I have been searching for some good quatrefoil texture for a few months. I found a roller on Etsy, but it was in millimeters and I didn't think to convert it to inches (yes, dumb American moment). It was meant for polymer clay and was tiny. The texture was good (it was on one of the angels and trees with birds a couple of kilns ago), but tiny.
I found a piece of glass on Etsy a few weeks ago that was the perfect texture, but first - glass in the studio yuck. Second, the shipping for it was crazy expensive (probably because it's glass). I mentioned it to my pottery bff Heather who in a couple of days found the same texture on a matt on Amazon!
I noticed that the supplier for this was in NY and found their web site and ended up buying some other things as well. They are a cake supply place called NY Cake.
While making this I decided to try a dart because I had been thinking about those. I think it makes the pitcher look a little sassy. Not entirely sure I like the dart with the separate spout. It makes it look sassy and pouty.
The grape wine chiller is so amazing! It could also be used as a vase, but the colors came out just like I had envisioned. I need to this a series of things and make more. The only downside is that it is very heavy.
I'm really happy with how the birch and cardinal vases turned out. The clear definitely muted the root beer, but not every where it would have touched which is weird. I do really want to figure out what caused that.
This kiln sneak peak is an interesting one. Do you see how the bark texture is two different colors? When I put the 2167 clear on top I don't worry about being perfect because its clear and doesn't usually change anything. Except this time it's definitely lightened the rootbeer. I was at the very bottom of my 5 gallons when I did this so maybe at some point I didn't mix it well enough and there was extra of something. I actually think it adds depth to the bark so I like it, but I'd love to know the chemical that causes that.
Over the weekend I mixed up a new batch of the clear and did a test tile, but I do have 3 pints left of the old batch. I was lazy and did not sieve. I did a test tile and if it looks weird I'll go back and sieve, but otherwise I'm just going with it.
I couldn't resist and extra look at the grapes. From this angle it looks so awesome!
I decided to make these birch vases have different views on each side. One side is more of a sunrise view with the bright yellows at the top and the other is more of a sunset view with the deep purples and reds at the top. Glazing these takes a good bit of time and patience, but the result is worth it.
All the glazes are Mayco. The trees are Cotton Tail and the Cardinals are Hot Tamale. The sunris/sunset is Fruit of the Vine, Candy Apple Red, Jack o Lantern, and Sunkissed. The tree bark is Root Beer.
I needed to make a couple more birch vases. I made the first one and then when I went to make the second I was thinking about the large pillow vase form that I haven't used yet. I decided to try it out with that. I really like how much more surface area there are for the birch and cardinals.
Here they are together for size comparison.
I was making little plates this weekend with my hexagon cutter from De La Designs and 6.5 inch GR Pottery form. I got the cutter from De La Designs to make it faster than having to outline the hexagon with my needle tool and make the corners sharper.
Well I got a little carried away because it was so fast. I only have 6 of the 6.5 hexagons and I cut out 8. At first I was going to wrap them in plastic and use them later, but then I thought I'd just make a little baking dish with my hexagon wallie. Usually when I make those I put the wallie down first and then drape the clay over and compress. However, I was making press plates so I just pressed this without thinking and I accidentally made this cute little star dish. I love how they turned out so I kept them this way.
Writing this blog post and staring at the picture, I just realized that these are in the shape of a Star of David. I'm thinking about what I could make as Hannukah dishes or maybe a Seder plate. Something to consider.