New Blog

The clay studio is set up and I have been doing some clay work but I've decided to officially retire. I no longer want to be packing and shipping pots. My focus in the studio will be to experiment with the ideas I've not yet had time to work on. And I hope to get busy in the sewing room with more than household necessities. But until I have more to share my posts will mostly be over at my new blog which chronicles our new native yard as it grows and matures, changes and adapts. There's always something new in the garden whether it be something blooming, butterflies or fascinating insects and the pond behind us attracts such gorgeous birds! 

First Glaze Firing Since 2016!

As I was working on mixing up glazes I ran out of frit 3134 so just did some tests of what I had made and glazed a few pieces. 

The test tiles starting from the right are Licorice, Bright Sky Blue and Variegated Blue, all from Mastering Cone 6 Glazes and I believe they may all be in John Britt's book as well. The far left is my mix of of the two blues. I'm torn as to which to choose for my new dishes as Var. Blue is a greenish gray and goes great with the green fabric I bought to make placemats. My mix of the blues goes great with the blue placemat fabric. So maybe I'll just use them both, just as I plan to do with the fabrics! 

Inspired by the totems we made at JCC a couple years ago I made a couple more, just playing with the clay. I have a few ideas of more involved pieces but don't have definite plans yet. 

 I mixed one other glaze or thought I had! I mixed up what was supposed to be Waterfall Brown but it sure didn't work like Waterfall Brown. It's on the saucer below. I had used it on the blue dish above and the brush strokes came out extremely light so I refired with black on top. I finally figured out what I did. I had typed a 2 instead of 3 on my recipe sheet and used Frit 3124 instead of 3134; big difference! I've been playing with my program to see if I can somehow make it right but there's so much silica and alumina in it now I think I'll just make a new batch and use this for what it is on sculptural work. It has it's own charm.

 Below: I had fun making an little adult rattle.

 And I have three new mugs, Mama, Papa and Baby. 

 I want to start working fiber into my work again so I started with this vessel, adding some Genya cord and beads.

 Cleo is still going strong, well maybe not so strong anymore but she does get lots of sleep. Who says you have to sleep inside the bed? 

Wow, it's 2018!

It's going on two year's since I posted last! The past 24 months have been a blur as we went through a move from South Florida to Central Florida. I miss my classes in Boca but I know they are in good hands. I remember the advice from my first pottery instructor; learn from as many different teachers as you can as each one will give you different information and ideas. From there you can go on to use what works best for you and develop your own style. And remember to continue to learn! 

I finally have my kiln and most of my studio set up. This week I was in the clay, just for a bit but it was great!

Clay Totems

April 3rd is the opening of JCC's Annual Clay Show (no, that's not its official title but I can never remember whether we're using 'pottery' or 'ceramics' or 'guild' etc).  We decided to have a theme this year and will be featuring totems!

None of us had made a totem before so it has been fun to see what we have each come up. Above is the first one I made last spring to try it out. I call it 'Potato Rocks' and after having sat in a few places in the garden it now sits with my garden boots at the side door. It is about 14" tall.

Then I thought I had better make something taller. This one is taller than me. Then with some leftovers from my Potato Rocks and other pieces I put together "Leftovers", quite whimsical and perhaps my favorite of the ones I've made.

I'm toying with how I could put these old clay prototype roses together into a totem.....

Although I'm happy with my totems I'm even more excited about all the totems being made by members of our classes! We'll be setting up the show in three weeks.

Digital Clay!

This is the ad for the new ceramics course being offered in the spring session at FAU in Boca Raton by Marty Fielding. Wow, 3d modeling and printing! Although I prefer my handmade to be literally hand-made, it is exciting to see ceramics merge with the digital world. I'm confident that there will still be a devoted group of younger clay artists who keep the traditional art and craft of wheel throwing and hand-building alive. I'd hate to think that clay will go the way of check-out counters where when the power goes out no work can be done!
 

Butterflies this Week

 Long-tailed Skipper (Urbanus Proteus) resting on some Cassia leaves.

 Giant Swallowtails! I was so excited to capture these; two in one photo!

Summer Work

...or should I say summer play? In between reading, cooking, baking, hiking, tennis and summer veg time I did some fiber work. The past few summers I had a Tangled Textiles challenge quilt to complete and I missed that so decided to make my own challenge and came up with three little wall quilts.

 I used some sun printed as well as procion dyed fabrics to create this one, inspired by the water and vegetation. I went for simple quilting lines and lots of it, using up lots of old spools of thread.

 Then I used a piece of my hand-painted fabrics below. I cut the fabric into strips and made tiny seams adding in the inlays. Again I used simple line quilting.

My third little quilt isn't as colorful but it has lots of meaning to me as I used mussel shells for a circle of life, blues for the ocean and sky, quilted abstract overhanging trees from the cliffs and round rock shapes for the shore, then added fringe to represent the seaweed I found along the shores. This one takes me back to summer vacations by the ocean. 

I made a couple little bags and this one is from some sun prints.....

And now it's back to the clay ..... I am still stocking my etsy shop but here's one of my new pieces, a fun one for Halloween.

And a couple other pieces that I happen to be photo-ready....

Garden news will come yet. And with back to clay time comes back to teaching. Classes begin next week but if you're thinking of joining but are a snow bird or for whatever reason can't be there at the start you can join anytime. Happy Autumn Everyone!