Saturday, October 03, 2009

The Latest From The Studio...

I got 5 things glazed and ready to fire today. Given how ridiculous I get about glazing, this is nothing short of miraculous. Here they are on the glazing shelf. They should be in the kiln cooking away right now, so they might be done by Monday evening.



This is how my squirrel looked after the bisque fire. I'm pretty happy with him - I think the shading turned out pretty well. I used clear for the glaze to protect the underglaze and to water proof the vase.


I actually threw this mug in July, and it's been sitting on my shelf waiting for inspiration to hit with the glaze. I broke my previous record for glaze colors by using 14 different shades on this mug, all in greens, blues and purples. I love the shape and the handle, so I really hope the glaze turns out.


The sunflowers bowl is for my aunt for Christmas. This is how it looked after the bisque fire - so far, so good.


I tried something new - yay for experimentation! - by painting latex over the flowers, like so:


After it dried, I painted the bowl with espresso bean (which is brown that breaks black), peeled the latex off the flowers and then used clear glaze on the flowers. I'm a bit worried - I did another bowl with espresso bean and the blue band in the middle disappeared. If my sunflowers poof, I will not be happy - but I will hopefully have time to redo it before Christmas.

A friend visited the studio the other day and called this one a bathtub. There is a distinct resemblance.



While it was still soft, I pressed stamps into the sides and ends. After it dried, I painted it with the underglaze. The irony is that I've been looking for something to use the dancer people stamp on for a while, but I ended up being much more fond of the little zebras on each end. These pictures show it after the bisque fire. I decided to give the clear glaze in the bucket another try and dip glazed this. We shall see...




The fifth thing was not actually something that I threw. One of the other members was cleaning off her shelf and was going to throw it away, so I saved it. It's a low bowl, plate thing that I think will be perfect for holding a large pillar candle. I dipped it in the green blue that P and I purchased, then brushed the top with gun metal green and dripped archies base over that. Gun metal green runs, and so does archies base, so I'm hoping for cool designs in the glaze. Chris (who owns the studio with Shelley) says regularly that "it's a crap shoot!" and he's right, but I will remain hopeful.

I have 2 things ready for the next bisque fire, and I'm caught up so Monday evening will be spent on the wheel.

The finished things that I don't really have a use for in my house live on the mantle in my dining room. The mantle is getting full. If there's something I've done that you are particularly fond of, let me know. If it's on the shelf, it can probably become yours.