Once I made the chicken it got me thinking about crabs. I wasn't sure if it would work and I'm still worried I'm going to break something, but how cute is this crab! I'm also making some cut outs of fish and shells to hang below it.
Last year at retreat we made a chicken. It got me to thinking - what about a chicken scu? The feet will hang below it. I can't help but smile when I look at this guy.
This ghost roller is from De La Designs. As I was getting creative this weekend I felt like I wanted to try it in clay (I bought it after Halloween last year).
The thumb rest felt like it needed a face.
Frederick Festival of the Arts is this weekend June 7th and 8th. This is my first time doing this show, but I think it's going to be amazing. If you live out near Western Maryland I hope to see you there!!
It's easily been 2 months since I had the chance to play with clay. As it worked out we didn't end up doing any clay projects at retreat this year. This was my first weekend since March that I had time to spend making.
Even though I have a list and a plan, I went a bit off script and made some new things. Still have some cleanup to do on the rims.
The rose plates came out so amazing that I decided to try out making a rose mug.
I haven't used this mountain roller in forever, but I love it.
Last weekend we were at the cabin. On the way we saw an amazing double rainbow in PA.
We were also visited by a giant porcupine who climbs way faster than I would have imagined.
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Last, but certainly not least - RAKU! We did four different raku projects. The saggar is definitely my favorite, followed closely by the naked raku. However, I love all of them.
First up the regular raku. We taped off our pieces and used 4 different raku glazes.
How gorgeous did this turn out? There is a tiny crack in the rim, but it's still amazing.
I glazed just inside the rim too.
Next up is the saggar. This is just yellow underglaze that was burnished. It's wrapped in copper, steel wool, and some yarn that I had.
This is the saggar container that was used in the kiln with a small kiln shelf top.
There were organics put into the chamber. Heather and I ate 5 bananas to put peels in. The pots were then stacked on each other, mine is the top left.
I can't get over the colors! The yarn acted a bit as a resist.
The other side looks completely different.
Next up is the naked raku. The pots were heated up and then dipped in slip. Then they were put back into the kiln with the slip casing.
When they came out they were put into garbage cans to reduce. The black is where the smoke went through the cracks in the slip.
Last, but not least, is the horse hair raku. This vase was normal white stoneware that was glazed with tera cotta engobe and Mayco milk glass.
When it came out of the kiln I had about 30 seconds to add the horse hair before the pot cooled.
Next up a spooky plate and a flower pot.
I really love this plate. I have a lot of ideas for this technique. This was done with Duncan EZ Strokes. The background and the lines were banded on. The trees and birds were hand painted.
Here is all of our plates laid out (mine is top left).
I've gotten much better at banding than I was when Michael first introduced me to it a few years ago. I do wish I had waited a few minutes more for the flecks to dry so it wouldn't have smeared, but I love this plate!
This flower pot was interesting, but not really my style. The flowers are done with Mayco's new snow gems. They puff up in the kiln and provide 3D texture. I'm just not feeling this design, but I do like the idea of getting some flower pots and glazing them for my garden.
It's May again and that means it was time for another workshop with Michael Harbridge. This year we focused entirely on glaze projects. First up is swirling. We did four different ways of swirling.
This first project used Mayco's rapid roll as a base and then a few different colors of stroke and coat.
The rapid roll is the cream is base color. We ran a brush end through the glaze and then dipped the mushroom top in it.
The bottom was done with a clear crackle glaze and then filled in with black Duncan EZ Stroke
This plate was done with the black and white rapid roll. We squirted it on and moved the plate around to get the swirls.
How gorgeous did this one turn out?
This next plate used Duncan thin and shade and then squeezed on stroke and coats. It was then raked through with a brush. My first attempt did not work out and I rinsed it off and started over. This one turned out much better.
This totally reminds me of 80s spin art.
This last swirly project was the messiest of the four. We used Mayco acrylic paints. Since it's 3D it was just a lot of dripping. In retrospect we should have done this outside.
How pretty is my little birdy?
I've had wind at shows before, but the wind last weekend was next level. When I got to the show there was already a decent amount of wind. I had brought the extra weight to have 40+ pounds on each leg. I setup the tent and proceeded to start setting up the rest of things.
The wind then proceeded to pick up. I had hung both of my signs, but the wind was wipping them around. I was worried they were going to hit the pots so I took those down. The weight was enough for my tent to not move, but the wind was so strong that I could see it bending. I started imagining the tent permanently bending so I got a couple of my neighbors to help me carefully move the tent into the street so we could take it down.
It was not long after that when I heard a crash. The wind was strong enough to push a platter off of one of my stands. I then proceeded to take all the plates off the stands and lay them flat. Next a price marker was blown down. They are solid enough that they don't break, but they can take out other things so I taped them all down.
The rest of the show I was worried that either the shelves or the crates would blow over. While both moved in the wind, they didn't seem like they were in real danger of tippng over.
It was an intensely stressful day and I was glad to pack up. I was, however, exhausted. The wind was not done with me. I wanted to pack up quickly so I picked up two bins and the wind took the moment to gust and one of the bins flipped over. I lost two soup mugs and three bowls. I had a few more bowls that managed to survive so not everything in the bin was a total lost. Still very frustrating though.
I did decently for the day, but that was way more stressful than when it just rains a bit.
How is it the end of April? I feel like I blinked and the month is now over. I did something with this kiln that I had never done before - I started to load it and then just ran out of time. It was 2 weeks before I could come back and glaze again so by the time I ran it, I had actually forgotten what all was in there. There's some really fun items in here.
Alien mugs and tree of life spoon rests in new colors which is fun. My test mugs using my mugg pluggs have come out. I really like the shape and feel of these. I need to remember to see how many ounces they hold.
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