Harvest time is coming; and a friend/chef/owner of a small restaurant requested colorful heat resistant ceramic apple and pear bakers - more slow turning in the mud; steps:
Center a ball of heat resistant porcelain about 1.25x the volume of a large apple to accommodate 12% shrinkage during final firing.
Moment of ambidextrous truth: put the thumb tips together at dead center, then very slowly and symmetrically spread them apart to create a vertical spindle (which will go up through the core of the fruit), pushing down while tapering from 3/4" at the top to 1 1/2" at the bottom - one slip and the spindle topples; at the same time pulling the edges out and up.
Pull up and taper the wall to a level just below, at, or just above the center spindle.
Refine the edges.
Leather dry under a plastic bag x 3 days, then trim the bottoms.
Apply colored underglazes on a concentric tower of two simply-constructed lazy susans (such that the colors are easily accessible below, and the baker turns at a comfortable level).
Dry until bone dry.
Bisque fire.
Apply zinc-free/food-safe clear glaze, then final fire at cone 6:
(brought me back to childhood days picking apples in Virginia orchards on crispy Fall days...then baking them with a drop of butter and a drop of maple syrup...)
Happy Monday - Bob
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