Most items out of the kiln the last couple of weeks have been gifts, so I have not been sharing photos (no sneak peeks!), but I do have a few odds and ends that I can share. The green lantern came from another opportunity to participate in a Raku firing. I’ve wondered how the lanterns would fare in Raku and I love the result.
Raku fired porcelain lantern
Small porcelain apple jar, celadon glaze
Apple jar with vase
Porcelain vase with wax resist
Wow, I didn’t realize it had been so long since I’ve updated the site. I will try to make up for it with a lot of photos showing what I’ve been up to.
Participated in three holiday sale events and have cleared some space to make more in 2014 – am excited about the possibilities.
First, my progress in creating the perfect mug
Raspberry and Gray Coffee Mugs
Intensely blue mugs
Black mugs with a bit of blue on the rim
Blue and White Farm Mugs
Dreamy Green Mugs
Shino and White mugs
Raspberry and Blue Mugs
Experimenting with some stamps I made on platters – results are beautiful, but keeping the stamping on the rim makes the piece more usable.
Stamped Platter
It has been an eventful weekend. On Friday night my work won an Honor Award at the AIA Orange County ArtWalk. I am very thankful, the other work was all quite good. And on Saturday I got to see my piece at the Orange County Fair that I had entered. It was strange to see something of mine displayed in a glass case, and fun to see all of the other work, and what had won awards. My take-away advice is that bigger is better, so next year I need to make something triple the size.
Finally got a studio day – trying my hand with some porcelain, it is very smooth and more difficult to throw. Worked on some small pieces to try to get a feel for it. Trimming tomorrow.
New lanterns with the same glaze as the newest piggy bank. Looks almost like opals or abalone in some areas, just beautiful. White clay this time.
Also dealt with the large dark plates that I threw about 3 weeks ago, they were very nicely leather hard after a stint in the green room. Since one of the four plates mysteriously disappeared, I no longer have a set and decided to trim each one on its own. So one got some stamping, another some green and white slip. Put them back in the green room, loosely covered, to v e r y s l o w l y dry. Keeping all fingers crossed that there is no cracking.
Black Mountain Clay
Pig #5. On its way tomorrow to a new home in Chicago with a dear friend.
This piece was accepted in the 2013 Orange County Fair – Fine Arts competition. The fair just opened, I am curious as to how it will be displayed, hoping to get to the fair next week to find out.
A couple of great pieces that I picked up yesterday. The little vase was an impulse piece, sort of a filler, and yet it is the best of the lot. This new glaze comb
o is just amazing on the black clay.
What a difference a clay makes…
Both pieces have the same glaze treatment, the only difference is the clay – Hopkins White on the left, Black Mountain on the right.
Note to self: Carving holes too low in a hanging lantern can be a disaster if the candle drips. Good lesson to learn. I was trying to determine if the wires would get too hot while the candles were lit – the good news is that they don’t and I can test some aluminum wire (better looking) because the steel wire I was using started to rust. The bonus was learning that I shouldn’t put the holes so close to the bottom. Back to the drawing board. Or the carving table, in this case.
I pulled this set of 4 cups out of the 8 that I made – the other 4 are for me to keep because I really need some cups! But I think I’ll put these on the “sell” shelf, they did come out nicely. I know it is only June, but I need to kick it into gear to have enough things to sell for the holidays.
