Tiki Time

Here is a better picture of my tiki cups. I just listed a few on etsy.

eARTh Bowls

My eARTh bowls are fresh from the kiln. I am really happy with these. I created them especially for the Mother Earth show at Eclectics Gallery The scraffito process is pretty time-consuming, but I really enjoy it and will definitely be doing more. These bowls are made of porcelain in blue and green. They are now available in my etsy shop.

Tiki Tiki Love

Woohoo! My first batch of tikis are fresh from the kiln. I am so happy with the results. This picture is really bad, but I couldn't wait for the light to be right to set up my photo booth. There are 12 in this batch, with a few more waiting to be fired. I blogged about the process of making these a while back. If you read that post then you know my original cups were handbuilt. I made a few that way, but discovered that I can make them much faster on the wheel. Plus, the wheelthrown cups have the groovy swirl in the bottom. Watch for some better photos later. Plus, my eARTh bowls and my test tumblers look great. More on that tomorrow too!

A Peek in the Kiln and Some eARTh Bowls

I took a quick peek in the kiln, 600 degrees, much too hot to unload. My tiki cups and eARTh bowls look oh so good. I am sure I will sell all that I can make. I threw and slipped another 16 bowls to carve tomorrow. If I get home this evening and have time I will post the work fresh from the kiln. Tomorrow I will be adding some of these items to my etsy shop.

Glazing Test Tumblers

I have a bunch of commercial glazes. Some of them I have used before, but I don't remember what they look like. I thought I would try keeping track of glaze tests with my flickr account. I have ten different tumblers and ten different glazes. Hopefully I will keep them in order and be able to refer to the photo later.

When I glaze I prefer to dip or pour. Sometimes this is hard to do when you only have a pint of glaze. Also, when glazing cups I like to glaze the inside in one color and the outside in another and I don't want the rim of the cup to touch anything while I glaze. After the inside glaze has dried I use this little stand I made from a coat hanger to hold the cup up in the air and keep the rim free. I hold the cup by the bottom with my left hand and turn the cup and the turntable while pouring the glaze. I touch up the rim with a paintbrush and pour the glaze into the bowl. When the glaze is dry, I remove the cup from the stand and dip the rim in the bowl and pour the glaze back into the pint. I don't know if this is the most efficient method, but it is working for me.

My last bisque fire included my eARTh bowls, the wall pockets, these tumbers and some little trays and coasters. I have most of this stuff glazed and will be firing as much as my kiln will hold tomorrow. I am also hoping to fit my glazed tiki cups into this load.

Wall Vases

I made these little wall vases yesterday. I am hoping they will be dry enough for a bisque firing this weekend. I know they look like ice cream cones now, but I am hoping they will be pretty when they are done. I have been working on adding texture to my pots. It's hard to tell in the picture, but these vases are covered in stamps. Some of the stamps I made myself, some I bought, and one is a tiny lawnmower from my daughter's playmobil collection. After they are fired I will add some ribbon for hanging and take some to Eclectics and post some in my etsy shop.

Love Child Bowls Now Available in Two Sizes

I had a set of these Love Child dog bowls listed on my etsy site. They were for a tiny dog like mine, about 4-5 pounds. I received a request for larger bowls so I made the set pictured above. I got them finished really quickly and was so pleased with myself, then I read the custom order request and figured out they were about 2 inches too small, oops. I made another set and shipped them off and now I have these listed for sale. I am thinking they would be just right for a 10 - 15 pound dog. They hold about 1 1/2 cups and are as cute as can be.

eARTh Bowls are Easy

I am working on a little something for the "Mother Earth" show at Eclectics. I threw these bowls yesterday and brushed black slip on them. This morning I trimmed the feet and now I am carving through the slip to create the little earth art. They will get a bisque fire and a clear glaze and I will probably glaze the outsides in greens and blues. I really like this scraffito technique and I will definitely do more.

The "Mother Earth" show is April 24th 5:00-8:00. Please stop by if you are able. If you follow my blog, you know I have been working on tiki cups for the "Tiki Tea" in July but I still need a project for "Bella Luna" in October.

New Leaf Bowl

I have been busy taking photos of my last firing. It is a beautiful sunny day so I moved my setup outside. Overall I am pretty happy with this firing. I have still having some pinholing in a couple of glazes that have always been reliable. I haven't made any changes in my firing so I don't know what the problem is. Anyway, here is one of my new bowls. It is available for sale in my shop

Etsy Treasury

My red basket was featured in this pretty "Spring is Coming" treasury today on etsy. This treasury was put together by LilithEvy who makes really great paper items. I do love a girl who loves color!

Tulip Tile Press Mold

Yesterday I made a press mold of one of my favorite tile designs, three tulips. Above is my scale drawing, clay slabs and other tools. I will transfer the drawing to the clay with a needle tool and a stylus then carve with an exacto and remove the top layer of clay.

Here is the tile with the top slab of clay removed. I still need to touch it up and add the detail.

This is the coddle I will use to create the mold. I will seal the frame with clay, apply soap mold to the wood, insert my carved tile and cover with plaster.

This is the finished press mold removed from the coddle. I can't wait to press some tiles.

Finished Broomstick Feet

I posted about these tumblers with broomsticked feet a while back. Here they are all finished. I love the feet, love the leaf stamping, love the glaze, especially around the lip.

More Tea Bowls

Here are the rest of the tea bowls from yesterday's firing. I used a variety of glazes because I wasn't sure which ones would look best on these cups. The picture doesn't really show them off too well. If you click to zoom in on the picture you can see them better. Please let me know which glaze you like best.

Fired Tea Bowls with Slip

I fired my first ever tea bowls, which were also my first experiement with colored slip and mason stains. I blogged about them here. I think working with slip shows promise, a lot of promise, in fact I really, really liked working with it on my wet pots and I will definitely do more. I was pleased to see that the black slip actually fired to black. I wasn't sure if it would considereing my casual, non-calculated method of mixing. I do need to work on application though, the sponging left a texture I really wasn't looking for. I will try brushing next time. After I bisqued the slipped cups, I added a touch of green, dipped them in a transparent cream glaze and fired them again. I have lots of great pots from yesterday's firing, plus a few accidents. I will post more later.