I know it's not really spring yet, but this week has brought blue skies and at least one 70 degree day, and all the bulb flowers are sending up shoots. I'm even seeing a few blooms. I've been getting outside more, taking Maddy for walks and to the park when it was warm enough.
I finally finished painting the backs of all 4 pendants. I gotta get faster at these! I just procrastinate so much when it comes to painting surfaces. I doubt myself. I know that the more I paint, the better I'll be, but when I know I'm sending something to someone, I want it to come out perfect, and I always feel like I could have done better. Oh well. I am pretty happy with these over all.
I bought a respirator, and I did a second shellac resist bottle on Wednesday, then painted it with blue engobe. Wish it luck!
Finally, one more altered bowl. It still needs handles, but I did a split scalloped rim on this one taken from Gary Jackson's blog. He does lovely things to finish his forms. *sigh*
My husband joined a weight loss challenge at work, and I've been wanting to eat healthier, so I'm joining him in trying to eat better and exercise more. The nice weather outside has given me a nice boost, so I'm kind of excited about it. Plus, I have an iPhone, so I got two nifty apps to spur me on - Endomondo, which is a GPS fitness tracker I use to track my walks, and The Eatery, which is a social food diary app. I take pictures of everything I eat and drink, without counting calories, and people can rate how healthy my meals are. It definitely makes me think about what I eat, and I'm less likely to grab quick junk knowing it's going on my permanent record;) I'm only on my third day, but it's been nice eating regularly, and making food for myself that I can share with maddy because it's healthy. I sit down with her in the morning and we share breakfast, which is really nice.
Tonight is Stephen Wolochowicz's closing reception, so pics to come! I'm looking forward to his slide lecture tonight, and his workshop tomorrow. Gotta see how he makes those forms!
I'm doing two demos in class this week - one is altering your thrown forms using tools, and the other is using shellac resist on greenware.
Lori Watts of Fine Mess Pottery had this post on how she made an altered serving bowl. I wanted to show my students how they could use things like CDs and cut up credit cards as tools for shaping and adding interest and texture to their pieces, so I cut a wavy pattern in the side of a card to make the ripples on the outside of my bowl. Check out the blog post to see how she made her bowl, it's much nicer than mine. I love it when potters use darts in their work! I know that making pottery that looks like fabric is a big trend right now, but there's a reason for it - it looks so awesome!
Darted bowl
Side view
Really does look like a woman's top, doesn't it?
Here's a little bowl that I shaped on the inside with a CD to make it perfectly round, then combed texture on the outside and warped the shape.
Combed texture on the outside, and changing the shape with my fingers and wooden tools.
Top view
Here's a bottle I decorated with Jim Gottuso's shellac resist technique. (Jim's blog Sofia's Dad's Pots was featured on here a couple weeks ago.) The shellac protects the clay you want to stay in place, and then you wipe down the piece with a really wet sponge to wash away layers of clay. You can end up with really delicate raised patterns on your surface if you take your time. Once again, the master's work is so much nicer than my attempt. But it's a very cool technique. Click the image of his bowl for in depth instructions on how to try this yourself.
Painting on layers of shellac.
My finished bottle. Needs some blue engobe, I think.
One thing I learned - you absolutely need to wear a respirator or mask while using the shellac. I did not bother, even though it was right there in the instructions. The fumes made me feel very ill, and I still feel a little sick today. So do as I say and not as I do, kids!
How about you? Do you have a favorite tool or technique that you use in your work?
I have a dear friend from back home who recently asked me if I'd be willing to create some jewelry to sell in her Aunt's shop. I had been toying with the idea of making some porcelain jewelry, but I wasn't sure how to go about it. I wasn't sure what kind of things she'd want for the shop, but happily she asked me to run with it and make things similar to my drawings and sculptures and things.
I decided to start simple, just to get my feet wet. I made 4 little circles to use as mini canvases, and painted some faces on them. I was really inspired by a video on Ceramic Arts Daily about monoprint transfer on clay. Even though it's meant to be a process for clay slabs, it was a really good painting tutorial too, because you get to see her build up her colors and highlights. She started with a red and a yellow color background, and I loved seeing the way the painting build-up was affected by the different colored base. Definitely worth a watch. I started each of my four faces with a different color to build up from, and then played with color based on the background.
I had a lot of fun with these, and I'm really happy with how they turned out. Making mini paintings lets me play with design and color on a small scale, and fully develop the painting in a short amount of time (like a couple of baby naps!) It's really lovely to sit down in the morning and have a cup of coffee and paint. I'll definitely be experimenting more with jewelry designs, and figuring out ways to make cool things that still look like something I would make. I hope you enjoyed seeing the painting process on these. To be continued!
I checked the Freecycle email digest this morning and two things caught my eye - 2 working HP laser jet printers, and an upright piano. Now, before you think I'm some kind of crazy horder, both of these items are of particular interest to me. HP laser printers are the best brand of laser printer for doing ceramic toner decals as far as i know (some brands will not work for this process) and I've been wanting to do a decal workshop at the studio. Score! I think the toner cartridges for these printers have been discontinued, but both printers apparently work, and one just had a new cartridge installed. Even if they won't work eventually, we'll get a lot of use out of them until then. I definitely wouldn't mind doing some more decal work myself. A new printer for the studio, and one for me! If you're interested in the laser decal process (maybe someone's getting rid of an HP printer near you?) check out this Justin Rothshank video on the process on Ceramic Arts Daily here.
As for the piano, I was just bemoaning the fact that we'd never be able afford one, and how my family had an upright when I was growing up. My husband and I both love music, and we're really hoping that Maddy can take music lessons one day. I always wanted to learn piano, and both my parents played, but they could never afford lessons for me. Anyway, I just couldn't pass up a free piano, so hopefully we'll be picking it up tomorrow. Then look out for lots of video of Maddy tickling the ivories (or more likely banging them). I just got all nostalgic thinking about playing Chopsticks and Heart and Soul with my Dad, and trying to play Christmas carols for the family on Christmas eve. I hope Maddy likes playing with the piano as much as I did. I get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it:)
So yeah, I'm addicted to Freecycle. I think it's official.
I unloaded the bisque today, but I forgot to take pics. My plates look good, my test bird has weird bubbling on one color, and my copper stained cone house has a really uneven application of stain, so I may fire it again. I'll snap some pics when I go in to glaze this weekend.
Also, look at this crazy hail we got today! Just for 10-15 minutes tops, and then it stopped. Some of the hail was as big as shooter marbles. It was incredibly loud! I guess that was winter's last gasp. Now it's kinda warm and muggy outside.
Crazy hail
Our front porch
The yard. It almost looks like snow from far away. Can't believe it covered the ground so quickly!
Got a bisque kiln started yesterday morning. I only have a few pieces in it, but I'm eager to get them finished. My underglaze test bird is in there, with my little cone house and my two plates. There was some pretty cool stuff going in. Can't wait to see it all done!
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