More new pieces, and my aloe vera plant :)

Love this teapot, unfortunately it has cracks around the spout and handles because it dried too fast when it was leather hard.  I tried to patch the spots, but they pulled up a little with the soda-firing.  Luckily it is still very solid, but cosmetically the cracks are annoying.

This guy has been waiting to be fired for a while now, but it is finally done!  The green turned out pretty amazing.  He is very heavy though, the bottoms pretty thick :P

A couple more of the mugs.  The one on the left has the flashing slip on it, and I used masking tape as a resist to create the white lines.  I plan on experimenting more with this in the future.

Believe it or not, every single one of those plants was growing in the blue pot on the far left.  The biggest one growing in that pot is the original plants, but she makes babies like crazy!  I spent about an hour and a half this afternoon pulling all the babies out and re-potting them.

New finished pots

Got some finished pieces out of the kiln!  This firing turned out really well.  I don't know if you remember this casserole, since I threw it almost half a year ago.  Either the lid or the rim warped a little, so the lid doesn't sit down very snug, but it does fit. 

This teapot is also from forever ago, and it turned out great, though I need to buy a smaller wicker handle for it. 

Here are some of the mugs, there are a couple more finished ones I don't have pictures of yet, and a few more that have not been fired. Also, my kitty Mogget sleeping in the background :)

And some lovely pots thrown by my brother, Ethan (the lidded jar and the little vase) and his girlfriend Ciara's first pot ever, an amazing cylinder!

Carved fountain and new fired pieces!

Finally got one of the fountains carved!  I like the way it turned out; I cant wait to see it finished! :)

And got some stuff out of the kiln finally!  Some of these pieces have been on the shelf for a while.

The plate on the left was the first one I had tried experimenting with wax resist to make the pattern with plain clay and a flashing slip.  I am really happy with the way it turned out, a little bit more subtle than some of my other stuff.  Expect to see more!

Nothing terribly interesting...

So again, I don't have any actual studio pictures, so you will have to make do with my teapot with squares and my ever so curious cat, Sammy.  She thinks everything might have food in it :)  I was not the happiest with this teapot, mostly because I was frustrated with the blue glaze (it is a pain to apply, and it ended up with a very obvious overlap stripe in the middle), but its not bad, and people seem to like it on Etsy.

At the studio I still have one fountain bowl and the big plate to trim; they were both a little too wet on friday when I went in and trimmed some other pieces.  Probably the most frustrating thing about not having the studio close by (college completely spoiled me) is trying to time the drying!  I have to wrap up my pots fairly securely, because its usually at least a day or two before I will be back in the studio, and I never am positive when I will be next stopping by.  So it takes forever for things to dry, as I would rather err on the cautious side.

I also have a couple of the plates at home ready to carve, so those should be showing up in the next day or two!

Painted pots, christmas gifts

I got a couple more things painted with underglaze last week, including this pretty little plate!  I am very happy with the way this turned out; I like the plate itself (I plan on making more with this wide rim that is so very paintable), and the design is great!  I am trying so hard to not use stripes too much, and I even noticed that most of the things I sold during EAST were more complicated patterns like this one.  So I will make an effort :P

Also got this teapot done, I am very happy with the petal shapes (a million times easier to paint curved lines than to carve them), but I'm not positive I like the spout.  I'm going to leave it that way and see how it looks complete! I think it is a little overwhelming right now, but I'm hoping once I get a colored glaze on it the piece will be balanced out a bit.

Also working on some last minute Christmas gifts! My grandma mentioned a while ago that she used to have a mixing bowl with a spout and a handle and requested I make her one, so I am going to try for my first ever set of nesting bowls.  We shall see how that turns out, I'm not sure if I can get it to work with the handles, but I will try :)  These bowls and the pitchers reminded me how much I hate making pulled spouts. They are no fun.

Teapot carved

I got the one teapot carved :)  I am pretty happy with it, but I'm still not sure if carving the lid was a good idea.  I thought it would bring the whole piece together, but now I feel like it may have looked better plain.  We will see, its always hard to really tell how much I like it until its completely fired. 

