lots of little bottles

I decided to cork most of these "Papa Bear" (former) soap dispensers wannabes. I'm wanting to post them on Etsy but I'm not sure what to call them or how to tag them. My brain feels like the Halloween pumpkin mush. I'm looking forward to next week when things will calm down a bit - hopefully.

tricky

Here are some close ups of the lettering on the celebration plates. I'm thinking of trying something new with the celebration plates that will be more consistent and fits into the techniques I like to use. I'm happy with the lettering. The glazing of these has been tricky to get it even. I've got to do some more testing with this.

Clay on the Brain

It's been a really crazy couple of weeks with my Mom job the past two weeks. I've been clocking some serious volunteer hours at the kids' school and it's put me behind with my ceramics job. I spent the entire day yesterday (and most of the late night/early morning) catching up on glazing. I've got two celebration plates in the kiln that I'm hoping will turn out well. Here is a photo of one of the plates as I painted the text on the bisqued pot.

I also glazed up a big batch of tiles for a holiday project. I took over the kitchen yesterday glazing up my pots and tiles. I also glazed up a bunch of test tiles for the kids' school Art Docent program. I've been working on getting all the ceramics supplies straightened out and ordered there. We're holding a clay training class for the Art Docents this week. Yes, I've got clay on the brain.

Display

I've signed up to do two craft sales this December. I'm working on my display - it's got to be a tabletop set up. I e-mailed my Mom and in true form she has things I can use - like old wooden crates that will hopefully make for an interesting display. Thanks Mom! I'm having to pull out some tricks from my retail days of yesteryear. Hopefully it will look decent. I'll post some pictures from the shows.

Glazefest

I unloaded the bisque fire load last night and I'm ready to glaze up a storm. I bought some new glazes last Friday from Clay Art Center in Tacoma that I'm looking forward to trying. I'm also switching to a new clay body - Sea Mix from Seattle Pottery Supply. The clay I've been using before has a lot of grog in it. It also hasn't fired up as white in color as I'd like, so I made the jump to Sea Mix based on a recommendation from a fellow potter. So far I'm liking it.

If you look closely at the photo above you'll see the glaze sample tiles (small rectangles with a swirl stamped on top, grouped in stacks and holes cut in the top for stringing) you'll see the difference between the colors. The old clay body looks a lot more pink in contrast.

I've got to get to work to get some of these pieces out the door and delivered this weekend.

Waiting on the kiln...

I finally fired up the kiln for a bisque firing. It took the pots a lot longer to dry with the wetter, cooler weather. The kiln is packed tight and I'm waiting for it to cool. I'm excited to glaze up a lot of the pieces that are in there. There are some custom items that I need to get shipped out which will feel good to finish up.

I've had a couple of inivitations to show in November and December for the holidays. I haven't felt like I've had enough inventory to do that yet, but I'm getting there. This big load that I'm working on will help. I'm going to do the indoor show that's in Bellevue and then set a goal to do the outdoor post Thanksgiving show in Oregon next year. Showing outdoors requires more gear that I need to aquire - like a canopy tent, signage, shelving, etc... I'm going to see if my sister in law, Milagra, wants to share a tent with me to show. She makes amazing hand stamped pendants. Check out her shop on Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7677218 We wear her pieces all the time and gets lots of compliments. They make great gifts! She made me a beautiful "secret message" pendant that I just love. Mine message says "Do you... dream, create, wish, make, love, make"

Feeling Blue - Navy Blue

I am featured in another Etsy Treasury. It's always fun to see what the pots are grouped with. I like this Navy Blue Treasury theme. You can see it at http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=87077 until the Treasury expires on 10/12/09.

Jake's kiln god

I've been missing a little kiln god to watch over my kiln when it fires. This afternoon my youngest was wanting to make something with clay. I just discovered that he made me a perfect little kiln god without even knowing it. It's very sweet with it's wings. I'm sure he intended it to be an alien of some sort as he's been building Star Wars characters lately. It may take some convincing to get him to let me have it.

I made another group of mugs to help finish off the filling the kiln. Now it may be too full. I kind of got on a roll and didn't stop. That's never a bad thing.

