From start to finish....this incised dish is made with a 50-50 mix of B-mix with grog and Draper clay from my yard. I carved the design when the clay was barely firm so it looks very fluid. Then when bone dry, of course, into a bisque fire it went. The white in the design is a white glaze I applied with the excess being carefully removed with a wet sponge.

Count Down To Soup Bowl Event

This Saturday, November 4 is the date. If you are in the neighborhood, be at the Draper Senior Center by 11 am. Buy a beautiful handmade, stoneware bowl for $12 dollars and fill it with all sorts of soups, etc. The photo above shows just a few of the 150 or so bowls my Clay Class and I have been working on since the beginning of the year.  Everyone is welcome to come to this fun fundraiser arranged by the Advisor Counsel.

Slip Swirl, Slip Scroll

A little slip decoration on these soup mug bowls for the Draper Senior Center fundraiser coming this Fall. The blue mug has some raised terra cotta slip scrolls covered with clear glaze. The other has a swirl of terra cotta slip painted onto greenware, also with a clear glaze finish. Some of the terra cotta color burned away and it gives the impression that the mug is already a gourmet cup of java.

Tiny and Fun

I made some very tiny pots, about the size of a thimble,  just for fun. A friend of mine saw them, exclaimed how cute they are but wondered how they could be used. Well, another friend of mine, a gardener, brought in the cutest miniature tomatoes. Perfect fit....just for fun.

I Like All Kinds of Bats

The upper photo is of my favorite North Star blue bat. Easy to mount on the wheel head pins and mmmmost importantly, my favorite color. The lower picture is the little animal that has been leaving little black pellets on the ground about a foot from my front door. Every evening, there are several bats that emerge at dusk, swooping around and about my front and backyard. Around 11pm, this little bat needs a break and hangs itself on the bricks. Good location; protected from the rain and the wind. Glad to have both.

More Minis

My mini lidded pots, also known as Petite Pots, are still my favorite things to make. No two are alike and all are "sooooo cute" say my customers. I started with small pots when I was practicing fitting lids, moved onto larger lidded jars and then, overtime, came back to my little ones. I like that they get a smile out of people everytime.

From Worst to Best

Petite pots are still my favorite thing to make. I took a quick photo of this little gem when it came out of the kiln, just before it was purchased by someone in my class. The funny thing is, the lid was initially too thick and quite flat and boring. I figured I could lighten the lid and jazz it up with some simple loop tool carving. The glaze did the rest. From worst to best.

Good News and Bad News

The top photo of a pot that is only about 1 inch x 1 x 1 made it through a cone 5 firing. It's a 50/50 mix of local clay and Laguna's B-Mix with grog. Being very symmetrical with a flat bottom made for a good result. Then I made a tea cup [normal size] with a good handle with the same mix of clay. The handle pulled the cup over in the firing. I kind of like it because it is so weird but it shows me that I am pushing the temperature limits of that clay. Next test, I'm adding more B-mix and I'll see what that does. I don't want to lose the color of this clay by adding too much B-mix. The photo doesn't do it justice. The cup has a white glaze inside and clear outside; the little pot has just a clear glaze, but the best look, in my opinion is no glaze. More test pots to follow.

Playing With Local Clay

There has been a lot of construction in my neighborhood and mountains of clay have been sitting on a property nearby after they dug a huge hole for a foundation. Well I had to check it out. I got a bucket of it, soaked it, mixed it, strained out a few pebbles and roots, and let it sit on heavy cotton cloth [actually old blue jeans] in a bucket, to wick out the water. The first batch resulted in a very stiff, unplastic but clay-like substance. So in the next round, I added one to one amount of Laguna B-mix with grog slip to the Draper clay slip to make it more plastic and workable on the wheel. The next post will be my test results.

Thermocouple Replacement

 After I researched the replacement thermocouple part number for this particular kiln, I ordered 2 online [one for now and one for next time]. The front of the kiln opens like a door once you take out several short screws. Skutt supplies great diy instructions online and it is quite straight forward. The picture below is what a new thermocouple looks like and the bottom picture is the overworked one that actually broke. I will keep an eye on the number of firings and replace it way before it gets that bad.....so maybe at 150 firings not 210! I do keep a written log on the firings for such things like this. We were only down for a week.

I've Been A Bad Blogger

The Draper Arts and Crafts Festival was another success for me. Not as good as last year due to the fact that there were at least 6 more potters than there were last year. Every year there are more overall  booths...a good thing for Draper City but not necessarily a good thing for me since I am not really seeing an increase in attendance. It didn't rain but it turned suddenly cold and shoppers weren't dressed for it. Difficult to shop, it seems, when you are shivering.

After 210 firings, alternating between cone 06 and 5, one morning, the kiln had a message for me. After I did a little research, turns out the thermocouple was done for. Not even sure how I made it through the last firing.  To be continued........                                      

This Saturday!!!

I do not know where the time flies away to but it is that time of year again. The last few times the festival day has been really cold with rain all day long . I think we are getting a break this year....finally. I will be in spot 80 in the pavilion. Come by and check out all the great vendors, especially me (ha ha) and say "hi".

Divine Vine

Well, I am liking the results, but this will still be one-of-its-kind. The overall technique is too tedious but the carving, however, has already been repeated on a vase. Free-style carving on leather hard clay is just too much fun.

Almost

Glazed but not fired yet. I painted a very dark glaze into the carved vine design then wiped away the excess with a damp sponge. Then, I painted a white glaze all around and about the vine design. Seemed like a great idea at the time, but soooo tedious and time consuming. Music helped. Definitely a one-of-a-kind unless I figure out a quicker way. Hope it was worth it....always an experiment.

Slab, Slip and Micro Tools

Up until now, my favorite way to create with clay, was to use a pottery wheel.  Recently, however, I've been messing with a slab roller. I'm enjoying the pinch pot look that I can get on a large scale with the use of a slab of clay, a cloth lined bowl as a mold and a wooden spoon to dimple the surface. To create a contrast, I used about 5 coats of dark slip on the B-mix clay and the micro tools just make carving details fun. The bowl is 11 inches in diameter and still drying. Stay tuned for the finish.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the doodle is so delightful.....

Why is a scrap piece of paper or, in this case, an envelope destined for the recycle bin, so inspirational for doodling? I have a spiral notebook with a wonderful collection of blank, white paper.  You'd think that would be the best option to keep my ideas organized. That's the theory, but I think my ideas don't want to be organized. A nice sharp pencil with a scrap piece of paper during a snow storm named George, is the best for inspiration in my little world. And don't forget the comfy couch.

Upload, Update, Uptight!

Blogger is a never ending challenge for me, but I do love the archive of my work that I can create and so here I am. I was trying to Blog from my phone where most of my photos reside but Google made life difficult. I managed to move photos from phone to laptop without Google getting a hold of my album contents....so invasive of Google to hold photos hostage unless I use their app on my phone. Hence...Uptight in title. Upload...I did manage...yah me, and now for the update. The November Soup Bowl fundraiser was a great success. All 107 bowls were sold and they ran out of bowls before they ran out of soup! This was the 4th year it was held and I think that word finally got out about what a fun event it is. Every year people, tell me that the soup bowls are better than last years'. Personally, I get bowl blindness! After making 50 bowls for each event, I can't even tell. So I will take their word on that. Our new challenge is to make 150 bowls for next years event.Yikes! The Clay Class is not that large but I see how creative and skilled everyone is. I am sure we can do this. "Determination" is our middle name, and, to make sure, we are starting right now! And by the way, that's my new 34 oz. teapot. Happy New Year to all!