Lots of cups!

The tumblers and teabowls are trimmed!  I loaded a big bisque today, so these will be ready to paint/wax resist soon! I am excited to see how the turn out; hopefully I will be happy with them so I have something pretty that doesn't take an hour to decorate.

One of my Aunts requested that I make some wine glasses/goblets for her, which I have never tried before!  The tops were fairly easy, I just did simple shallow bowls rather than a taller cup, but the bases were a pain! I havn't really ever tried to make something really skinny AND have a wide top!  The clay doesn't really like it.  I threw all of these off the hump, which is always fun.

More dogs! The brown/golden one has been in before, but I don't remember his name :P He is sweet and very hyper.

Today I went in and got the goblets all put together. Not the prettiest ever, but they should look better once they are glazed.  Havn't decided if I'm going to carve on these yet.

Teabowls and tumblers

I've gotten a few pots done this week!  I'm throwing some stuff to try out my underglaze/wax resist designs, hopefully this will result in stuff I can make faster and sell cheaper :)  Today I threw some little teabowls, I promise they will look better once I get the bases trimmed.  I may do some stripes on these, or more complicated designs.  Ryan has some cups with stripes, so I kind of want to try to not get too close to his designs.







Monday I made some short tumblers.  I am hoping for some great results from the tumblers since they are so darn easy to throw, and require practically no trimming.












And because this obviously is 1/2 a dog blog, my friend just adopted an dog!! Her name is Aida and she is adorable!

I just finished getting all the stuff from the last firing up on Etsy!  Very exciting to finally have recent work up for sale.  Now I am super excited to get the B-mix work fired so I can put that up too!  Now that my store actually has stuff in it, I am also putting together a facebook Page that I plan on inviting everyone I know to become a fan of :P

More tumblers and some fired pots

I like making tumblers, they are quick! ...Relatively so.  Its only been taking me 45 min or so to carve the stripe ones. I have been thinking about other designs, but they would all take longer to carve, so I am trying to think up other ideas.  I'm thinking about just altering the pots rather than carving, or keeping the designs, but painting them on or something like that.   Something so that I can produce them faster, and then charge less for them!

I got the last of the tumblers carved this afternoon.  There weer originally going to be 8, but I never got around to throwing the last two, so 6 it is.

Also, a few more things I got out of the kiln:  these cups got quite a bit more salt than the other one I took a picture of.  I don't really like how much orange peel these got (the bumpy look the glaze gets); and the carvings don't stand out quite as much.  But it's not terrible.

Another bottle, this one had a flashing slip on it.  Again, I'm not a huge fan of the parts that got a lot of salt, it makes it so much lighter.  But again, its alright.

Tumblers! also my dog

I finally got some carving done this afternoon! It's been 2 weeks or so since I made these cups, but I had them wrapped up tightly enough that they are actually just the right wetness for carving.  I got 4 done today, and I will probably carve the other two tomorrow; excitement!

Ki has been feeling sick for the last few days (he's had a fever, it turns out he had a cracked tooth that was infected, but mom pulled it out yesterday :P), and hasn't been in the mood to play.  Today he was feeling a little better, but mom wouldn't let him play outside, so he sat under the table and rested his head on my feet for most of the afternoon.

 

Once he notices me paying attention to him he has to get up and get in my face; it makes it hard to get a good picture of him because he's always moving!  Hopefully he will feel better tomorrow and maybe I can fetch him and raise his spirits.

Art of the Pot!

What a fun day!  I helped out at Ryan's studio on sat morning, mostly taking payements and wrapping up pots that people had bought.  The studio looked great will all the pots set up!

Ryan has the coolest shelves... I want some. They are made out of a wood back that just leans against the wall, and these super heavy metal shelves that stick into slits in the wood.  Super simple, but they look great! The shelves are rediculously heavy though...

