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Thursday, September 09, 2010

my creative space

The kiln was around 1000C this morning, so for once we got to see 'orange heat' through the peep hole;
We usually fire the kiln in the morning, so it reaches its top temps overnight, but this firing started late yesterday arvo, so it is still super hot this morning. All my pots could be glowing the same colour...how mental is that?!
I'm progressing with my lorikeet casting today. We use strips of old tyres as giant elastic bands to hold the two sections tightly together,
Pour the slip (liquid clay) in though the 'slip channels',
Leave it for about an hour, then remove the bands and pull the mold apart,
And this is what a fresh cast looks like! That funny line is called the 'seam'
They look quite ugly when they're fresh out of the mold, especially the the slip channel (or the 'spare') on their heads...!
After cutting off the spare, reshaping their heads and fettling the seams away, they look pretty darn cute!
I've got 2 sizes of birdies, I want to make 7 or 8 larger ones to perch along a branch or a piece of driftwood and hang from a window or the ceiling maybe and I'm thinking I could make a pendant from the smaller size...hmm...
I'll show you some painting birds next week, or maybe even tomorrow if you're lucky! Many thanks to the lovely Kirsty of Kootoyoo for hosting My Creative Space, I haven't been keeping up recently, so I'm happy to be back in the game this week!

11 comments:

  1. oooh these are going to be sooooo lovely! Well done - fascinating following the process, thank you for sharing ....

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  2. Can't wait to see the birds finished. They are going to look awesome!

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  3. I just love your post - great to see a story in photos - thanks for going to the effort for those of us uninitiated with your craft. Great terminology explanations too - tah!
    And they look super to boot!

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  4. They look gorgeous! And such an interesting process. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. =)

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  5. They're lovely Katie. Thanks for all the pics. I haven't been keeping up lately either... but my sister is moving here soon, so I'm planning on a bit of babysitting coming my way... so don't give up on me! Thanks!

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  6. Beautiful photo story of the process-love seeing all the steps and the birds are wonderful. I can imagine a whole flock across a wall...:0)

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  7. What a cool sneak peek..They are going to be awesome no doubt.

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  8. must be pretty exciting! i'd be a little scared of burns. . .
    your birds are looking lovely :)

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  9. I've distracted the Mr by making pointed suggestions that it's his turn for tea-making. Otherwise, he'd spot your kiln and lay awake all night plotting how to beg/borrow/steal one. Your birdies are the bees knees.

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  10. WOW Katy that is such an interesting process! Love to see the finished birdies :) Hope that all of your pots turned out in the firing.

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  11. I adore what you make. Im new to finding you so im off to press 'follow' immediately!

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