Well, this week has not been very productive in the studio, but it has been at home! Today I finished going through all my boxes of pots from school, and actually sorted them into boxes for etsy, for keeps, and ones I'm going to take to church (stuff I dont wan't, but that isn't nice enough to sell :P).  I also took pictures of all the esty pots, and labeled the boxes, so I can tell what pots are in each box by looking at the top, and I can look up which box pots are in from a little notebook I recorded it in!  Huzzah, now I actually know I still have all the pots I want to put on etsy.  Like the above cups from my senior show (all images of etsy pots are actually linked to their etsy page, if you hadn't noticed :P).  So it is nice to have that all done, and over the next couple of days, I will finish posting my old stuff on etsy! Quite exciting :) 

Tumblers

I have not posted in forever!! (A week really is a long time...)  All I've got so far are some tumblers, I made four last week, and then two more today, but I was feeling TERRIBLE from allergies so I didn't make the last two (it's really no fun trying to throw when your nose is literally dripping on your pot...).  I think I will make these a matching set, just carved lines straight down, to make them a little simpler.  Maybe smaller carved lines, larger spaces? I've got to figure out how to make my pots in a more sensible amount of time :P

Ethan came in again today to trim some of his stuff.  He actually made a pretty nice little lidded jar, here he is trimming the lid.  I am so proud! He has caught on to clay amazingly fast; maybe he will be one of those cool sciency people who actually can do artistic things too :P  As long as he keeps it as a hobby... I will post a picture of his finished stuff whenever I remember to...  He also put a handle on a little cylinder he made earlier. 

Gearing up for AOTP!  I got all my bottles and small cups bisqued, hope to get most of them into Ryans firing next week so I can see some finished work!! I've been putting a lot of my old stuff on Etsy (like the above bowls), but I can't wait to put up brand new work!  Once I get a bunch of stuff up, I will start my advertising campain (ie emailing my friends/family like crazy, and maybe buying a spotlight on etsy?)

Teapot 2

I don't seem to be capable of doing things simply... I am fairly happy with the way this turned out, but it is really busy looking with all the carved space.  We will see what it looks like once it's fired.  I still need to poke a hole in the lid.. hopefully I remember before it drys :P

Just another view. You can see the triangle pattern that my prof taught me and I have used ever since :) 

I know I promised to make this a photo blog, but I am super excited about this coming summer!  It's looking to be a busy one; I'm going to be acting as Ryans sub at the Dougherty arts center, so for a couple months I will probably be firing the kiln there, and possibly teaching a bit; plus I will probably be teaching/assisting with summer classes at Clayways too. It's good to be making connections and doing work related to clay!  I really could not have thought of a better situation to end up in after I graduated :)

Peanut Butter!

I'm about halfway through with this teapot; every time I try to work on it I only get a few triangles done before I'm interrupted.  It should be interesting when I finish it; I'm wondering if I should have carved out the lines, rather than the triangles.  Its sort of overkill with all the carving... who knows.  I think it will end up with sort of a  zig-zag look, even though I was actually thinking about the triangles when I drew the shapes on.

Just because she is adorable, this is my hedgehog, Peanut Butter. I've had her since October of last year, and she is a sweetie!  She's not a huge fan of strangers, but she likes to sit on my lap (preferably under a towel) while I read .

She is also not very coordinated.  She was sitting on my lap and started very slowly tilting backwards. She eventually rolled off and poofed into a spike ball.  I guess it startled her even though she didn't do anything to stop rolling...

Casserole

Casserole with stripes!!  It's hard to tell, but I also carved out part of the lid around the knob.  As always, I love how the stripes look :P  I decided to not have them go all the way to the top (like I did with one of the small test cups), and I think it looks nice.  The lid is still a little bigger than the casserole, so once it's dry and fitted it will sit a little bit lower down.  Now I just have to figure out what I would want to cook in such a deep casserole :P

More with teapots

Here is teapot #2, which I decided to be lazy for and not pull a handle :P  So it has some little lugs, and will be getting a bamboo handle once it's done.  I just need to get this and the casserole carved, then I can throw some more things before maybe having to return the wheel at the end of the month. I am going to try really hard to do something other than stripes on this one.. maybe the triangles? 

