Muggin'

I've been working on making a bunch of mugs. I've just about got my kiln filled and ready to fire. I'm just waiting for the last set of tiles to dry. The weather has turned cooler here and it's noticeably affecting the clays ability to dry out faster. Time. I need to be patient. That's not been one of my strong suits historically.

Slipcasting Tiles

I've been working on a joint project for some holiday gifts and I'm almost done! After a few casting problems - warped tiles and ugly slip colors - I'm finally back on track. Here are some photos of drying tiles (upside down) using some "too small" soap dispensers as weights. I'm planning on making some crowning glory type of toppers for these so that they won't be a total bust. I'll post some pictures when I finish them.

Getting Up Close

This weekend the kids and I took a trip through Woodinville and downtown Seattle (SODO, Waterfront and the SAM Olympic Sculpture Park). They were taking digital photographs for an art competition at their school. The theme this year is "Beauty is..." I loved seeing what their idea of "beauty is" and how well they did with getting up close to capture detail. They've been watching me with photographing my pots and my efforts to capture the detail. It seems they get the concept pretty well. Here are a few of my favorite images they captured this weekend.

UPDATE: The kids each won their category/age group at their school. They'll now move on to district. They are so excited.

Magnets

I 've made magnets like these for years but never sold them before. I just listed some in my Etsy shop. It's a fun way to show texture. Our fridge now at home is stainless steel so magnets don't work on it. But the fridge in the studio sits right in front of my pottery wheel so I post all kinds of ideas, reminders, photos, etc... on it using magnets like these.

More photos

I've been photographing a lot of pots lately to put in my Etsy shop. I bought a photocube a while back which has helped make a big difference with my pictures. I'm trying to show the detail bas relief work in the pots. It's my favorite part of creating the pots. It's always fun to see what glazes work well with it. Sometimes the grooves just get lost in the glaze. Othertimes it works out well. It's always a surprise - it keeps things interesting.

Etsy Blue Moon Treasury

I just got a note saying a set of my bowls is in an Etsy Treasury named Blue Moon. It's always fun to get in one of these. I wonder who looks at the treasuries. I'm always impressed with the variety of things that are featured - usually centering around a color or a shape. I wish I could figure out how to take a screen shot of it so I could post it. I am such a rookie when it comes to figuring out the blog features. The link should work for now but won't once the Treasury times out. Where is tech support when you need them? Well, currently he's sleeping. ;-)

Update: Tech Support (AKA DH Bill) is up now and he helped me figure out how to copy a screen shot into the blog. So here it is.

Celebration Plates

I'm working on a series of Celebration Plates for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, etc... Here is a sample of one that I made for a wedding this summer. I'll post some other's that I have in progress when I'm finished. It's been tricky finding glazes that work well and don't hide the writing, run or crawl - and have some personality. This plate for BJ and Amy has some decorative relief work on the sides. So far, these have been well received. Getting into the custom business can be tricky with timing... We'll see how this goes!

Elephant Trunks

I'm making a bunch of coffee mugs which means I have to pull some handles. My mugs tend to be "Monday Morning Mugs" - a bit bigger of when you need a little extra wake up. The key is to have a hefty enough handle to hold the larger mugs comfortably - but not too bulky to hold onto or look unproportional. I like to pull my handles separately from the mugs and then attach them. Some people like to pull directly off the mug but I've never had very good results with that technique. Once the handles are pulled they have to set up a bit before I attach them. I think they look like tails when they are drying. My youngest says they look like elephant trunks to him.

Goldilocks and The Three Pots

I've been working on an order of soap and lotion dispensers. The clay shrinkage and dispenser spouts have been making me crazy with trying to get the right fit. Here is an example of "The Three Pots" - one too big, one too small and one just right (the one with the dispenser pump).

In this latest kiln load I ended up with a bunch of "too small" dispensers that I'm going to top off with some sort of crowning glory to make some happy accidents out of them. My last load had a bunch of "too big" results. I'm hoping my next load has a bunch of "just rights"! :-)

Summer's Over

Summer's over and it's time to get back to work. I haven't been very good about blogging the last couple of months. Sadly, I had an incredibly unproductive summer in the ceramics part of my life - but I had a wonderfully "productive" time with Bill and the kids.

I finally glazed the swirls and had some great and not so great results. I was disappointed that the glaze on two custom celebration plates didn't work out and I had some shrink problems with my batch of soap dispensers for a local soap shop - the spouts don't fit on 2/3 of them. ;-( But I had some great results with the rest of the load. That's the way it goes. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the duds - those pots that accumulate over time that didn't turn out quite right. Maybe I should take up mosaic, or find someone who does.

My cousin, Paula, is coming to visit tomorrow. I'm trying to clean up the ceramic's space so we can have an art day. It should be fun! Time to get busy!