I spent Friday and Saturday glazing, but did not finish. I got enough to get a kiln full, but then on Sunday I decided I wanted to make instead of glaze. I went out to the yard and collected some maple leaves and made maple leaf mugs and pitchers.

I didn't make all the mugs with the bird, but I did do a few. I think they are really cute, but may not be everyone's cup of tea.


Both of these need more shaping before they dry, but I think they're going to turn out well.

Just unloaded the bisque kiln and I'm hot! It's hot out, but also any time I load or unload the kiln I get hot. Last summer when it was hot I started glazing inside, but now its how I glaze. I love having the space of everything spread out on the tables. I'd love to have a permanent studio space that has something like this, but that's for the future.

There are a bunch of different things to be glazed.

I've done this enough times that I actually have a bit of a system at this point. On the table that's closer to the family room and faces the TV on the far left I have my brush cups (just out of frame) and then I setup all the mugs. I've started loading the kiln as I glaze and I almost always have mugs on the bottom shelf of my kiln.




In the middle of the table are the candle holders/cupcake stands. They've been ready to glaze for a while, but I was trying to decide how to glaze them. I think I've decided on some of the Georgie's Tye Die Glazes. On the right are some of the bigger items. I put these here because I have two dogs who like to run around sometimes and this is the most protected spot. I haven't lost anything yet, but they have knocked some things over.




I have a second table that's parallel to the first. I have this weird large space that's between my kitchen and the family room. Theoretically you could put a table there, but it would be annoying to always have to walk around it. Plus I have a room just off the kitchen that it fits better.

Anyway, on this table I have the Christmas ornaments I worked on up at the cabin and some more bird bath earring holders. Top left in this picture is something I'm really excited about that is a custom order. The black is the new Mayco engobe. More on this soon.




On the left of that table is plates and bowls. I had done the underglaze on the plates a while ago, but hadn't done the glazing.




My garden has just started to bloom so just some additional pictures to brighten your day. This is echinacea.




I love the colors of this lily.




I think I'm going to have to divide these red lilies this year. I don't remember when I planted them so lets go with 5+ years ago. It's probably past time to divide.

I am doing a prototype wine chiller in grape vine theme. I am guessing a bit on the dimensions so I may have to adjust. I made this slightly wider than my pitcher template to start with.




I had the idea when I was at the Michael Harbridge workshop a few weeks ago. I initially thought I'd use a puzzling mold, but Michael said there wasn't a mold that would work for that.




So I improvised and we will see if it works.




One more view to get the full 360.

While we were at the cabin I setup a mini clay studio. I decided to make some ornaments because they are small and easily transported home.

First up was this bird in a wreath. I added texture to the wreath later and I carved the bird a bit.




I saw an angel last year that had been in my head and played around with a few different versionf of them. This is one version. There is a hook in the back, but I'm still not sure how I'm going to glaze fire this one. That might be a design flaw.




Puppy cuteness in bed.

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.