I went downstairs to make stuff the other day and I was just so tired. I don't know about you all, but the process of making slabs via the slab roller is a mini workout. I stood there staring for a moment and decided that it just wasn't happening. It had been a few days since I had done stuff though and I did want to play with clay. I sat down with a bag of clay and before I knew it - Gnomes!




As I was making them I made some mini-gnome parts. I had seen someone post not too long ago that they made gnome wine stoppers. I thought they looked adorable and decided to make some small gnomes to try that out.




Gnomes are super easy to make and a lot of fun.

Just finished a new top that I'm calling Buds on Stems. I have this amazing book Crochet Every Way Stitch Dictionary by Dora Ohrenstein. I was looking to create my next design and was flipping through pages and found the Buds on Stem stitch. I had actually already previously put the book cover in because it was such a pretty stitch.

I had 2 skeins of Sojurn in Moss from Miss Babs which is a fingering weight yarn.






I used a 4.5 mm hook.

Stitches:

Ch = chain

sc = single crochet

dc = double crochet

sk 2 ch = skip two chains

Buds = double crochet 3 together, ch 3, double crochet 3 together






The cast on for this stitch is multiples of 6 + 3. I cast on 63 which gave me 10 buds going across.

Row 1: Buds in the 6th chain from the hook, sk 2 ch, *dc, sk 2 ch, Buds, sk 2 ch. Repeat from * across, dc in the last chain.

Row 2: Ch 5, *sc in the next ch 3 space, ch 2, dc in the next dc, ch 2. Repeat from * across ending with dc.

Row 3: Ch 5, dc 3 together in the first chain, * dc in the next sc, Buds in the next dc. Repeat from * across. In the last chain dc 3 together

Row 4: Ch 1, sc in the first dc, * ch 2, dc in the next dc, sc in the next ch 3 space. Repeat from * across, dc in the last ch.

Row 5: Ch 3, * Buds in the next dc, dc in the next dc. Repeat from * across.

Repeat rows 2-5 until you have your desired length. I ended up wiht 14 rows of buds.

Make 2 panels




The next step is to sew the panels together. I wanted a fairly open neck so I sewed in 3 buds on each side. For the arm holes I left 5 buds. I also didn't sew all the way to the bottom because I like how it looks when shirts have a little bit of an open bottom.

This pattern is for an adult medium. You could easily adjust to make it wider or longer to adjust the size. I used almost all of the yarn so if you're going to go larger you'd need another skein.

It's been a while since I've had kiln results and there was a backup on my shelves. There is another kiln already cooling while I post these results. This kiln had some WOW! and some Meh.
There is a lot more vinyl resist in this kiln load. I'm still making bear stuff. Bears on Brown Bear clay makes me smile. The bear on the pitcher is my favorite piece in the kiln. I really wasn't sure it would work because it was so ornate, but it came out amazing. I also had never used Midnight Ceramics glazes on Brown Bear and took the risk - they did not disapoint!
The Meh is my chip and dip platter. I don't know what happened to the pigment, it just didn't pop at all. I might try to reglaze or maybe just make another one. If I reglaze I'll lose the texture, but if I can make it something I don't hate it might be worth it. Also this pretty much takes up a whole shelf so is it worth it if it doesn't work? I don't know, thoughts?

A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about people might find this blog and so I started searching for other blogs to see how I would find those. I found Feedspot which is a blog aggregator and submitted my blog to their database. I was really just expecting to be added to the list, but......I was added to their top 40 list at #13!!!

Feedspot Top 40 Ceramics Blogs

I'm so excited. First, to be added to the list is so cool, but then also to be added so high to the list is a little mind bloggling.

Kiln Sneak Peak! Shown here are 2 of the planters I made like 2 months ago now and a really sweet looking bowl with the flower stamp I carved. This first kiln load has a bunch of mugs and that bear pitcher on the bottom. It also has the chip and dip bowl that I'm really excited to see and some test tiles/coasters. There are a few re-fires in here of some bowls and plates where I had some crawling that I wanted to try to fix.

Spent a good part of the weekend glazing. I have a bottleneck that I need to solve for - I'm out of shelves! My glaze shelves, greenware shelves, and drying shelves are all full! I decided the best place to start was with glazing. If I can glaze everything on those shelves and run 2-3 glaze loads then I can do a bisque, clear those shelves to put the stuff that's currently drying on them, and then have space to put the bisque on the glaze shelves. This is, of course, a never ending process, but I do feel like I had a legitimate backup somewhere because it's unusual that EVERY space on EVERY shelf is full to capacity.




I am really excited for this bear pitcher. I am really hoping that the glaze keeps the lines crisp enough that you can tell that it's a bear,




I'm making a whole lot of lemon plates of varying sizes. The ones on the left still need their leaves colored in and they all need a coat of clear on top.




My "done" shelf. The only thing left to do is wipe bottoms and load!




Once again my supervisors are sleeping on the job.