Finally got my hands on pints of some of the new spectrum glazes and immediately put them to use on the wine cups for my sister's bachelorette. This is the first time I've used them on speckled clay. While I still really like them, there really isn't that much difference between bougainvillea, shallot, and sangria on Laguna 60. The big difference I've learned is that while sangria doesn't move at all, the other two move a little bit.
I made the rose heart platter for my sister, but I think I'm going to make a couple of more because it really just pops. I also finally glazed the menorah I made for her last year and then ran out of time to glaze. It came out amazing.
I have had this mennorah bisqued since before the holidays, but with the rush at the end of the year for shows I didn't get it finished. It is now a very late Hannukah present for my sister. Also in this kiln, way at the bottom, are the wine sippy cups for her bachelorette this weekend. Fingers crossed that they turned out well. I used some glazes that I haven't tested thoroughly which may have been a terrible idea.
Planning this weekend away for her while traveling 3 days a week for work has been interesting. I think it is going to be amazing, but I will be really glad when it's over.
Adults definitely need a bit of a lid to drink their wine out of.
I really like the cups with the half lids. I decided to make a few crab style. I first saw this style of cup on a demo from Alexandria Pottery and her jig. I have the jig, but I'm actually finding that while I love the shape the jig slows me down. I made so many mugs last year that making cylinders has become something my hands know how to do.
Just a cute little trinket dish with snuggle puppies.
I've had this placemat for probably 2 years and never used it. I thought it would make a good cheese platter for the bachelorette party. I ended up not putting feet on it so now to dry SLOW.
My sister is getting married in March and I am the matron of honor. We are doing a bachelorette weekend up in the Finger Lakes and I decided to make wine sippy cups for the party. The theme for the party is Rose All Day and I got ridiculus straws that look like diamond rings to put in them. I'm excited with how these turned out.
I will likely do these in a couple of different colors as I glaze them. Not sure yet it if will be all pinks and purples or if I'll throw in a few other colors. I've also batted around the idea of just using an underglaze on the lettering and clear glazing the outside.
The kiln wasn't quit cool enough yesterday for my normal blog post, but it is cool enough now. I have at least one more to run this week before the Brandywine Festival of the Arts this weekend. It sounds like it's going to be really cold in this area over the weekend so what better way to spend it than indoors with some fantastic artists.
This kiln has the last of the lavender work I made a while back plus a whole lot of crabs. Also on this top shelf is my tester mug for the Brandywine show that I am making for Rob who runs the show. I'm really excited with how it looks in the peek. Now to glaze a bunch more!
I feel like it was October and I blinked and now we're in mid-December. I've done so many shows in the last two months and only have one left.
My day job has been insanely busy the last few weeks with a new client. The week before Thanksgiving I got a cold which is no big deal, but it settled in my ears and that's made me deaf. I've gotten a glimpse into my future of constantly asking people to face me and repeate themselves louder.
All of this has made me pull back on what I actually need to get done before my last show (Brandywine Holiday Festival of the Arts December 21 and 22). I have some custom mugs I'm making for the gentleman who runs the Brandywine show plus I needed a few more crab mugs. Aside from that the goal is - get everything bisqued and fired. More end of year stats coming in the next couple of weeks, but with these mugs that means I have made 302 mugs this year. That's nearly 100 more than I made last year and I don't believe I'm going to have much inventory left after the show next weekend (she says totally jinxing herself).
This weekend I will be out in western Maryland at Kris Kringle in Hagerstown. This is my first time doing this show and I hope to see you if you're out west.
Earlier in the summer I trimmed my lavender plant and froze some blooms that I am now going back and using. It always makes everything smell so nice when I'm using lavender in the studio.
You may remember a few months ago I was using my hex wallie and I accidentally made a bowl that was a Star of David. I'm finally getting around to making some Hannukah Bowls in that shape!
New ring dishes with a bird. Why? Because its cute.
If you've been following for a while or if you've looked back to last year, you know that mugs are a big part of my business. Last year mugs were 27% of what I sold and this year they are on track to be an even larger percentage. I made a plan for this year based on what I sold last year, but then started to realize that I need more. So these last couple weeks has been A LOT of mugs.
I'm appreciative of making all of these mugs though because it's been great practice. Making the same shape over and over has really let me refine what I'm doing and continue to make my process work for me.
This isn't it though. This is it for the mugs I make in Laguna 60, but I still need to make more camping mugs in Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear too. I've gotten in the habbit now of only working in one clay body at a time and the deep dive into brown bear things is next.
Remember the hexagons from my last post? As I was looking at them I started seeing Frankenstein's block head. I think I love this one even more than the ghost!
I've wanted to make a ghost mug for a while. I kept circling on how I could do it and then it occurred to me that I have a couple of extruder dies that might work. I ended up using the one that looks kind of like a pasta noodle. I still have a little more refinement to do, but I think it's so cute. I did this in laguna 60 and my plan is to glaze these with Amaco Snow which will have a nice sparkly effect with the specks from the clay.
I started with a bunch of extruded pieces that were all roughly the same height.
then I cut out bottoms to match them.
I had also extruded some hexagons...more on these later this week.
Last week in NY I made a few ghosts and I'm happy to say they all made it home.
I might be out of control on the 3D scandi things. I had this ornament that just wasn't fancy enough and turned it into a 3D ornament. I think I want to make this glittery.
When I was at retreat with Michael Harbridge back in May, I was sitting with Debi from De La Designs and had the idea for a scandi pumpkin that was like her scandi trees. When I made the trees, I remembered that I hadn't made them yet. I learned a lot in my first attempt. The first is that I need to make sure that the bottoms are flat. The second is that I probably should have used a 60 degree cut instead of a 45. All that said, I'm still really excited by this and want to make a few more. I'm thinking a witches hat would be really cool like this too.
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