Charlie bit my finger - again !

OK time out for a couple of cuties, saw this on blog of Corey Amato and just had to include it on mine. Love those children!

I hope you can bear one more look!

I hope I haven't bored you all to death with my obsession in working with this piece, but here it is finally. I need to do some small finetuning, but it has indeed materialized more or less as envisioned, a piece that can be used as a vase with three stem tubes to hold water and real flowers and then ceramic inserts with six amaryllis blossoms when there aren't any fresh flowers to show off! I will do my little finetuning, then carry it home for pickup by the foundation folks for the silent auction. I have to tell you I am both relieved and quite happy with the result. I am sort of hoping no one bids on it and I can bring it back home!
I really enjoyed this project.

Now I am almost finished with my first phase of the "Kitty Banks" project. I have six more to assemble, (add tops/bottoms and ears, and need to slab out and construct sixe additional banks to meet my promised quota).
I have spent hours and hours and days and days on these. The first few have popped out of final glaze kiln with a huge batch in the bisque kiln and another huge batch drying and awaiting bisque firing. Each of the banks takes about three hours work, times 50, 150 hours! These also are turning out quite nice and everyone who sees them in the studio comments on how cute they are.

Huge Sigh of Relief

My second "base" made it out of the glaze kiln OK, whew. I took this photo of it as I intended to have the piece used as a vase. Those are little tazetta narcissus plucked from my garden to show it holds water and does look pretty I think. The photo below shows all my amaryllis flowers which need to be assembled into stems that can be inserted into each tube when real flowers are not being used.
I am still waiting for a few little components to pop out of the kilns to complete the assembly. I am pretty sure it will be a beautiful ceramic piece with the flowers inserted. Hopefully, it all will materialize as envisioned. Soon, I hope so I can turn it over to the Foundation as my contribution to their silent auction. I am now spending hours and hours making the kitty banks and am making progress although it is quite exhausting to handbuild them and that is just the first step!
More later.

Aaargh!

What you have to be ready to deal with in making pottery is that every process is fraught with potential risks as I am learning all too well. The base of my sculpture with its final glaze did not make it through the final firing intact. The tip of a leaf broke off in the kiln and fused itself to the base. So I had to make another base piece which is now awaiting bisque firing. The flowers (darn it, I forgot to take pictures of them all lined up on the final glaze firing shelf), are ready to go into final glaze kiln though and I am hoping eventually, this all will come together without hazard.
In the meantime, I have been asked by a friend of mine --Camie Marion,to make some "kitty banks" for a fund raising effort by the Feral Friends of the Sandhills. I have come up with a unique design and after total failure on my first try, have managed to produce a prototype which is currently awaiting bisque firing. I will then use my screenprint technique to finish, then clear glaze these to be used by the group. They have ordered 50 of them, so upon my return (short trip away this week), I will be finishing up my donation piece for the foundation and starting on the commission for the 50 "kitty banks."
Here is a look of prototype in process:





Camie Marion by the way, when she is not donating time to her animals and animal rescue and suppport efforts, does wonderful pet (and other) portraits and paintings--check out her new website when you have time here

I spent yesterday making forms for the kitty banks so that I can produce more than one at a time, otherwise, it would take me months to get 50 done. I will start on this when I get back. I also have lots of ideas to expand this basic form into other interesting items.

In the meantime, I will give a class on what I have learned about screenprinting on clay on February 9th, and I have created this piece as an example of what can be done. I will do another and take more care in the design/etc, but this was done in a hurry. This picture shows what it looks like coming out of the bisque kiln, it has since been clear glazed and is also awaiting final bisque firing:



Also, produced another little lamb to face the first one I made behind my range:


More on all this when I return!

The pottery continues

Well, I really meant to post something for Christmas, but the whole holiday zipped by me so quickly, I didn't get around to it. I did manage to decorate the house and tree but less so than last year, but in the end, quite enough since holiday decorating follows the rule of gravity, what goes up must come down.

I have been spending every spare moment at the pottery studio. Yes, I am immersed in my newest hobby trying to learn more and create unique pieces. I blythely volunteered to donate a ceramic item for a silent auction to raise funds for a local charity. I envisioned an unusual piece, but am taking quite a risk trying to produce it for the auction, never having done one, or anything like it before! But that is part of my personality and hey, if it doesn't work, nothing really terrible happens. I had to write up a description for the item to put in the print materials that are being created for the Gala event at which the silent auction will be held. Talk about pressure huh? Especially since the piece has not been finished. I was a little heady with excitement when the first phase progressed rather well. That is the base with the stems. By the way, here is the description I wrote up for the piece:

"This unique ceramic sculpture incorporates the artist's love of all things botanical, and the desire for combination of both art and function whenever possible. The sculpture is the artist's original design and was constructed from a blend of stoneware and porcelain clay using slab handbuilding techniques. When glazed with clear coat, the clay body results in a creamware that fits in any decor. The design was inspired by the unusual stems of the Amaryllis plant. This dramatic sculpture is useful as a vase since each of the ceramic stems will hold water and showcase your favorite "real" flowers which become all the more dramatic against the creamware finish. When not displaying live flowers and/or foliage, separate removeable ceramic flowers fabricated from the same clay body and clear glazed, can be inserted into each stem."