And finished teapot 1!!  I love it :D Stripes are my favorite... I think the casserole will end up with them. The best part was carving around the handle and spout :P  It was a pain, but worth it! I really can't wait to get some of this stuff fired!  Hopefully I will bisque this week and then get most of it in the soda fires in the next few weeks.  I am very excited to see how the carved stuff turns out.

Another angle so you can see how neatly I carved around the handle :P Its hard to tell in the pictures, but I also shaved a bit off the lid's knob to add a bit of continuity between the pot and the lid.  I think it looks nice; hopefully it will still be noticible after being fired.  Luckily, what you can't tell is that I dropped the lid on the ground today! It was the very first thing that happened when I got in the studio; I was so mad.  I managed to smooth it back pretty well, however, so it is not very noticable even when you are looking right at it.

A productive day :)

I finished up the last of the tiny cups today, hopefully I will get them bisqued right away so I can get them in a soda-fire and see how Ryans glazes work with my carvings.  I should be able to get some finished stuff out pretty soon; lots of firings are happening getting ready for Art of the Pot April 8th and 9th (speaking of which, check out their spiffy new website).  

Also got my little planter carved today, which I am excited about.  I think I will be keeping this one; some of my succulents need nice pots :D I will probably be making more, though I'm not sure if I will keep on squaring them off.

I poked 5 holes in the bottom since I was making this with my succulents in mind, and they need lots of drainage!

I also got the lidded jar put together, though now it really looks like more of a casserole.  A really deep casserole.  But that could still be useful :)  I put a ridge on the handles when I threw them, but now they just look kind of lumpy.. I may wipe it smoother later on.  I think this one will probably have stripes on it too!

I got started carving my first teapot today, but I only had time to do a few stripes.  You can kind of see how it will look though, I think I'm going to leave the lid, spout, and handle uncarved, though I may carve the knob a little.  I just can't get away from the stripes, I like this design more than any of the other ones!!

Kitty

Carved a few more tiny cups last night :)  I still have two more to do, then I will work on the teapots.  Can't wait to see how those turn out!





















Kitty was just adorable, she's always sleeping in various boxes.

Logo!

I started carving the little test cups late last night.  I will probably stick to the simple designs for these little guys.  I like the way they are looking :)






Completely aside from my work... I bought this awesome teapot at Ross the other day!  It is made of cast iron and comes with a little strainer and I love it :)  It is great for 1 1/2 cups of loose leaf tea :D  There is something very satisfying about the weight of the thing.







Lastly, I am starting to work on a logo type thing for my blog/shop etc.  This is my starting sketch, I will be working with it on my computer.

Teapots!

Today I was just working on the teapots.  I threw several spouts; generally I use a different shape, more like a rounded funnel, but I like the idea of the straight cone on these sort of half elipse pots.   You can see one of the teapots that I cut the lid on.  I actually threw the knob first then used an exacto knive to slowly cut the lid while it was spinning on the wheel (very slowly!).  This actually worked remarkably well, though the clay was a tad bit too wet and sticky.

I decided to do a pulled handle for at least one of these guys.   I really kind of hate pulling handles, its just takes a while and its messy and I used to mess them up a lot. I think in the last year I have actually figured out how to do it well, but its still messy.  My secret for the nice shape: while I'm drying it out I have it draped over a shape similar to what I want it to end up as. In this case, a cd holder turned sideways :P  I am pretty durn happy with the way this turned out, and I can't wait to see it carved!

I didnt actually do anything to the lidded jar yet, but it was dry enough to put the lid on, so you can use your imagination :P I will probably trim the edge a bit so it does not stick out so much, I think the pots too short to have such a large overhang.

This is actually an old picture, but I thought it was cute. Kitty was napping in a box of newspapers, and apparently she did not approve of me petting her.  She proceded to attack my hand through the box.

Pots and dogs

plWent in to work for a little on sat.  I was actually intending to try another teapot, but it didn't work out quite as I imagined :P  The walls got a little uneven, and try as I might I could not collar the darn thing in at the top! So I decided it would be a lidded jar instead :D Clever me...

I also tried my hand at an altered form... I cut the bottom out of this planter and when it had set for 20 min or so I squared it off and put it on a flat sheet for the base. It looks nice in the picture, but it is actually pretty messy. Not sure I will be doing this regularly.

And dogs!  All three of the girls were there, which is always fun. they ran around outside most of the time, but then they came in to hang out with me.  Addie is at the top, Lorraine is on the left and Mischa on the right.  All sweeties!