When I was with Michael Harbridge a few weeks ago we used one of his oak texture mats. He also talked about how one time a woman (who was in the class, but I can't remember her name) came to the workshop and said we should roll clay on a tree and that's how his bark texture mats were born. We used the texture mats for one of the projects we created and I really liked how it looked.
Over the weekend we were up in Chaumont where we have lots and lots of trees. I had bought a mat to do clay on and had a whole setup. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to make with the clay that I brought up there, but I knew that I wouldn't want to go a whole weekend with no clay.


I *think* that this is an elm tree. I'm not really sure, but I really like how the knot showed up.




With the scrap clay that was coming off edges while I was rolling out mini slabs with my pony roller I made some stamps. Still have some carving to do on those.




I brought them home in my wet box and then dropped them so that they would lay flat. I've also now covered them with plastic and weighted them down the same way that I would plates.




I have oak, pine, birch, cedar, elm, and rock elm. Some of the trees I am more confident in their type than others :). I'm positive on the oak, pine, cedar, and rock elm - the rest are definitely trees :)




I tried to do a paper birch, but the texture was just not texture so I flipped it and did another oak. I didn't even try the maple because I could tell it was boring. I'm really happy with my texture mats overall, can't wait to use them to make stuff post bisque.