The base piece with the stems is in the final glaze kiln now and will come out on Tuesday. Here is a photo of it covered with glaze awaiting firing:


As you can read from the description, I wanted amaryllis-like ceramic flowers to be inserted into those tubes when they are not being used to hold water and "real" flowers. Creating the flowers and thinking about getting them into and out of all the processes safely has been a huge challenge, but I have made several of them, after finally figuring out a technique that would work (or should I say "might work"). At any rate, I think I see the light at the end of this tunnel. While pondering exactly how to make those danged flowers, I created a few other pieces to keep my hand busy. Here is my little lamb inspired by the tea towel (now I must make another one facing in the other direction to go behind my kitchen stove, and some sort of little ceramic wonky house to be in the middle I think):


And while the flower challenge was churning back in the brain cells, I thought I would make two wall vases to hang over my fireplace. I had thrown and altered (that's a funny word used to describe something you do to a thrown piece deliberately to make it look "not thrown", but I must come clean and say that this piece flopped and I just rearranged the floppy pieces to create this cute little "whatever.") But I purchased two commercial glazes that I tried on this piece shown below, and loved it, so hence the more aggressive project, large wall vases, handbuilt, not thrown to be glazed similarly to this piece:



So the vase will be coming out of bisque kiln and glazed like the above piece (green on outside and inside the honey color with the ruffley bit done also in the honey.



If this piece works I will attempt to make another one just like it, or close so I can have the pair I had originally envisioned. I can see it with long branches sticking out of it on each side of the painting above the fireplace.

So kids, you can see I am busy ---perhaps not focused, but having fun with all of this with hundreds more ideas playing around in my head. I am also scheduled to give a class on screenprinting on ceramic on February 9th. I have experimented a whole lot with this technique and am ready to share what I have learned and also to put the technique to some interesting projects.
By for now!

Must stop playing now and get serious about Christmas

I love these bugs! Had fun playing as you can see, but now I have to get busy finishing up chores for holiday. I spent all day yesterday playing in the mud, getting things glazed, fussing with things in various stages, must now concentrate on getting ready for Christmas, then back to the studio to play some more. I made a lovely tiny barnacle bowl that will be put in the final glaze kiln but not be out before the new year. I threw a pear vase and altered it, that is drying now and another textured vase, and I threw my best bowl yet --also drying now. My glazing leaves a lot to be desired and does not meet my expectations on all pieces, but each one is a learning experience. I also learn much from other potters there and their successes. I have another spectacular piece mulling around in my head which I will donate to a foundation fund raiser (if it turns out as well as I have envisioned in my head). Maybe I will post again before Christmas, but I must now get off the computer and get started!

Inspired by Red

This morning I am inspired also by red, and the posting at Block Party Press in which she observes:
"One thing I think the cardinal can teach us is to not be afraid to stand out, or to be afraid to create things that stand out. While most animals try to hide and blend in with their environment, the bright red cardinal is bold and is more concerned with attracting a mate than hiding from predators."

Her posting reminded me of the photos I took several years ago of cardinals in the snow one winter. Here in Wilmington, NC, we manage to get a sprinkling of snow once every five or six years or so. I can count two times in the last ten years! But in keeping with our holiday season, red seems appropriate.

My latest vase

Jaca, this is the vase I was talking about!

Experimenting like Mad

I don't have much time today, but thought that a slideshow might be best vehicle to show all the stuff I am doing at the Pottery Studio, I am obsessed at the moment which is how I usually attack any new endeavor. I started in the safe, black and white mode, trying to make things to use in my kitchen and to go with my Mary Rose Young mugs, but had been experimenting with using silkscreens to decorate, and trying to find the best technique. I think now that using them damp on bisqueware gives best image. Using underglazes on images, the tree plate was my last silkscreen. Also venturing out with glazes, early attempts were UGLY! I loved the woody look on my first triple vase so used it on my garden fairy clothing and on some jewelry beads, most of the photos have annotations, so anyone interested in what I am playing around with can see and read what I did. Still experimenting and most of this stuff is just for fun. Will give away to friends as gifts (whether they want them or not!)
Have fun, I sure have---------

We love our cats don't we?

