my (disgruntled) creative space

Ah this morning felt like it would be a good day. But within 3 minutes of being at college I discovered that those once-nice-art-buying-folks can soon become blackmailers. Sigh. However! I am potting...
Some beaker/cup things. I thought I got the size sorted, but then the subsequent ones became taller. I mean, thats cool cos I'm making bigger pots (progress much!) but annoying cos I need a lot of the same thing to be the same size.Same with all my ramekins. Great sizes and quality but nothing that matches.And here's a sneak preview of my lorikeet feather decals...I'm excited about these lovelies.

More nice creative people over at Kootoyoo's! Kirsty is so good for hosting this every week, huh?

test feathers

The test feather pots were successful enough to give me some idea of what combination of colours/techniques to use.

Painted black detail looks good unglazedThis feather is awesome. One of my favourites for sure.Sadly the chrome glaze is very very very dark, as I suspected.
Scraffito detail is a bit too discreet. And is only almost effective unglazed. Cobalt glaze is still brilliant.

Underglaze pencil detail looks good unglazed and looks nice and, well, feathery!Sadly the pencil blurs and fades a little under the clear glaze. However my yellow glaze worked out great. I foolishly tested it on a porcelain pot as well, oh my, does it look good. I'm not even going to show it to you because you'd never love my stoneware ever again!

Small plates look super cute with a curved feather.I'm leaning towards feathers with painted black detail with blue and yellow glazed interiors, and clear gloss glaze outside. I added a few decals this morning but they won't be fired til next week.

pray

All the test feather pots survived the bisque firing just fine. No compression or joining cracks to be seen (yet).

I mixed up some new yellow glaze today, fingers crossed its the shade I want.
The green pots look fab unfired, I hope the colours don't change too dramatically. My scientific side is telling me the chrome green glaze is mighty strong though...This grey colour will be cobalt blue, like this casserole dish.
Michaela let me run a glaze firing this afternoon, so I'll see everything next Wednesday. I'm praying that everything works out so I can get straight into producing this new range of work! I think I need to build a kiln god shrine somewhere in the workshop...

my creative space

All those pots from the Easter holidays went in the kiln today for their bisque firing. Hopefully I can start glazing tomorrow!

God bless bubble wrap and polysterene boxes
Almost pitifully, all those pots didn't even fill 2 shelves of the kiln. Sigh.
We did find a few more pots to add to make it a worthwhile firing. I'm worried now that I really won't have enough to justify a glaze firing as soon as I would like. Back to the wheel I guess!

More creative people over at Kootoyoo's. Kirsty tells us it was the biggest week ever last Thursday, I wonder if today will beat it?

immense

Its about time I talked about my wonderful teacher's work. Michaela Kloeckner has been a potter for some 30 years...and is damn good at it. She had a solo show back in October last year, mainly of thrown pots with amazing ceramic doll legs! She's part of another show next month in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, at the White Canvas Gallery, which we're all very excited for. (Click the images for a larger version)

It opens on Friday 14th May. I'm hoping for champagne between 5.30pm and 8.30pm!

paint

The feather painting continues! My teacher likes this concept and has encouraged me to extend it into my college work this term, and use it to complete 3 of my units - produce artwork, establish a viable arts business (!) and exhibit artwork. The plan is to make heaps of feather pots and attempt to sell them at a local art/craft market.

birds

Yay for professional photographs! This set has been mighty difficult for me to capture, so I persuaded the photography teacher at college to take a few for me :)

my (shiny) creative space

My crazy-coral-inspired-sculpture-thing came out of the kiln this morning and I'm rather pleased. Glazing it was a nightmare. Pouring gloss glaze in each tube, rolling it round then tipping it out, trying to avoid dribbles, then dipping the whole thing in the matte white glaze, trying not to get that inside. However, the kiln gods must have been in a good mood cos it is a general success.
However I am a little fed up with the office desk organiser quips. Its sculpture, alright?!More creative folk over at Kirsty's :)

help

This amazing designers market is in danger of being closed down by the Gold Coast City Council. Even if you are not a local, please sign the petition to save it, as it is a wonderful platform for emerging artisans. The GC doesn't provide many opportunities to sell their work, so please help us save this one.

feather me

Seriously, I need to find more witty feather themed titles or get a new design direction.
I'm decorating my pots this weekend with lorikeet feather patterns. I haven't worked out the best way to do it yet (paint + scraffito or paint + black ink-like lines or just the decals) so I'm trying out each method. All these feathers are making my nose itchy...

goodbye dining room

...Hello productivity.
I've been playing around with different forms to see if I can remember how to make them (!) and what I like/can actually make successfully. Everything is still on a smallish scale unfortunately but only practice and courage will remedy that.

Cut and folded yesterdays pots. Cos I like altered pots and cos a lot of them were wonky. Cutting detracts the eye from the wonky-ness. I've already got a good idea how these will be decorated.

Been using my smaller stamp, for some reason I had it in my head that it didn't work well, thankfully I was wrong!

Wonky pot, cleverly made lovely with a bit of cutting and sticking. Now if only I could make them larger...

my (messy) creative space

Using the wheel on the balcony wasn't working out...too much noise pollution from me and too many prying eyes from other folk. So I moved it into my dining room! After weeks of trying to stare this wheel out I finally plucked up the courage to DO IT and put up with the noise and general discomfort to make some pots on this antique. I was quite successful, too.

Spot the WD-40 to silence the squeaks (my lovely man pulled the whole thing apart last night and she spins a lot happier now. Men are so very useful sometimes) We barely used the table anyway...!
9 small pots in a couple of hours, thats pretty good going for me. Loud music to sing along to helps a lot!

I'm hoping to get in early at Kirsty's this week, usually I'm one of the last cos I'm at college all day on Thursdays. I wonder what other creative folk are doing today...?

P.S. Don't forget to check out my etsy, I've been updating :D

psst!

I've been updating my etsy shop over the last few days with some newer and larger pieces.

Slip cast vase with coloured relief pattern
Wheel thrown pie dish Wheel thrown ramekin with coloured relief designHand thrown porcelain ramekin with beautiful blue slip decoration. This one is extra special as I don't work with porcelain clay very often (tis price-y stuff!)

Annnnnd drum roll please...Yes its my Willow Bird Nestling Tableware! A lovely set of 3 bowls made with love and care.

I always appreciate a visit :)

mexican inspiration

A wonderful travelling friend bought me this present on her recent trip to Mexico... I just love it.
All the decoration is done with coloured glazes, but the whole thing is unglazed

Its amazing how thick they got the colour without it runningJust gorgeous.

my (adventuring) creative space

Today was the last day of this term for us, so our wonderful teacher took us to visit a potter friend of her's up in the mountains, at Beechmont. Peter Wallace has been potting since forever it would seem, making the most amazing large scale pots with crystalline glazes.
We were lucky enough to watch him make some pots...

His tools are massive! Those calipers are 4 times the size of ours!
He throws his large pots in 2 halvesTo speed up the process (and mainly through, as he admitted, impatience) he uses a gas torch to dry the clay to a firm consistency to join sections.This brings a whole new meaning to 'smoking pot'...!Joining the 2 halvesMaking the neck of the pot

Seconds in the garden
Attaching the neckWith the assistance of his most adorable 'white dog'

It was amazing to watch Peter work and I learnt so much! Our work was validated yesterday, with many positive comments, so I'm now celebrating that, and Easter, with pink champagne. Enjoy the long weekend and visit Kootoyoo to see more creative lovelyness!