So...I've gotten into pottery...what type of rabbit bowls???

[alforddm]

I've recently gotten into pottery. It's something I've been piddling with for over a yr but couldn't afford a wheel or kiln. Well, within the last 3 months, I've been able to acquire 2 kilns and 2 potter wheels all for under $300.

I've been playing with the idea of making some bowls just for rabbits. There are a couple of ways I can go with this. One is make them like those red flower pots you see in the store... They are slightly porous so that they leak just a bit. The advantage to this is that the seeping water helps to cool the water in the bowl so that it not only keeps the water cool but gives the rabbit something cool to lay against in hot weather. The problem is that if you have a rabbit that likes to pee in their water bowl...well yeah the opposite also would be true. It would soak into the bowl and I'm not sure sure how easy that would be to remove.

The other way is to glaze so that it isn't porous but then you loose the advantages of evaporation. I'm think of making the bottoms thick and heavy to make it harder for a rabbit to move them around.

It is also possible to make things like this

or

but I still have a way to go to make those. :lol:

So thoughts and Ideas?

Here is something I have made.

 

[trahana]

Nice!

My family does ceramics too, most of our plates and bowls are made by my mom. If you want cool patterns roll out your clay and when its flat enough roll a lace doily into it. Remove the doily and cut the clay to the desired shape/size and push it into a bowl. leave it until its set(right before its considered leather hard) and add a foot to it so its doesn't tilt.
Once you fire it the first time you can add glaze to the inside of the doily imprint and also over the entire pice. the glaze from the doily will often pattern through, depending on the two glazes. white and blue work the best, but ever glaze is differnt so use some test pieces.
Our pet dishes are ceramic too, they work great compared to the pet dish you buy at a shop. The key is to make the bottom thicker then the sides, that way they are really hard to flip over.
One of my chinchillas(not rabbit chinchilla) likes to sit at of his food dish and spin it until the food flies out. So the food dish is always half empty due to his antics. :lol:

 

[alforddm]

That is awesome trahana! I don't know any potters personally and the nearest place I could take classes is an hr away. I've been watching lots of Simon Leach videos on youtube. :lol: I also haven't tried to fire anything yet. I'm a genuine super newb but ceramics has me very excited. More so than any other craft I've tried (and I've tried alot over the years...). I have a bunch of natural clay and I've learned how to clean it and now I'm mixing two different clays together to get a body that is throwable. I just need to test fire some things to see if it really works as well as I hope. I also have lots of different types of trees available to me so I'm hoping to use ash glazes as well. We have a huge (well huge for our area) forest festival in June of each year so I've got my fingers crossed I will feel confident enough to exhibit some items by then.

Ceramics is so involved and there are so many techniques to try.

 

[SarniaTricia]

That is SO awesome!!

My first love is pottery..... I was lucky enough to go to a college (right out of high school) for a couple of years that had an amazing ceramics program....

I would suggest checking out used book stores for ceramics and pottery books... there is a lot of old books with the best information... also anywhere that sells supplies are usually helpful.

I have only fired once or twice myself, so... I'm not going to be much help.
I have a kiln and wheel, but they are buried in the garage and I do not have the hookups for my kiln yet. (likely will need to wait until we move to "the farm" before I get a proper hook up for the kiln)

Good luck and have fun!!
Patricia