Before we left Chaumont last weekend I went on a nature walk and collected various leaves and flowers. The ferns that I brought home were already starting to wilt on the second day (my fault for not treating them better) so I started with those first.
When I bring back leaves and flowers from Chaumont (or other faraway places), I usually use the gallong zip lock bags. I carefully place them in flat and put them into the cooler to come home then the refrigerator at home. This time becuase I wasn't thinking straight I just left it all in a plastic shopping bag and just put that right into the fridge.
The ferns that I found were mostly large so I knew I'd be making larger platters and plates. I rolled out a bunch of slabs and got to work.


You can see the marks where I lightly marked the edges of the GR Pottery form that I was going to use for this platter.




Sometimes I use just one frond (is that the right word?) of the fern and other times I'll use several. Occassionally I'll use a pair of tweezers to get the leaves to lay flat. I don't have to do this with most leaves, but ferns can be tricky.




Once I have the whole thing mapped out I will go over it well with my rolling pin to get a really nice impression and then I'll cut out the form.




I have been wanting to make more plates like one of my favorites from last year for a while, but didn't have the ferns to do it. While wet I paint on a mixture of 50/50 gerstley borate and red iron oxide that has is about the consistency of cream. I let it dry until the sheen is gone before putting the form on and flipping it over and adding a foot.




I leave it on the form overnight and then flip it out.




Then I very carefully find the end of the fern and start to pull up. If I hadn't put the slip on then I could have left the leaf on for the bisque firing where it would burn away. But I painted the slip over the whole piece - including over the leaf. If I left the leaf on then it wouldn't leave a clean spot where the leaf is.




It doesn't look too pretty right now, but after the glaze firing with some Oribe on top it will look amazing.




I decided that this rounded tray needed handles. The handles were done with a sprig and then just slipped and scored on. The white dust is cornstarch. I wanted to test the theory if I added some would I get less slip on my forms. The answer is no. It didn't hurt anything, but it also didn't help. I'm wondering if at some point I'm going to need separate forms for dark clay and slips vs my bmix. We'll see next time I use them on bmix if the red rubs off, no more comes off on the sponge.




What was interesting is that the slip acts as sort of a preserver for the leaves. I was able to use them a second time and make some smaller things like these spoon rests.

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.

Memorial Day weekend was our first weekend at the cabin in Chaumont! It was so amazing to be back there again, I really miss it in the winter. It was also Willow's first trip up. She absolutely loved it, she loved it so much that when it came down to get in the car to go home - she laid down in protest.

While we were up there I had brought with me a 1000 yard set from Cat Mountain Fiber Arts. This was a yarn set of the same color varient, but in 10 different yarns. Each yarn is approximately 100 yards long for a total of 1000 yards. The yarns are all roughly the same weight. This particular color is called Wood Nymph.


I knew that I wanted to make a poncho out of this yarn, but having not made one before I was reading various patterns to get an idea of what to do. This pattern from Spoons and Hooks helped me with the aha! moment to get me going. What this made me see is - start with a circle and then you're going to grow on each corner by 2 each round - that's it!




I realized recently that half double crochet is my favorite stitch. I find that my hands can do patterns with it really fast and I just really get in a groove. Knowing that I had 100 yards of each and that this was a circular poncho, I made the decision that I would use all of one yarn and then just switch - and not worry about only switching on a new row. With the finished poncho you can't tell the difference and I was able to make it as large as possible by not worrying about it.




This pattern uses a 6mm hook.
Abbreviations:
hdc = half double crochet
hdcblo = half double crochet back loop only
sc = single crochet
ch = chain
sk st = skip stitch
bobble = yarn over, pull up, yarn over, pull up, yarn over, pull up, pull through all the stitches (7), chain
v stitch = two hdc in the same stich, skip a stitch
tr = treble crochet
granny corner = 2 stiches (whatever you did in that round - sc, hdc, or tr) in the first chain stitch, ch 2, 2 stitches (whatever you're doing in that round) in the second chain stitch.

I used a foundation hdc to start this poncho. Why? Because I just learned how to do it and I think it's really cool plus practice! I cast on 55 stitches because that's what felt good with this yarn around my neck. Cast on an odd number of stitches whatever makes sense for your head (it should be able to easily fit over without catching ears) with whatever yarn you use.
For each row that you do you're going to increase by 4 stitches - 2 on each side. It's like the corner of a granny square. You're going to do 2 of the stitch in the first chain, chain 2 then do 2 of the stich in the second chain stitch.
Once you have your chain - join it back to the beginning making sure that you have no kinks in the chain. Now mark the spot on the opposite side of where you joined. For me with 55 stitches this was the stitch that was 28 away.

Row 1: ch 2 and hdc in the starting stitch. ch 2 then 2 more hdc in the same stitch. hdc in each stitch to your marker. 2 hdc in the marker stitch ch 2 then 2 hdc in the same stitch. hdc back to the begining. sl stitch to join

Row 2-4: ch 2, hdc all the way around with a granny corner in the two sides
Row 5-you run out of the first yarn: ch 1, sc, sk stitch, 2 sc, repeat to end




This next section is a repeating pattern until you get to the last row.
Row 1-2:ch 2, v stitch around, granny stitch in open spaces, sl stitch to join
Row 3: ch 2, hdc around, granny stitch in open spaces, sl stitch to join
Row 4: ch 2, bobble around, granny stitch with hdc in open spaces, sl stitch to join
Row 5: ch 2, hdc around, granny stitch in open spaces, sl stitch to join
Row 6-8: ch 2, hdcblo around, granny stitch in open spaces, sl stitch to join
I did this pattern 4 times. In the 3rd an 4th rounds I switched up the bobble row to do bobble, ch, sk stitch to save yarn. The bobble stitch takes up a lot of yarn and I was looking to save yarn as my poncho got larger. I also ended on a bobble stitch because I thought it would compliment the eddging in my head well.