Just a quick post to share a video, you may all have seen by now, you really can't dispute the affection this cat has for this woman. This should put to rest the ridiculous notion that cats are not affectionate. I know my two are!

Transitioning from Angel to Fairy

I have made three angels for Christmas gifts but as you can see my muse was pushing me in another direction, the last angel ended up with a pod halo, which begged for the creation of a garden fairy. The first one I made and labored over for quite a while fell to pieces in the drying process, I didn't even get a photo of her before she fell apart. Undaunted, I set about creating another and she is behaving herself up to now as she dries. You never know if these things will make it through all the processes, but for now she is sleeping quietly while drying enough to get bisque fired. Shhhhhhhhh

Ta Da!!!

My biggest load yet from the kiln:

Consumed by New Hobby

I have spent so many hours in the pottery studio at which I am now a member which means I have 24/7 access. I have spent hours there, mostly playing, but also observing some wonderful creations produced by the people who work there. I have been using my camera to record much of what I do. Found that I can use sound memo on photos I take to record what glazes I used because as soon as one of those things goes on a shelf, you immediately forget what you did! Very handy indeed. I am so excited because this coming Tuesday a whole pile of my stuff will be coming out of the final firing. Mostly black and cream pieces I have made for myself, but a few other experiments as well. I have some very notable failures, but I don't think I will share these but hopefully will learn from these mistakes. I find that I like the underglaze process a little more since what you see is "mostly" what you get, unlike the other glazes (dipped and poured) available for us to use. So for now the bulk of what I am making falls in the "underglaze, then dip in clear glaze" category. I have made myself a mug pattern that I have used a lot. My first use was to create this handbuilt pitcher in the Mary Rose Young "style." I am quite pleased with it.

I have made plates and more mugs in this style and will see finished product on Tuesday!
In one of our earlier classes we made angels and I have since made two more similar to this first one, to give as gifts for Christmas. These are quite easy actually and show the basic clay color dipped in clear glaze.
Here she is:

Then a fairy door for my daughter's fairy garden, to lean onto the base of a tree:

Seeing Double

I just came from viewing the fabulous shot Jessica got of a hummingbird stopping to admire her hummingbird shaped outdoor ornament. Check it out here.
This reminded me of a cute little fella who used to visit the garden and munch on a few tidbits in the garden, --I always plant a little extra for the critters. I managed to catch him munching alongside an ornamental sprinkler shaped like a bunny! Made me laugh, hope it will make you smile too!

Yes indeed, a new Hobby!

As if I needed one more, but I have always been intrigued by pottery and have had a yen to try my hand at it, but was deterred by the equipment needed, the mess it entails and not to mention expense of having all that equipment, rollers, kiln, etc. so it has been in the back of my mind. Well as luck and no little coincidence would have it, ---in March of this year while shopping at this lovely gift shop for a wedding present,I spotted the most gorgeous and expensive mugs I had ever seen in cream and black that would be beautiful in my red, black and cream kitchen and red dining room and oh how I wanted them! They were much too expensive and I just could not bring myself to buy them and embarked upon my usual test, "if after a long period of time, I am still longing for something, I really need to have it!" ---I thought often about them and the longing was still there, then five or six months later, after getting encouragement from many friends regarding money and short lives, yadda yadda yadda, I made up my mind. I said to myself: "self, cruise on over there again and if those mugs are still there, they are meant for you!" Well, they were and I bought them and brought them home. I still didn't take them out of the box, but looked at them whenever I could wondering how I could find other pieces to accompany them--"if only" I could get my hands on the clay, etc. Well, the potter that makes them is Mary Rose Young in England and nowhere on the internet did I find anything like these mugs, etc.
Then very coincidentally, two friends with whom I took water aerobics were going to head down to this place to get information about a kiln operation and pottery in general. I went along for the ride and boy was I impressed! The lessons offered were wonderful and affordable and the equipment available to use was just "everything" and the workshop was bright and cheerful and the people there warm, friendly and extremely helpful. I was sold, and what you see after four weeks are the two triangular boxes I made in the style of my mugs. They were made (formed) in our very first lesson and I had intended to try to see if I could replicate the look. I was not sure how they were going to turn out, but when at the last class they popped out of the kiln I was very pleased and now inspired to make other pieces to match my mugs and many more projects floating around in my head! There is one more larger box made at the first class but having a huge mess during the glazing process which I "thought" would have ruined the piece. But a very talented artist working there at the time helped me and assured me that all was not lost, the glaze was washed off along with the underglaze and last week I redid it and it is awating dipping in clear glaze and the last firing. It is not a hobby for those wanting instant gratification, clay must be shaped (I am doing handbuilding for now and might learn throwing later), then drying the greenware, then firing at bisque level, then decorating, glazing and firing again, a total process that can take weeks, but there is always some new piece in each of the various stages which appeals to me. I have learned so much already in just a short period of time, as you can tell I am quite excited and pleased that all this has come together. I need a tile tray for behind my stovetop in the kitchen and that project design is floating around in my head along with all the others. Stay tuned----

