Getting into Ceramic Jewelry

After lugging heavy pots, etc to shows, I have decided to try my hand at making some ceramic jewelry pieces.  A lot lighter and could be fun.  I will have to get busy getting them on chains, earwires, findings, etc., but here is a peek at some of the bits I have been making several using my silkscreens.  All of these are midrange stoneware, porcelain mix.  They are pretty I think and I might be able to do something with them. The ones with dark backgrounds are really a glaze that looks like silver, though it is hard to photograph and show as silver.

Hooked on Houses

Sold the first "houses" platter, and now have a few more pieces in that theme

Clay Book

For over a year now I have been toying with an idea to make a clay book.  I especially wanted to feature several techniques, particularly my silkscreens in this book.  I made 4 slabs and decorated them, but broke two before firing, so the other two (actually two sided), were just hanging around after bisque firing.  I finally glazed them and fired them and this is what resulted:

I am not entirely happy and need to fine tune the idea a little.  It is appealing though but the ceramic noise  when pages come together is a little daunting.  I just saw Ellen Currans Pottery on the west coast had a similar notion and made a book as well,  I like the way she treated the ends with thread to compensate for the sound.  I had just laid out some paper pages that I was going add in the middle, maybe sewing them with threads, and with a little batting in the middle.  Also have not dismissed the idea of fabric inserts also.  A work in progress, I think I will try this again.

Also coming out of the kiln

Some new things

Just finished Diana Fayt's online class on Surface Treatments.  We learned how to make a neat folded foot platter which can also hang on the wall as decoration, here are some of the surface treatment work I did.
Always nice to add a few new techniques.  I am pretty pleased with the results and have more ideas.

New Kite flyers

Another coral box

Mermaid Tail Vases

Experimenting with Majolica

Red earthenware platter, dipped in  Linda Arbuckle recipe for white majolica glaze and overpainted with underglazes.

New Majolica Mini Dishes

                    --sold all the others and love playing around with these.

New Beach Teapot

My new Beach Teapot just listed in my ETSY Shop, thought I would try and list a few things again:

Here is the listing

And pot with oranges

QR code on my pots

I have been meaning to do this for a  long time, so these pots finally are "marked" with a QR code I crated then made a silkscreen of it and can put this little message on the bottom of my pots (put on greenware) --underglaze through silkscreen.  I have some other ideas to use these QR codes on my ceramic also.  Stay tuned.  You can create your own QR coded message in several places on the internet.  And, of course, if you have a smart phone with a QR reader app you can read what it says.

Some new items for January

I have been busy, and have had wonderful sales in the past several months.  I am in a new gallery---
Figments and it is a very special place to shop as well as teach.  Lots of great art classes available there.  I will be teaching a class tomorrow --Introduction to Clay and will also teach my silkscreen class there as well.

In the meantime, I have been experimenting with low fire clay and majolica techniques ---some of my results are shown here, all for sale in Figments.

It's been ages

since I have posted, here are a couple of things I have been working on, all but the kiteflyers have been sold, the kiteflyers will go into shop tomorrow, I had to get the copper inserted, so it's the last one, but I have more sculptures drying awaiting first firing.  These are fun.

What a difference the right backgrounds make

This is a repeat of some of the photos below, but I did purchase a nice gradated background for my photographs (Varitone 31in x 43in vertical format Item# 39 Varitone 31in wide x 43in long(78.7cm x 1.1m) vinyl) from: http://www.phototechinc.com/graduate.htm
I took photos in my masterbathroom late in the day which has the best natural light from two windows (one covered by a soft rollup shade whch diffuses the bright light. I used my DroidX camera using ZoomFX app and got some pretty nice pictures I think. Sure makes my work look nice doesn't it?

More ornaments

Just out of bisque kiln, now to glaze and refire all of these:

Christmas in July

Now that the 4th is gone it's OK to think about Christmas isn't it? Well, I have found that the ceramic process takes so long that I have to start this early. I have a new toy, the silhouette SD digital cutting machine and it has enabled me to produce some wonderful designs in cardstock which can then be made into a silkscreen and used on my pottery. I was looking for some new ideas for Christmas ornaments and here are a few I am playing with.

Also experimenting with low fire white clay "And" single firing after the designs are silkscreened on with underglaze and the pieces are bone dry, I have glazed them and fired them. These are my first batch and I am pretty encouraged. Wanting to find a nice package for them I found an excellent little box that cuts on the cutting machine.

Unfortunately I only had brown cardstock so you can't see the Christmas"y" effect, but having tried them, I have ordered lots of red cardstock. They will make a nice presentation for the ornaments and I can resize them to fit. I am in awe of the capabilities of that little machine and plan to give it a workout. The software that is "free" with it enables one to come up with own designs, text, etc. Lots of possibilities here.

Finished Boxes

Thought you might like to see the finished boxes from this posting

:

Basket #1 finished

Really nice to have my own kiln, I got to open it this morning and see the final results of my basket making technique. I am pleased.

Some new Items for June

These are drying,

still have a few more basket ideas to work on, but need to mix things up a bit, so making my bombe' boxes, one inspired by a wedding cake I saw with acqua and white coral, this box will have acqua underglaze on it with white coral, and then trying my birds in the marshes sketchy designs using a blue and white palette instead of the gold one.

Tisket tasket, love my new basket

I have always wanted to create a basket out of clay, one that looks like a real basket. Over 20 years ago, I bought this real basket

and have loved it. It is usually filled with plants (with a plastic bag liner), but it is getting very tired and some of the basket material is deteriorating. So I used this basket as inspiration for a clay basket, it is now complete and is drying. I am going to love it and have some other basket projects in mind now.

One of my favorite recent things

Here is a photo of a box I made inspired by a painting I saw on the net "somewhere" I loved that painting and have no idea who painted it, but wanted to use it as inspiration to try out a new technique and make a box with that imagery. Of course, my latest items are always my favorites, but this little box did turn out exactly as planned and sometimes that is not always the case. I put it for sale in the recent art show and sold it that night. So now only my photos of it remain.

The lady that bought it seemed to love it as much as I did and she actually bought three of my items and I kept seeing her look at it as she walked around and could tell she was so pleased with her purchases. Actually, I am glad she is the one who bought it. She also bought the indigo batik box I showed here:

Cameron Art Museum Art of the State/State of the Art Exhibit

What an exciting event! I was happy to be able to place one of my pieces in this exhibit:

I also uploaded tons of video taken after my volunteer shift on Saturday morning. Lots of amazing art here, urge all who visit Wilmington, NC between now and October to check it out.