That Sinking Feeling

We're renovating. When we planned to do this, both JF and I had lovely ideas about really making the cottage our own by designing the living space together, doing as much of the work as we could and of course I volunteered to make things out of clay, like a bathroom sink. He voluteered to make the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom vanity, but I'll let him tell you that story on his own blog.

I'd been to a workshop on tile-making and installing with Hanne Lawrence and she'd made a few bathroom sinks so I knew this project was do-able even in my small studio.

I decided to make a sink that would be sunken into the vanity top. Neither of us like the on-top of the vanity look plus the existing taps, which are only a year or two old wouldn't work with that design.

I started off with 10 lbs of clay for the first sink, then about 13 lbs for the second. They were too small, but it was good practise. I don't often make large pieces. Those first attempts have made some really lovely fruit bowls since I didn't cut a drain hole in them, and when they're finished I'll post some pictures.

My 3rd attempt at a sink was with 15 lbs of clay and I still felt it was not large enough, so I bumped it up by about 2 more pounds to 17 lbs for what became the first piece to get a drain hole cut into it.

Stoneware sink in the greenware stage. Thrown and slightly altered. 46 x 43 x 18 cm.

After this sink was bisque fired, I checked it for cracks around the drain hole. It passed the test and was glazed in a matte black glaze that where thick will fire sandy coloured, almost yellow.

Big pieces aren't easy to glaze and this sink was no exception. It's big and heavy and I only have two hands. This is where an apprentice would come in handy! I poured the glaze from a pitcher and glazed the inside of the sink first. I had it perched, about halfway inside a large pink plastic wash tub that caught the excess that went "down the drain." After the inside was dry-ish, I began to apply glaze, pouring it from the pitcher while holding it with one hand over the glaze bucket. This is where weight training comes in handy!

Some parts of the sink were covered with glaze more than once. In these areas the glaze, now dried, was thick and started to chip off in large chunks. Multiple touch ups were made and the sink went into the glaze kiln and was fired. What came out of the glaze kiln was not what I expected. I was disappointed that the glaze touch ups I'd made to the edge of the sink were obvious. It was slightly overfired which resulted in pitting on the edge. The usually smooth surface of this gorgeous black glaze was dry and rough, again probably the result of overfiring.

I asked myself, "Do I want to wake up to this bathroom sink every morning for the next 50 years and be disappointed?" Based on the look alone, the answer was a resounding NO! After showing it to JF who liked it very much, I told him what I thought of it. We looked at our options which were: use it anyway, make another or buy commercial. We looked at the sink's physical characteristics too and JF found that the edge wasn't big enough for an easy installation (it would somehow have to be supported from the bottom inside the vanity) and the drain hole was in fact, too big.

I decided to make another sink, so I wedged up 18 lbs of clay yesterday and made this:

Stoneware sink, wet clay still drying on wheel head. Current measurements 44 cm in diameter and 15 cm deep.

(Edited on Apr. 23) I'm really happy with the shape and size. I checked the bottom thickness yesterday and it's perfect for a sink. The next task is getting off the bat, letting it dry up a bit, trimming the excess clay, then cutting a proper sized drain hole. Wish me luck!