Handmade Promenade recap

I was going to do a blog post about the craft fair this past weekend, but my friend Erin at eef-ink went and did all the work for me (even recounting the amusing anecdote about the drunk guy who gave me money! Hah! Drunk guys.) So go check it out, so that I don't have to do any more work.

Eef ink - Handmade Promenade

A Spoon with a View

You may remember a while back (though probably not - who reads this thing, anyway) that I posted a link to Jeanette Zeis's spoon tutorial, and that I tried making some spoons of my own. Those spoons did not turn out well, but I made some more, and I just got them out of the kiln this past weekend. I must say, I'm pretty pleased with them.

 I did a little bowl, too. I did a couple, actually, but the other one cracked, unfortunately. Maybe I'll take a pic of it later, as the drawing is pretty awesome. At least I get to keep it now:)

Has anyone else tried making ceramic spoons? I'm dying to see more of them! I think this could become an obsession...

I have a new fan.

I did a mini craft fair on Friday. I didn't remember to bring a camera, so I don't have any pics of that. But I did get this video of Maddy flipping out over my pottery. She was on the floor getting some tummy time while I was packing up, and started rolling towards the brightly colored pots. Unfortunately, I couldn't get her to roll over on camera, but she does squeal rather adorably.

Think she'll grow up to be a potter?

So one day I swear I'll have better pics.

I just finished my second week of teaching for the new session at Beech Grove Clay Works. Woohoo, I'm the official artist in residence now!  I went to the library and Half Price Books and got a ton of ceramics books, including a huge glaze recipe book, and a book on handmade tiles. I've got plans to do a ton of glaze testing! I am determined to get the perfect pink glaze, as well as some nice copper blue glazes. I will be sure to share my results as I go!

My first week, I taught some basic slab building projects - footed and paddled cups with and without a handle, with white slip and sgraffito surface decoration (totally Ayumi Horie inspired - but I talk about her to the students so much, it was inevitable that I'd demo her technique. I ♥ her work!) This week, I did basic wheel throwing, focusing on wedging and centering techniques, and throwing a simple bowl. It's going pretty well so far, and the students all seem to be enjoying themselves. Also, my mother-in-law signed up for the class, and while she had absolutely no patience for the wheel, we are working on doing a tile project together for the kitchen. I'm pretty excited about it! It's also nice getting to make work for myself that I can also use as a demo. A friend of mine wants a large cookie jar, so that was my demo for the more advanced wheel throwing students. It feels so good to get so much work done!

I know you're probably tired of seeing crappy cell phone pics of everything. I know I am, especially since I have a fairly decent digital camera that I just never remember to bring to the studio. I fully intend to take some real slides of my work this week, because I am inspired by my twitter friend's blog post about photographing her ceramics. Check it out, her pics look great!

Kitchen stuff, and lookit this BABY!

Since I've had cooking on the brain lately, I've been making more and more functional items for use in the kitchen. Last week I decided to try my hand at making spoons, and a couple months ago I made some mortar and pestles, so I'm thinking of making more. I've also been invited to participate in a teapot show, so I've been trying my hand at teapots, with varying success. I tried to make two teapots, but the second one dried before I could attach a spout and handle. I decided it would make a nice garlic keeper instead, and since it was still leatherhard, it was perfect for doing some incised line drawing.

I really enjoyed making the spoons! I'm still deciding whether I want to try Jeanette Zeis's method of making bisque molds, or whether it's easier to just form them all by hand. They were fun to make, and I used various techniques to make them, finally settling on pinching a tiny bowl on one end of a fat carrot-shaped piece of clay, and then pulling a handle on the other end. I like the variety of spoon shapes I got out of trying different things. They also make great little surfaces for doodling! I don't know why, but drawing on tiny things is so much easier than on a larger piece. I guess there's less blank space to stress over, and you can work quickly while your ideas are still fresh. You also haven't invested a ton of time in making them, so if you don't like what you've done, you can quickly make new ones.

I think I'd like to do something different with the surfaces in the future, but these were fun to play around with. I'll definitely be making more of them. These are probably going in the kiln tonight, so I'll let you know how they turn out.

Btw, the baby girl is 4 months old now! Here is her impersonation of a nerd.

Nerd baby!

And here's her impersonation of a starfish.

Pretty dang cute, huh?

Ceramic Spooooooons

So cute!

I just had to share this awesome tutorial from Jeanette Zeis's blog on how to make ceramic spoons. These spoons are fantastic! I will definitely be trying this in the next week or two, and I'll share my results. If anyone else makes ceramic spoons, I'd love to see yours too. Thanks, Jeanette!

New things, and glaze issues

Here's some crappy cell phone pics. Real, honest to god pics to come. Honest.

I'm pretty pleased with my test tile birds. I may continue to use bird forms for testing glazes. They're quick and easy to make, have nice texture from the serrated rib, and now I have extra quick sell things for upcoming art fairs.

(Ceramic tech geek stuff to follow. If you're not a ceramicist, this is the boring part. You can skip it.)

All the pink glazed stuff got messed up. The glaze crawled like crazy on the inside. I wonder why that keeps happening? I applied the glazes all the same way, pouring them on the inside of the cup, and brushing the outside. The blue and aqua glazes are fine, but the pink keeps crawling. I'm thinking I either need to thin the glaze, or just brush on the interior from now on. I also read that tin and zinc oxide in a glaze can make it more likely to crawl. I wonder whether the Amaco Pink has either in it? Don't both act as opacifiers and whiteners? I'm guessing they needed some sort of white to make that particular pink shade. (Just looked up glaze colorants, and tin oxide is used in chrome tin pink stains. Aha!)

Does anyone know whether there's anyway to fix a glaze that's crawled? I'm debating whether to sell them as seconds, or to put a layer of clear on and refire them, in the hopes that the glaze with settle down. Any advice would be appreciated.