clay

Doing Some Carving

March 18, 2024

It's been forever since I carved. Did a few this weekend and hit them at the exact right texture.

This first one is an is an idea I had for a giant sunflower. Doing Some Carving


Some smaller sunflowers

Doing Some Carving


Amazing job right? Ok I didn't carve this, this is lace. I'm having a lace moment

Doing Some Carving




clay

Calla Lily Candle Holders

March 14, 2024

I neglected to post these earlier in the week. I've been spending a lot of time tediously migrating photos off of Google so it feels like I'm spending a lot of time blogging, but in fact I'm not. I have to edit each post by hand. It's not that hard to do the posts with only 1-2 pictures, but all the posts with the kiln results take about 20 minutes each. I'm only in November of 2023, but I will keep trucking along. In the mean time I made a batch of calla lily candle holders this week. These are one of my favorite things to make and something which I get a ton of people who come into my booth at shows to look at them. I love calla lilies and saw something that inspired me to go make these. While I made a template for these, each one is intentionally unique as I shape it into its own flower. Calla Lily Candle Holders




Calla Lily Candle Holders




Calla Lily Candle Holders




clay

Calla Lily Not a Menorah

March 05, 2024

I had this idea in my head for a menoray made of calla lillies. I rolled out all the clay, including cutting out the base. Then I went to attatch things and realized - the base was way too small. So now I have a candle holder for skinny candles that is NOT a menorah. I'm going with it because I think it's still really cool looking, but I will need to make this again with a longer base as an actual menorah. Menorah




clay

Ring Holders

February 15, 2024

I get asked all the time if my gnomes are ring holders. I thought I would try to make a few with that purpose. They are mostly the same as my normal gnomes except the hats are much straighter. I don't know why I added the bird other than I thought it looked really cute. I made one as just a ring holder without a gnome body. I like the simplicity of that one too.

Ring Holders




clay

Wine Gnomes

February 13, 2024

A lot of people don't realize the time it takes to finish pieces. Generally I need 3 days in a row where I can work on pieces before I just leave them to dry. For mugs, cups, bowls, etc. that is.2 days in a row and then a third day a few days later when the rim is solid. I've been traveling a lot for work so it's made working on things difficult. Last week I put all my mugs, shot glasses, and the two wine goblets into my dry box to keep them soft enough that I could finish the rims.


This week I ended up getting home on Friday, but I was so tired that I did not make any pottery. I flew right back out early Monday morning so I didn't really have the time at home to make a lot of things. I really felt like making something though so I made some wine gnomes. These will eventually get glued onto corks.

All gnomes start as a couple of different pieces. I like to get the bodies, hats and noses made in batches as you see here. Then as I pick up each body, I decide which hat and which nose fits that body. Then each one gets a custom face. Wine Gnomes




Wine Gnomes




Wine Gnomes




Wine Gnomes




Wine Gnomes




clay

Wine Cups

February 12, 2024

I saw these glasses while watching the latest season of The Orville. They were conical on the top and cylindrical on the bottom. These are my first attempts at making them in clay. They leave a little to be desired.

I made this one first. It is the same top as a mug that I tried out from a class I took recently. I think the bottom this one is both too tall and too straight. I feel like asthetically the two pieces don't go together well. I carved in the lavender on the bottom and that actually helped make it more cohesive. Wine Cups




Initially I thought the problem was that the bottom was too tall for the top. It wasn't until later that I realized that there was a shape issue. When I realized the shape issue I flared out the bottom. Instead of carving this one my plan is to make the bottom a solid color (Lavender Mist) and see if that balances it out. More on this concept to come.

Wine Cups




clay

Texture Shot Glasses

February 08, 2024

I mentioned earlier in the week the class that I have been taking. There's been a lot of focus on texture in that class. In the class we were shown how the texture can just be joined together. I'm finding that in my work I either don't want a seam at all (like in the lavender earlier this week) or I want to accentuate the seam like I've done here. I'm learning a lot, but also finding my style. January was a really busy month for work so I'm really behind on the class, but finding time to catch up and experiment now. Texture Shot Glasses




clay

Playing with Lavender

February 06, 2024

I had saved the last of the lavender from my garden last year. Threw it in a baggy in the freezer. It only took 10 minutes or so for it to thaw out enough to use. Lavender is pretty hearty when it comes to pressing it into clay. I made some of my normal mug size for this. The fun thing about the lavender is that even though I'm using the same 12 or so pieces - I never put them down exactly the same so each piece is unique. Playing with Lavender




I've been taking a virtual cups class in January and got this cute little shot glass template from it. It's the reverse of most shot glasses since it has a larger base, but I think it's going to be really sweet. With the lavender on it I think it could also be a really sweet tiny bud vase.