Toolin'

Over the years I've bought lots of tools. I've found that I turn to the same few over and over - and the rest just sit. Here are my favorites.

Favorites?

Do you have a favorite piece of pottery? If so, why is it your favorite? Is it because someone special gave it to you? Or is does it bring back a special memory? Do you like the way it feels in your hand? Or does it just look cool? I'm curious.

One of my favorite pieces is a little vase my friend, teacher and mentor - Linnell - gave me. It's sweet, simple and makes me think of her. It has a really smooth glaze that feels so good in my hand. I love to fill it with small flowers from the yard. I miss seeing Linnell every week in her studio. It was a place that kept me sane when I had three little toddlers/babies at home.

New Things

Last night I sat down to throw after all the kiddos had gone to bed. I'm experimenting with some "hugging pots". I threw a small creamer pitcher and a sugar bowl. This morning I pressed them together like they were hugging - altering the shapes. I did this with a couple of small vases too. I will fire and glaze them separately, but they will fit together when they will be used. It should be interesting. The creamer/sugar set it the trickiest. I still need to put the handle on the creamer and complete the lid for the sugar bowl.

My husband looked at them with a curiosity and remarked, "So you took time to get them thrown all centered and symmetrical... and then you smooshed them together?!? I don't get it." I do. He's an engineer. ;-)

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!

glazed and waxy

I'm trying to get a glaze firing done before the "heat wave" here in the NW that we are expecting this weekend through next week. Firing up a kiln in the middle of 95* weather makes things hot in our garage so I'm working hard to try to get lots done. The big challenge is that my youngest turns 7 and we are having a birthday party on Sunday here for him. He really needs a birthday month because he's SO into it. I'm trying to simplify things but he really wants to be involved with the details which complicates it all. I should probably hold off and not stress everyone out as I try to do too much. I'm trying to meet a deadline on a custom pot and don't want to fire an almost empty kiln.

Here are some photos of waxed pots and glaze mixing. Potters know this, but for the non-ceramic folks, I put wax on the bottoms of pots so that I can dip them in buckets full of glaze and not have the glaze stick to the pot bottom. The wax burns off during firing. If you glaze the bottom of a pot it will become one with the kiln shelf and your piece and kiln shelf are pretty much ruined.

I haven't posted in a while since most of what I've been working on has been routine things like glaze mixing, sanding, re-coating kiln shelves with kiln wash, and waxing pot bottoms... not very interesting, but it part of the process of ceramics. Making a piece from beginning to end is more involved than most people realize. I guess it's that way with most crafts.

Swirling Ideas

My oldest son has a penchant for patterns. I think I must too. I am drawn to carving patterns in pots. When I began making pots I threw with low fire clay and painted images on them using underglazes. That was my favorite part of the process. Then I began working with high fire clay and glazes (cone 10) and the form became the focus - as it needed to be. I look back at those early pots and can see so clearly what was missing (can you say 'door stop'?!?). Despite all the things I learned while taking classes, I missed the images that I created on the low fire pots, so I began to explore alternatives using high fire glazes. I eventually found something that I was drawn to - carving into the pots. I love the feel of the tool as it glides through the clay - the freedom of it. All of my patterns are created free-form. I don't like to be too precise as the imperfections of too much structure scream out at me if they aren't spot on. Today I had swirls swirling around in my brain. Here are some images of the pots that I trimmed up and carved. I'm working on a wedding pie plate - swirls weren't part of the request. I hope it's not a problem. Once I started, I couldn't stop. The uncarved plates looked so plain and a bit lonely amongst the other swirly pie plates and pots.

Etsy Shop Open for Business!

I've been working for a while now with the goal to get my Etsy shop open. I finally took the proverbial plunge last night (actually early early this morning) to try out my new photo cube and go for it. My shop is open for business. I've enjoyed seeing how many people have viewed each piece and seeing who's added me as a favorite seller. Now it's a waiting game for the first sale. I wonder how long it will take.

I'm really happy with the photo set up. I picked up the tips and tricks from another potter who sells a lot of his work online. I'm including some photos of some items that aren't for sale on Etsy as they live in our home.

http://www.shootthemoon.etsy.com