Speaking of which, Ryan is firing tomorrow, and I'm hoping to get a lot of stuff in this one!  I have a lot of pieces that have been sitting around in the studio for a long time, and it will be great to get them done, if only to get some more shelf space.  Also, I will be going up to Southwestern University (my school up in Georgetown,Tx) for a show that Patrick Veerkamp (my old professor) is organizing a long with Chris Campbell.  It should be fun, and I am hoping to take my finished pieces up to campus to get some pictures of them with their lighting equiptment.

On a less happy note, I was very stupid and forgot to completely cover the little round teapot with the over-the-top handle.  It only went one day, but the handle was pretty cracked around the joining.  It was still not completely dry, so I jammed some wet clay into the cracks and spritzed down the whole teapot, and I am crossing my fingers.  Each time I check on it its had hairline cracks, though not nearly so big as the original ones.  I'm continuing to smear the clay together and spritz it, so I have high hopes that it will make it through the bisque when its dry.  >_<

And Afshans sister was in town with her adorable little dog, Sammy.  Sammy is the fluffiest dog ever, and looks hilarious when he is all wet.  We took him down to the greenbelt, and he was afraid of the water at first, but he eventually got in and had a blast fetching tennis balls.

Teapots assembled

This weekend I finally got all the teapots assembled!  I always forget how long it takes me to get everything pulled, thrown, and assembled :P  I think this one is my favorite so far; even though they are a royal pain to make, I love the way over-the-top handles look!

This little guy is the one I plan on carving in some manner.  I will try not to just make stripes :P

The following two I had to re-do :P  I made the spouts, wasnt sure I was happy with them, then looking at the pictures later that night I realized I really hated them.  So I went in the next day and fixed them up a bit.  The original spouts were just too big for the pots, and made them look really unbalanced.  I am  much happier with the final result.

This one ended up being so tall it should be interesting to see what it looks like with a wicker handle.

This is a special treat for any readers out there, you get to know a secret no one else does!  For a couple years, whenever I make a teapot, I write a little something under the spout, usually 'Bless this Teapot."  I am not particularly religious, but I have always associated tea and teapots especially with comfort and saftey, and I just like the idea of putting a blessing on a teapot :)  It's my little secret, and no one else will know unless they break their teapot :P

Birthday Kitty loves to sleep in places she probably shouldn't sleep.  I broke the mug of Patrick's that I had, and he offered to let me have one of the ones he sent down for Art of the Pot.  After I picked one out, Kitty decided the box with the other two cups would make a great bed, and clearly ceramic cups are comfy pillows :P

Teapots!

I decided to make some more teapots, as I have had a couple people possibly interested in some, and the only two I have right now are really fancy and carved and more expensive.  So I threw a few pots the other day, of various sizes and shapes, and I plan maybe leaving one plain, painting two, and carving one fairly simply.   I will probably carve the cylindrical one, since it will be the easiest to do.  I'm just waiting for these guys to dry a bit, then I will put them all together!

And my adorable kitty sleeping in the sun.  I am so jealous of her; how great would it be to sleep all day.  The worst thing that ever happens to her is getting fed late, or getting stuck outside for a little longer than she likes.

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...

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!!

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.

Next projects...

It's neat to see all the carved pieces I've been working on all out on the table together.  I am definately most happy with the designs based on straight lines.  Ryan took a look at them and said he liked them :D

So now I am going to start working on the next projects, which will be teapots, maybe some planters, and probably some sets of jars.  I saw this set at a friends house and loved them!

So I have been thinking about shapes of teapots (not so much the jars since I loved the shapes of the ones above so much), and also brainstorming new pattern ideas. Sticking with the rectalinear designs, I've ended up with some very Native-American looking designs, but I like them so far.

I started out with teapots (because I owe one to Hollen), and I started out with the simple curved shape.  These kinds of teapots make me think of the kettles you use to boil water :)  I was super happy with the way they turned out, the last time I tried a closed form (long time ago), it didnt work out so well, but these turned out great!  The cups are just going to be for some glaze tests in Ryans kiln.