Playing with Lavender




Also from the cups class comes this new truncated cone mug shape. I only made a couple because I'm worried its a little tippy. Going to see how the finished product comes out and decide whether I modify it any. I have an idea for a wine/drink cup that has this shape on the top and then a cone bottom. I'm experimenting now to get the right shape. Playing with Lavender




clay

Ginko Tray

February 05, 2024

When I was dropping items off last fall at the Carrol County Gallery of Gifts I picked up a handful of ginko leaves. Literally picked them up off the ground. We don't have any ginko near me that I'm aware of, but the street there was lined with them. I put them in a baggy in the fridge when I got home intending to use them "soon."

Ginko Tray




Well, time got away from me. This weekend when I pulled the leaves out they had dried out. Still usable, but now one time use vs being able to use them again. The leaves provided a nice texture, but were not easy to get off the platter. I ended up using tweezers and still didn't get all the pieces off. They will burn off in the bisque kiln.

Ginko Tray




I'm still thinking on how to glaze this. I think I want the leaves to be the golden color from when they fall, but I don't think I have a glaze that's that color golden that will keep the fine line detail from the leaf texture. Maybe I'll go opposite and leave the leaves and do the gold around. Any suggestions?

Ginko Tray




clay

Cleaning Dies

February 03, 2024

No one tells you how difficult it is to clean a hollow die. When it comes out you can barely even see the metal.

Cleaning Dies




clay

Extruded Vases

February 01, 2024

The extruder is fun. The teeth on this one make it so that I'm never exerting too much force. I saw videos of people who are like standing on the wall and still struggling. This isn't no effort, but it is somewhat light effort to get things through.

I made all of these into vases by cutting a bottom and adding it on. I'll get fancier as I experiment more.

This reminds me of the symbol from the TV show Charmed, but I think it will make a really cool bud vase. Extruded Vases


This die is like a giant noodle. I think it's going to look awesome with a glaze that breaks.

Extruded Vases


This one came out with some personality

Extruded Vases


There's something about a hexagon. I think this shape might make a really nice size mug.

Extruded Vases




clay

New Crab Bowl Shape

January 27, 2024

I love the bowls that I make and how big they are, but they don't stack very well. I wanted to play with some stackable bowls. I made 4 blank and 4 crab. This is the last crab one I made that I feel like came out the best. I've gotten really good at mug shapes, but definitely struggle more with bowls. This one is interesting because the diameter of the top and bottom are much different. I still have to clean up the rim once it's leather hard. New Crab Bowl Shape




clay

New Flat Vase Forms

January 25, 2024

I bought a set of these molds for myself over the holidays. There's no texture on them now because I want to play with glaze techniques later. These two vases are the small and the medium, haven't had a chance to make the large yet.

I feel like I'm getting better at smoothing the clay in the puzzling molds. New Flat Vase Forms




New Flat Vase Forms




clay

Up Up and Away

January 23, 2024

I got these balloon stamps not too long after my hot air balloon ride. This fall was such a whirlwind that I didn't get a chance to use them. I wanted to make them a bit 3D. I'm hoping the baloons really pop with the glaze.

Making my way through all the blog posts. I've got a routine down to fix all the pages, but there are just so many that it takes a long time. I am going to cry if Google breaks this too at some point. I'm travelling for work for the next few days so my progress will likely slow. Up Up and Away




clay

Tree of Life New Texture & Broken Images Update

January 22, 2024

I found a feasible work around for the broken images where I don't have to migrate everything. I'm hoping that Google won't break this as well, but they've been rather close lipped about it so who knows. The process isn't hard this way - copy the code, paste into word, find and replace, copy, paste back, and then publish. I fixed all the glaze pages this morning. The blog pages will take more time, I have almost 500 blog posts - how did that happen?!

When I was looking at the reindeer mold this tree popped up and I wanted to try it out. What I coudln't see in the picture on Amazon is that there are non-colored dots outside of the tree. I'm also not sure if the texture is deep enough. It doesn't help that I over corn starched a bit. I will keep you posted how this comes out (if it comes out). Tree of Life New Texture & Broken Images Update




Tree of Life New Texture & Broken Images Update




clay

Squiggle Luminaries - Still working on what to do about the broken images

January 19, 2024

I've found a couple of work arounds for the broken images, but I'm not really happy with any of them. Also I have nearly 500 posts and pages and updating every one individually is a daunting task. Google suggested a work around using a slightly different format for linking than I've used in the past. I tried it out on my post on the reindeer ornament and while it works, it looks terrible. It makes it look like all the photos are slightly out of focus.

