I saw a post a while back on these forms from I Make Stuff. The actual post was about making bells and I thought that was a really interesting idea. I saved it, but did nothing about it. A few weeks ago I was thinking about it again and discovered that they had similar forms for making a couple of different types of Christmas ornaments and other shapes. I decided to taket he plunge and try them.

I made a couple as a test run before we went up to the cabin. I wanted to know what tools I might need to bring with me. The first one I made I had to scrap, but these are number 2 and 3. The learning curve wasn't all that steep once I realized how key corn starch is.




This is what the forms look like when empty.




Corn starch! Corn starch! Corn Starch! I found that for these I needed to add it every time.




Start by forming a ball of clay roughly to the shape of the form that you're using. The star one was the hardest to do this with, but doing this makes sure that you'll have enough clay in all the crevices.




Smoosh down the clay so it hits the bottom.




Use a knife or a wire to do an initial cut off of the clay. I found that a fettling tool was especially good for this.




Corn starch either the press part of the form or the clay. Doesn't matter which, but if you don't you'll be sorry! Push down the presser and wiggle it side to side. You want to make sure that it's pushing the clay into the form and also thining it out a bit.




Use your knife to cut back the sides to the edge of the form. Be careful when you're doing this because it can move out. I found that having the edges between 1/4 and 1/2 of a centimeter was enough to score and join.




If you do have a spot where the edge gets a little too thin (top right) you might still be able to save it if your second side doesn't have the same problem. I neglected to take a picture of it, but slip and score the clay while it's still in the form. If you forget, pop it back in. You're much less likely to mishapen it if you do this in the form than in your hand.




The form pops out of the frame and then you can take away each of the side pieces individually. Take off the side pieces slowly so you don't distort the clay. If you forgot to corn starch, now is when you'll know.




Make two of these and then put the two sides together. It may look ugly when you first do it, but that's ok.




Smooth, smooth, smooth your seems. This is as far as I took it while it was super wet. I left these on a ware board to dry and went over them a second time to smooth them more.




I was trying to re-use the corn starch that was on my work surface then I started cracking myself up because I was making what looked like cocaine lines. This is the closest I will ever come to actually doing cocaine, lol.




Twelve little ornaments all smoothed out.




I made more of the teardrop ones. Once again my imagination was going as I was looking at what I was doing. That's all I'm going to say about that.




Once they were all smoothed out and had firmed up a bit I put them into my wet box. I packed them in close because they have to make the 6 hour drive home. Here's hoping I don't lose any.




I tried to add texture to one and it didn't really work all that well. I felt like I couldn't push hard enough without distorting the texture. I think carving or slip trailing would be better for these adding texture, but I didn't bring any of those tools with me so experimenting with that will have to wait.




The star wasn't all that much harder to do, but it was way more joins to smooth out so it took longer.




All in all I'm really impressed with these tools and will be thinking about more things to make with them. I think the teardrop one is totally going to end up as a fishy at some point.

So mixed results on the leaves. Some of them seem to have worked really well. Others have gotten all weird and wrinkly. I also feel like the veins are less pronounced. Putting these in clay will be the true test, but I want to wait until they are really dry so it likely won't be until after the Carroll County Art in the Park this weekend.

Also quick note - to the best of my knowledge all images have now been migrated and fixed in posts and pages. I'm positive I missed one somewhere, but I don't know where it is so if you find it let me know :) That was way more work than I would have liked and hope never to have to do it again.

These are the things I was calling the fern. Even with the mod podge they are still starting to be a little stinky. These where some of the hardest to do because of the long thin leaves.




I really thought that the oak leaves would be better. The one with the longer ends got weirdly curly.




This was hard to photograph, but you can see how wavy it is.




The leaves on the left are linwood and the right are maple. The maple came out really well, but the veins aren't as pronounced as I'd like.




These are the rasberry, blackberry, gooseberry, and currants. The gooseberry and currants came out the best of all the leaves. They were also the thickest.

Carroll County Art in the Park in Westminster is this Saturday June 1 from 10am-4pm. I've got a lot of great things I'll have with me and hope to see you there.

We were at the cabin over the weekend and I collected leaves to try out an idea I had. I've seen a bunch of articles about people preserving fall leaves and wondered if I could do the same with green leaves and use them in clay.

The first step was to collect leaves. I tried to collect a variety of leaves so I could figure out what worked best. I collected from 4 different trees - 2 kinds of oak, maple, and linwood. I also collected blackberry, rasberry, gooseberry, and currants. Finally I collected what I think is a type of fern that grows in wet areas up there.

What I have found in the past is that the tree leaves hold up pretty well just on their own for a while, but the fern in particular has to be used quickly because it turns brown and very smelly after just a couple of days.




I had read that you should press the leaves for 2 days before preserving them so I put them in this old notebook with a few pages separating each.




We ended up coming home a day early since it was supposed to pour (of course it didn't) so I ended up doing the preserving at home. I used Mod Podge Matte sealer because I had a bottle, I didn't really care if it was matte or glossy. I used a foam brush and brushed 2 coats on each side letting them dry between.




The hardest part was getting it over the entire leaf without having it stick to my fingers or itself.

As a kid I was always told that I was terrible at art. I was really creative, but give me a blank piece of paper to draw on and it wasn't going to be pretty. For a lot of years I internalized that I wasn't good at art. I couldn't draw or paint or scuplt. Then I got really into pottery and found that I was reasonably good at it. I've always been creative and can find creative ways to do things, I just didn't know how to apply them to art. Finding the right teachers who could explain things in a way that made sense to me was the key. My pottery really went to new heights when I found Clayshare during the pandemic.

I've watched Jessica on Clayshare and some of the guests she's had on like Paula McCoy of Colors for Earth paint on pottery and I really wanted to do that.

I decided to start with watercolor because I really like how it looks on pottery. I also had it in my head that it was easier than acrylic. I'm not sure I believe that any more, but I'm glad it's where I started. I found a book on Amazon that seemed like it would be a good starting place - Ink and Wash Florals: Stunning Botanical Projects in Watercolor and Ink by Camilla Damsbo Brix. I can't say enough good things about this book. I'm only 1/3 of the way through and I feel like I've already learned in leaps and bounds. I started by drawing the flowers first in pencil and then in ink several times in my sketch pad. Once I felt like I had a handle on the drawing part I drew each flower several times on the watercolor paper.

Then I took the big leap and started painting. Several of the designs require you to put one color on and then let it dry so having a few pages I could go between helped me. Not every flower I've done looks awesome, but there is at least one of each that I love.

I'm working on the next set of flowers in the book and I've already pre-ordered her next book because I find the way she explains things to be so simple to follow.

I made a cork wreath a few years ago following a tutorial online. Every tutorial I've found uses a hot glue gun and that's what I used the first time. However, the sun on my front door is hot enough (even in winter with the glass screen door) to re-melt the hot glue. I decided to try again with e6000.


What I've learned with the e6000 is that it doesn't set as quick as hot glue. That meant I had to do only a few at a time when they were at weird angles and I had to support them.




This ended up taking about 2 weeks. Every time I walked path after a few hours had passed I would add another couple of corks. This was pretty messy and sometimes I would have to go back and add a bit more glue if something feels too loose.

Now that I've been able to give it to my sister I can share a special project I did for her birthday. I saw a post from Spoonflower where they suggested making tea towels with recipes on it. I picked out a few of grandmas recipes and photo shopped them together. I decided to have Spoonflower print them onto quarter flats. Made a tea towel and this pillow which came out amazing.

Sunday ended up being a really productive day. I made new pillows for the couch. The old pillows were just threadbare. As I was making the new ones I realized that I made the old pillows at my first apartment 20 years ago! They held up a long time, but it was time for new ones. I'm really happy with the fabric from Spoonflower and I'd order from them again.




Spent the bulk of Sunday glazing. It is amazing how time consuming it ends up being. I still need to glaze my fish before I'm ready to load up the kiln. I also re-made the zinc free clear that I made a few weeks ago with the wrong silica. I have a few mugs I'm going to use it on the outside on with decals./>





The dogs kept me company while I was out in the garage. Looking at this picture I really need to do another bottle melting to gain some space and also look like less of a wino.




Finished up Sunday making my own bead/earring holder. This is going to hold a lot more in a much more confined space than what I was using previously. I'm super excited to try it out.