The edging was pretty simple.
Row 1: ch 7 (4 for the tr, 3 ch), tr crochet, *sk stitch, tr, ch 3, tr * repeat *. This is the only row without a granny corner. In the open chain space just tr, chain 2, tr on the other side
Row 2: The goal of this row is to have a picot in the middle of the v of the treble. Sl stitch in the first chain, sl stitch in the second chain, ch 4, sl stitch into the same stitch (to create the picot), sc in the next stitch, sl stitch where the 2 tr meet.




I had a little bit of yarn leftover so I decided to create a bit more of a neck and use up all the yarn.
Row 1: sc all the way around (no granny)
Row 2: v stitch all the way around (no granny)
Row 3: sc all the way around (no granny)
I had JUST enough yarn to do this and weave in my end. Really happy with the finished result, but will have to wait until it gets chilly again to wear.




There is no "right" way to choose which yarns to use where. I knew I wanted something really soft by my neck so I used what I'm pretty sure was the mohair to start with. I also knew that the two boucle type yarns would be wasted in the bobble and that I wanted them to be apart from each other so I switched to them when I knew I was going into the hdcblo and v stitch sections. Have fun with it!
My crochet supervisors asleep on the job.

I bought a pack of Azure markers during Michael Harbridge's end of year flash sale. I wanted to use them, but I needed a surface. A few weeks ago I made some white orbs and eggs to do this fun technique with. Michael has a bunch of videos on facebook on this, but it's super easy. Step 1 randomly scribble on the surface with colors.


Step 2 use the alcohol pen to make the marker run and drip.




Step 3 seal with a brush on sealer




I love how my orbs turned out. I've made art! One thing I will note for next time....it does run onto the wood and stain so use a piece of foam.

As we were walking around the American Craft Council show this weekend Craig said to me - all these artists have a cohesive theme. When you looked into their booths, all of the pieces fit together into some sort of a cohesive theme. A lot of the artists only had a handful of pieces in their booths.

It got me thinking about my work. After I joined ClayShare in early 2021, I really went down a learning path. I made a lot of individual things because I wanted to see if I could. I've explored shapes, projects, textures, and all kinds of things that were previously outside of my comfort zone. This means I have a lot of things sitting in my basement that aren't at all a cohesive theme. So when I did my first craft show last month, there was no cohesive theme in my booth just a lot of stuff.

So who am I as an artist? Do I have a cohesive theme? Do I even want a single cohesive theme?


A big part of the challenge I have is that I'm not trying to make a living off my pottery. I make pottery to de-stress from my day job. A lot of people in the past years have said to me - you should sell your work, but selling it has never been the primary goal. I make things because I enjoy making them. Would I enjoy making things if I have to make the same thing over and over? I don't think that I would.




That said, I do have a theme that pops up in my work. I really enjoy incorporating nature in my work. That might mean imprinting clay with leaves, flowers, and other things that I find in my yard or at the cabin or just while out. My favorite rolling pin is my "mistake" birch tree pin (I ordered cherry leaves and got birch trees which I've never actually been able to find for sale). I also tend to stick with a lot of earthy colors using a lot of greens and blues (ok and purple, but its purple!). I've made a lot of fish and every time I see a puzzling mold I think about turning it into a fish. I love my outdoorsy stamps from DeLa Designs and have been using those a lot recently. With my new cricut resists alot of what I've been doing are images of birds, trees, bears, and so on. So if I had to pick a theme it would be nature, but could I put all of these things in a booth and would they be a cohesive single set of work - no.




So the question becomes - is that a bad thing? I go back to - I'm not trying to be an artist and have this be my income. I do this to relax and have fun. If I go down the path of becoming a more serious artist then I do think that I'll need to narrow down what I make, but for now I don't want to constrain myself and take the enjoyment out of it.

My garden is blooming. Every year I feel like it goes from bare winter - where are the flowers? To BAM all the flowers are here. I have much of my garden setup to have very minimal needs. I have perenials that come back every year in rotating showers of color and I have annuals that I have gotten to act like perenials. The secret to annuals that act like perenials - let them reseed themselves before you remove them. With everything blooming it seemed like a good time to do some imprints of leaves and flowers




My strawberry plate came out rather abismal, both of them. I decided to try using the leaves and then maybe just adding the strawberries later.


Some strawberry and grape spoon rests setup for drying.




I took fresh hydrangea leaves and then added in some dried flowers that I had. I find that the hydrangea flowers don't work well when they are wet.




I ended up making quite a few of the lavendar dishes (left) in both hexagon and square. It's the same 6 lavendar stems in all of them, but they all have their own unique look. I'm not sure about the viola leaves (right). They're so faint. I decided I'd use this dish as a test and maybe use the colors for earth to see if it shows through before I make more.




I have never pressed rhubarb leaves before and I have no idea why. The veins in the leaves are deep and gorgeous.