These turned out sooooo cute! I used the Christmas in July Mystery Box Cutters from De La Designs. Debi did a demo on Clayshare, but also provides step by step pictures on her web site. Making these was time consuming, but not actually hard. I can't wait to make a few more. I used the Gingerbread and Traditional house cutters. In this first go round I kept them separate, but I think in future iterations I might mix them.

I ended up making the gingerbread a luminary and left the traditional as a cookie jar.

I cannot look at this tree and not see Dr. Seuss characters winding around it. It's made by smooshing balls of clay onto it.

Ironically one of my snowmen "melted". I noticed him leaning and it was a cute lean, but one morning I came into the studio and he was on the floor. Sad. I did do something a bit different than I've done before - I let the pieces setup overnight prior to attaching them. I find that the bottom pumpkin can't handle the weight when its too wet and this clay was very wet. The baby snowman is because I had extra clay and so I cut 3 more of the smallest ones. I was going to make pumpkins, but then the baby snowman popped into my head.




This is how they look as they setup overnight.




I might try making some in laguna 60 with the intent of glazing them with snow. I love how the speckles come through on other things and I think it would work here.

Is it time for trees already? I need to make a few of these and they take so long that it is! I started by sitting and making just a lot of leaves. I think I made 40-45 of each size. That's more than I need for one tree, but less than is likely needed for two. It's not an exact science because the leaves don't go on the same way twice. I have a tv in my studio so I just sat for like an hour and made leaves.




Next I put clay around the form. It's important to have paper under there so you can take it off the form later and it still has something helping it stay in shape. The smoothing doesn't need to be perfect because it will be covered with leaves.




I start by putting leaves on the bottom and then add rows going up to the top.




Adding the leaves is actually a fairly quick process if you've made them all first. Probably only takes 20 minutes to add them all and shape it. I will let it setup under plastic for a bit before taking it off the form. I find if I take it off too soon the bottom sags a bit.

We were up at the cabin last week and the lily pads were in full bloom. You might remember last year I sent my husband out on the canoe to get them for me, but this year I have a new kayak/paddleboard and was able to do it myself. I probably looked ridiculous to anyone watching. It's a sit on top and it's really stable because it's meant to be both a kayak and a paddleboard. So I would pick the lily pad that I wanted and steer myself towards it. Then I'd put my foot in the water and try to catch the stem between my toes. The smaller ones I could break with just my foot, the larger ones I'd have to pass from foot to hand and pull hard. Again, I probably looked ridiculous, but it got the job done.

I've learned from the past that I need to use the lily pads within a couple of days (and to keep them sealed in the refrigerator). I made a few different plates and platters. These lily pads were definitely more brittle than some of the ones in the past and only a few were reusable. The rest were torn to pieces to pull them off.




I used a mixture of 50/50 iron oxide and gerstley borate on this bowl. I know that I'm going to love the look when it comes out of the kiln, but this is soooo messy. Iron oxide just gets on everything and has to be wiped down multiple times. This is why I don't use it more often.

One other thing - I was careful to not put the water I was using from this back into my Cink. Last year I put the water in and within a couple of weeks the water stunk so bad. It was also so very gross when I cleaned out all the traps.

I decided I wanted to try some texture on a few of the ornaments I made last week. The first one I tried carving, but it was a little too thin in areas. Then I remembered my DiamondCore Tools Impression Set that I bought a couple of months ago and haven't had the time to try out.

I had a bit of a learning curve figuring out how to make things symetrical one a shape that isn't the same diameter at any given spot, but I like how they came out and I think that the glaze will go a long way to hide some of the imperfections that I'm probably the only one who can see anyway. I need to use these stamps more, it's amazing how easily they all fit together and create patterns.