Lycoris Radiata almost finished Blooming

This year has been a good year for my Lycoris Radiata, hurricane lilies, or spider lilies.  I look forward to them every year in my southern NC garden, they always surprise me.  They pop up and bloom so quickly, I hardly ever notice their emergence from the ground.  I was able to pluck a few and stick in a quick arrangement which included one of my newest favorites for this time of year, "Limelight Hydrangeas" with a few stems of white flowering chives and a bit of greenery,  the arrangement was complete.  Seeing them this way, up front and personal, I was again reminded of their value in the garden.  They don't bloom long as with most perennials, but I wouldn't miss them for the world.

Feet Week Redux

OK, so I am a nut, had my camera pointing down and saw my feet and decided to do a little walk about.  The wonderful thing about blogland is there is at least one, maybe a hundred nuts around just like me.  While uploading this video, I was checking around some of my favorite blogs and discovered that feet week (according to mecozy blog) was Sep 3 through the 7th, and I didn't even know til I discovered these.   So a couple of weeks late, here is my homage to feet week:

 

with Music credit to: Peter Mulvey, Brady Street Stroll

Thinking about Christmas already

In my other blog I shared with you my project using up my boxwood clippings.  I am making really good progress with only two more to go!  Here is a picture of the lineup of boxwoods all in a row, just need to keep them watered til Christmas and decide how I will be using them.

One other project which jumped at me last week was to handpaint the ornaments seen below.  I was inspired by the holiday plates I preordered from

Rosanna

 

 

Placemats to Purses

One of my many hobbies is making purses out of placemats, something I just love to do.  I have made quite a few for gifts and they seem to go over well.  Over time, I have improved my methods to make them sturdier and more attractive.  My latest invention was adding cute little feet for the purses.  I did not have any of the "proper" feet handy,   but I had quite a few magnetic snaps that I used to close the purses.  I had ordered about 100 from ebay.  Another of my hobbies is playing with polymer clay, so I made little feet with colors that matched the quilted pattern, and put the magnetic snaps at the bottom with feet made of polymer clay with the other side of the snap embedded into it so that the feet can snap on and off.  This way, the handle can be removed and the feet snapped off, and the whole thing thrown in the wash when needed.  I find mismatched or broken sets of placemats to make these.    Below is a slideshow of other placemat handbags I have made.

The Blogging Rabbit Hole

I have been very lazy about posting these days.  As I have said before, I am so amazed at the beauty and quality of the blogs that I visit that it often takes me down the proverbial Looking Glass rabbit hole.  For example.  I had one Swedish blog I visited almost daily.  I could not understand a single word since it is in Swedish, but I loved the site anyway, just for the pictures.  I figured out where her links were and down the rabbit hole I went to discover even more delightful blogs each with more links to follow as I went deeper and deeper down the hole.  As you can see, many of them are now in my homepage content for quick daily reviews.  Here is a picture  of my Google homepage with all the tabs for favorite blogs. 

  As you can see, I have one tab called "can'tunderstandaword" and that is where I keep all of these.  So to entice others in the freefall through the rabbit hole, here are some links to these delightful blogs, highlighting the things all of us seem to enjoy so much, beautiful interiors, gardens, sweet furry and wooly friends, creativity, etc.  I would never have had the access to these if it were not for the fabulous blogging community and the ability to find likeminded cyberspace travelers.  Enjoy:

Housemartin,  guldkantpalivet, An Angel at my Table, Spets och snor , Emma, Camillas Drommar, Lantliv i stan,

Annas hus, Clara's Linescap,  Hemmapalandet , Hemmariket, Fridtid, Vita Ranunkler , LovingHulu,  and this lovely shop  in Norway (I think) Linnea's Hage (maybe Hage means house?) with so many beautiful things, antiques, etc, etc, and be sure to see the amazing shabby chic dollhouse here, it is so "perfect."

Well I will leave you now that I have enticed you to spend even more time than you do already chasing the "Inspiration Rabbit" down the hole, but I think you will be rewarded.  I just wish there were a Scandinavian Language translator tool that I could use --but I still can enjoy these sites (sights)!! I apologize to anyone if I have not been able to distinguish between Norweigan, Swedish, Danish blogs, but the language of beauty is the same and that is what has been communicated

I have created the following album slideshow of just a few of the delights you will find at these blogs: