Excuse the title, but that what we call them. Because they are pots, and because they are heads.
I’ve got some new items I’ve been making to show you – potheads. I have some large ones and some baby ones. I decided to make them because I wanted an item that was functional, to some extent, and yet fun for me to make.
So I arrived at the concept of potheads. Basically, they are hand-built vessels. I take a slab of clay, wrap it around a base, give it a face, and glaze its interior. Let me show you the first two.
This guy is about 9 inches tall or so. Terracotta clay, fired at cone 06. Exterior colored with Velvet underglaze Jet Black in a wash-off technique.
Here is its interior.
As you can see, it’s glazed, rather than just having an underglaze color applied. By doing this the vessel can hold water. I used these glazes for the interiors of all potheads:
I learned about this product at a visit to the Ceramic Shop in Norristown, PA, not that long ago – they were having their sale day and the Amaco rep was there. I asked for some information about a good product for my purposes and came away with two colors of this glaze. It’s called Teacher’s Palette and is designed for low-fire applications such as I do. (The item numbers all start with TP, as you see on the label, and I keep wanting to call the series “Teacher’s Pet”).
Here is another pothead. White lowfire clay, all materials and firing details the same as the one above.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
With the colorful inside, so deep and whimsical.
I got to the end of your paragraph about the glazes and was confused because, as it turned out, I had totally misread Teacher’s Palette as Teacher’s Pet. I really like the colours you chose for the interiors. What a great series. They are going to be such fun to use as vessels and it made me laugh that you call them “potheads”.
I do the same thing with TP. I’ve just decided to give in and call it Teacher’s Pet and be done with it. I do like using glazes meant for schools because they are economical and easy to use, and this particular line is nice in that the brushed on color resembles a chalky version of the actual final color, which most glazes do not do (you can have a purple brushed on layer that fires to orange, say, it’s all chemical reactions). I do like the potheads. I’ve made tiny ones and I just finished some medium ones I’ll show sometime soon.
I love those colorful interiors…surprise! (K)
Thank you. I knew I needed to have glaze in there so I decided to go colorful.
I really like the way you do faces.
Thank you. I really love making them and I think the first things I ever made in clay were faces, tiles and a couple of pots. I never get tired of them.
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The eyes on that terracotta are great!
Thank you. I don’t know why the idea of doing eyes like these potheads have has never occurred to me before but I’m telling you, it’s a load of fun to make them.
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