Lots of my camping series in this kiln. I love working with Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear - except for the mess. It's such a smooth clay and it responds so well to shaping. However, the brown gets everywhere. I definitely respect people who commit to this as their only clay and the amount of cleaning they must do. It's a hard clay to find glazes for, but when you do - they really pop.
I can't say enough good things about this ornament tree and the rods from Sanbao. It it performing fantastically. Can you see the star in the middle? That is actually quite heavy. I was worried about putting it onto my old nichrome bars because I thought it would sag. I don't see any sagging at all.
Some more leaf globes and vases here on the top. There is a lot of my camping series in this kiln as well as a number of mugs.
I've said it in the past, but many of my patterns now start with me looking through a book of various stitches, picking one, and then designing a sweater around that. This sweater uses the maple fans stitch found in The New Crochet Stitch Dictionary by Nele Braas and Eveline Hetty-Brown. I found a used copy that I've been perusing a lot recently. If you can find a copy and like to look at stitches, I'd highly recommend it. I did modify the stitch a bit to be double crochets instead of trebles to make the holes a little smaller.
I made this sweater mostly during Colorfest a few weeks ago. It was definitely an emergent design as I was in between people being in my booth that day. The yarn is Worsted Tweed by American Ewe Yarn in Glass of Port. I had 3 skeins of yarn and I used almost all of it. Each skein is 237 yards and it is a worsted weight tweed. Obviously this sweater has some larger holes in it so it definitely needs a shirt under it, but despite that it is really warm.
This pattern uses a 5.5 mm yarn
Stitches:
ch - chain
sk st
sc - single crochet
dc - double crochet
dc2tog - 2 double crochet into the same stitch and crocheted together
Front and back panels (make 2). Cast on in multiples of 4 + 2
I cast on 58
Row 1: sc all the way across
Row 2: ch 5 (counts as dc + 2 ch), dc2tog in the starting stitch, sk 2 st, dc2tog, ch 3, dc2tog in the same stitch, * sk 2 st, dc2tog, ch 3, dc2tog in the same stitch. Repeat from * across end with a dc
Row 3: ch 3, * dc2tog in the midle of the 3 chains, ch 3, dc2tog in the same stitch. Repeat from * across ending with a dc.
Repeat rows 2 and 3 until you reach your desired length. I had 18 rows.
Stitch the two panels together leaving approximately 8 inches for the arms and neck. I decided that I wanted the V's facing up, but you could do either up or down. Make sure your panels are facing the same direction though.
For the neck add a row of sc around the collar.
For the sleeves pick up 10 V's.
Row 1: ch 3, dc in the starting stitch, sk 2 st, dc2tog, ch 3, dc2tog in the same stitch, * sk 2 st, dc2tog, ch 3, dc2tog in the same stitch. Repeat from * across slip stitch to join
Row 2: ch 3, * dc2tog in the midle of the 3 chains, ch 3, dc2tog in the same stitch. Repeat from * across slip stitch to join
I made the sleeves 10 rows long.
Sanbao came out with a new thing they call a Kiln Rod Bracket that I was thinking about trying. With the new hollow ornaments I made, I needed something that was going to stand up to their weight. I have some nichrome bars, but they bend over time and the ornaments are on the heavier side. Sanbao also has alumina rods that you can get which are supposed to stay straight over time.
I went back and forth on whether to get just the rods or both, but eventually went all in and got both. I was really nervous trying them out with ornaments, but I had read nothing but good things about them. The actual holder is less than an inch high, so I put kiln posts under each of the 4 corners to balance it. I was conservative in how many I hung both for the weight, but also to make sure they wouldn't touch.
You saw the results in the kiln opening, but here's what it looked like in the kiln. If you make anything that needs to hang, I'd highly recommend these two items.
This Friday, Saturday and Sunday November 1-3 I will be at the Howard County Craft Spectacular. The show is at the Howard Conty Fairgrounds and I will be in the new building in spot F5. Hope to see you there!
The new stand worked perfectly! I'll post more on that next time. The ornaments themselves are fantastic. I did the new Spectrum floating glazes on them which was a bit of a risk, but they're all great colors.
I think I'm getting a rhythm down on the grape wine chillers. I really just love making those, there's something about being able to go 3D on a vertical piece.
I mixed up the ghost mugs, highlighting with purple and orange - the pictures don't really do them justice.