The other alternative I've found is uploading directly in Blogger which is the tool that I use to host this web site. It works and it's what I'm using for the photo below, but while uploading an image is fairly easy, it doesn't actually give me a way to manage photos. I also haven't found a way to upload more than one image at a time which would mean real slow going for fixing all previous posts. I've been looking into other photo hosting sites, but it seems like all of them almost act like social media sites posting your videos out to the community. Not that I think I produce things that people are going to want to steal on a daily basis, having them in that arena feels like it's more likely that people will take my photos and use them for another context.

I'm exhausted by this whole thing and I haven't even had to do any migration of photos yet. This all just feels like it should be simpler. sigh.

In other news I am still making things even though I haven't been posting. This is the first time I've used coils of Laguna 60. I kept putting off cleaning my handheld extruder becuase it felt difficult. I ended up buying a second extruder on sale during the holidays. Problem solved, no cleaning needed. Obviously having two large extruders would be cost prohibitive, but the handheld ones aren't that expensive.

I've been thinking about luminaries for a few weeks now so of course that's where I started. I made a few different shapes to decide which ones I like best. I also had an idea for a little luminary gnome that I tried out, but I put it on too tight and it did not make it off the cone. I am definitely going to try again. Squiggle Luminaries - Still working on what to do about the broken images




clay

Reindeer 3D Ornament

January 06, 2024

Update: I was trying out Google's work around for images on this post. It looks terrible, but I don't have a solid alternative yet. If you click on the individual images they should render and not look blurry. Apologies, and thank you for bearing with me while I figure this out.

Back in December I was searching for something on Amazon and they recommended this cute little silicone mold. I loved it, but I decided that it was too late to do anything for this year. I left it in my cart though and last week decided to buy it (and a few more texture items coming soon). I couldn't wait to try it out, but not working with a lot of silicone molds there was definitely a learning curve. Reindeer 3D Ornament


I started with a fairly wet piece of clay. I know enough about molds to know that dry clay would crack.

Reindeer 3D Ornament


As I was removing the clay I quickly realized that with the arms being separate that they needed to come out first since they are recessed. I set them aside and worked on the main body.

Reindeer 3D Ornament


I learned quickly to be gentle as I decapidated a couple of reindeers. Since this mold is a bit like a Y it definitely took figuring out how to loosen it without breaking off parts. I had to be very gentle.

Reindeer 3D Ornament


I also learned that leaving extra clay on the back beyond the seems meant that I'd have to do more shaping/cutting later.

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Reindeer 3D Ornament


It looks a little demented without arms.

Reindeer 3D Ornament


I tried two different arm attachments. I like them both. I might end up with a favorite once we get through the whole process, but I don't have one yet - do you?

Reindeer 3D Ornament


clay

Holly Tree

December 05, 2023

So while I should have been glazing, I was instead making. I made a holly tree. I love how it came out, but now it has to make it through the whole process. I used the cone and sphere molds from Learn Fired Arts as well as the holly leaves. Holly Tree




clay

I'm melting, melting......

November 21, 2023

My little squiggle snowmen were really popular so I decided to make a few more. I use a handheld extruder to make the coils. It saves tons of time and makes them really even. To make the snowmen I'm using two of the small puzzling molds from Learn Fired Arts. I only have one set so I can only make one at a time, but they're small so they are setup enough in about an hour to slip and score.

I will be crocheting little scarves and hats for these in various colors. I'm melting, melting......


I wasn't extruding anything else and I had enough coils left for just a head so I made a snowman who has melted. I can't look at this without giggling.

I'm melting, melting......


clay

Makings of a Leaf Globe

November 20, 2023

I've made a few of these now and each time it's precarious. The last time I tried to make one I took it out of the mold too soon and it collapsed. This time I will leave it longer to let it setup.

I learned this technique from Michael Harbridge. He has videos on how to do it on Facebook.

This is one of the most unique things I make and I always get great compliments when people see it at shows. Makings of a Leaf Globe


I start with making small balls that I then smoosh onto my bark texture bisque. I made the bark texture pressing it into a tree up at our property in Chaumont. The balls don't have to be perfect since they're getting smooshed. I make a few less than a dozen for the base of the globe.

Makings of a Leaf Globe


I make a few less than a dozen for the base of the globe.

Makings of a Leaf Globe


Next I start to make the leaves. I use a bunch of different types of leaves in the larger sizes. I probably end up making about 3 dozen or so to start, but always end up making a few to fill in the gaps once I start connecting them.

Makings of a Leaf Globe


I use my finger to join them together - no slip needed since this is very wet clay. If you can still see the joins (like you can here) then you're not done joining yet.

Makings of a Leaf Globe


The finished product looks awesome. I like to make the spaces where light can pass through as big as posible.

Makings of a Leaf Globe




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