Personal Casserole Dish

Here is the base for the first personal casserole dish. I want to make a series of personal casserole dishes so that I've got something other than tupperware to use when reheating small portions or making small portions. I'm using a ^6 clay called Calico (Laguna). It's basically white with grey/black spots. I like how the clay works with glazes and I like how it looks when it's unglazed. 

I will be coil building these personal casserole dishes and making lids. I want a lid that won't slip when I'm taking the dish from the oven. I want a lid that stays put until I remove it. I am going to be using a petri dish model for the lid. I also want the sides of the dish to have some texture so that when I grab the dish with pot holders, the dish won't slip out of my hands. I made some slip from the Calico clay and I'll use a slip trailing method to put some texture on the dish. 

I have in mind a size I want for the dish and I have to take into account shrinkage. I started with a 5.5" bottom. 

I coil build the dish, smoothing as I went and being very careful to have a smooth inside. The dish is 3" high and now 6" in diameter. I haven't done the lid yet, nor have I done the slip trailing. 

The inside of the dish. The smoothness and the uniformity in thickness isn't as good as I want it to be, but I think I've improved an enormous amount from my first coiled pot. 

I plan on making a shallow bowl/plate to go under the personal casserole. I want a little lip on the plate. I figured the plate would be good to protect the table when eating from the personal casserole. 

This particular clay is a bit on the sandy side. After the piece dries and the bottom is smoothed, I'll coat the bottom in terra sig to make a really smooth bottom. 

I like using glazes that break over texture so I'm thinking the slip trailing will make for interesting glazing. 

I also made the start of another personal casserole using a low fire red clay with some mica in it. I failed to take photos of it. 

I should be back in the clay studio on Tuesday finishing these up. There will be more photos.