry out this big slab wrapped around my body. It's the only way I can lift it. I lay it in the mould, roll up the sides of the slab to thicken it there and then sponge the clay down into the foot ring, I then add a huge hamburger of clay to the middle and beat it with my fist to cover up the indent where I pushed the foot down. I then proceed to jigger the plate. i then lift it over to the flipper and c-clamp in place. If I leave one rod in the flipper I only have to pick up the one end. I lift, put in place, put a bat on top and flip it over. Notice the stick that hangs down to stop the thing from going all the way around. I hope this makes sense. I have taken to drying the pieces right side up as I found that laying them down on their rims was flattening them too much.
Comments
Looks like it works for you. A few Questions:
- How are you getting the slab and mold over to the table to flip?
- Have you thought about using a 'doughnut' of clay pressed into the foot ring of the mold then apply 'gnar-gnar', and put your slab over that? I like doughnuts better than hambugers ;-) I saw a Hibachi maker do this in Japan, you can make foot rings and feet this way.
- After you flip the platter onto the bat, do you put a bat on the foot ring and flip it again so it can dry upright? Are you able to flip the platter (sans mold) yourself?
-And the $64000 question, how are you going to fit this process and equipment into your small studio? Sheila won't take kindly to eviction. ;-) Or is Don Ross your new partner? ;-)
Russel
You may want to delete grogal's comment...click on her link and you get an insidious cookie planted in your computer that generates popups.
Amd your website appears to be down, not your blog, your sourcherry website.
I think the hamburger method is great and those rims look sweet.
Tay Tay