I also got some pots sat!! Two of the potters at Ryans studio actually gave me cups for free (I did try to buy them first...) which was super nice.  This one was from Ted Adler, and I love it!  It was slip cast and salt-fired.  I like the pink inside, it makes me think of seashells (Dad says it looks like an intestine :P ). 

This was another free one, by Brenda Lichman.  Very nice little teabowl, we actually got my mom a mug version for m-day. I love the flashing and the glaze interaction.

This is a bad picture, but I love this little tiny mug! Not very useful in terms of drinking, but I'm sure I could find stuff to put in it.  It was made by Amy Halko.   I like the minimalist design, and the textures (the white stripes are actually bare porcelain.

This last teabowl I got from Mark Shapiro, and I think it is probably my favorite.  I think thanks to Veerkamp, I have a fondness of traditional style teabowls.  I love its shape and the textures on the outside. 

 

Mark said he has to throw these very wet to get the heavy throw lines on the inside, and I love the effect!  Texture is one of my big things and I love it on this piece.

Kiln opening!

Ryan opened the kiln today!  In his opinion, "you gotz sum NIZZ3 pot_z over here" :P  I am pretty happy with the results.  I still don't like the carved cat pieces very well, but I do like them better than before now that they are glazed.  I think Ryan's Blue Black Orange glaze is my favorite on the stoneware.

I am really pretty happy with most of the stuff, the G/B/O glaze looks great on the carved pieces.  They ended up a little darker than I imagined, but I think it looks pretty good.

 

The bowls and the carved cups turned out really nicely.

This little jug had a dark blue glaze on it, but the glaze was super duper thick when I put it on, and I ended up wiping and shaking some of it off... so it may turn out a little odd once I have it out of the kiln :P

And some of the glazes on b-mix cups, the dark blue on the left and the g/b/o on the right. I still really like Ryan's glaze, the difference in color between the carved and flat surfaces is wonderful!

One of these is plain clay, one of them has a flashing slip on it, and I can't even tell the difference!  The porcelain and b-mix pieces I salt-fired at school generally had a lot more flashing on them. I dont really like them plain in this firing.

Studio= (mostly) clean!

We have been working hard to get all the clutter and stuff out of the studio, and we are almost done!  Tomorrow Ryan will be firing the salt kiln, and I will probably be doing the last of the clean up, maybe starting to set up tables etc.  I am excited about this weekend :) 

Just for giggles.... heres the before picture

People and Dogs

Dogs dogs dogs! We had a new one today that I had never met, Leila.  She was a sweety, and had the softest fur!  It never fails to surprise me how skinny greyhounds are.

I also got to meet little miss Morgan today, she was a darling also :)  She had fun being chased by Mischa and riding her tricycle around. 

 

Lorraine was hanging out with Mike in the shade :P 

Art of the Pot!!

This week is going to be crazy!!  I've thrown 6 tumblers, and I havn't gotten a chance to trim any of them, and I really want to throw 2 more, but I don't think I'm going to get a chance until next week.  I hope they stay wet enough to trim and carve until I get a chance :P  We are cleaning cleaning cleaning at the studio!  I ran by today to finish glazing my stuff for the firing this week (so excited to see how it turns out!), and moved some clay and stuff around for Ryan.  Madaline and his sister also got some of the grunge off the walls :P  Tomorrow will be a day of cleaning!

Ethan pots, etc

The dogs loooove playing in the water (I think Ryan taught them).  Whenever you try to wash anything they start biting at the water; it's fun to toss water and watch them chase it :)

I spent most of my time today cutting tons of paper, which is super fun :P  We get the ends of the newspaper rolls for free, and Ryan had me cut down the middle of the rolls with an exacto to make nice little sheets we can use to wrap pots.  Its fun at first, and then its just tiring...

My pots all waxed and ready for glazing!

Some stuff Ethan was working on, he made a cute little lidded pot that we still need to trim a bit for a good fit.

He also put a handle on one of his little cylinders :)