painting

Building up stock for markets and my dear stockists.

miami marketta | january 2012

Another beautiful night at Miami Marketta last week. It was wonderful to see such a big crowd in January! Kudos for supporting handmade folks.

Thanks goodness for Instagram making naff iPhone photos look cute and retro!

The lori eggs were a hit, hurrah!

fired eggs

Those bowls from November - fired in Michaela's gas kiln, came out perfectly. I used the same glaze the week before and it was awful?!

 Ah well, I shall take my victories where I can.

 

I'm beginning to appreciate the simple creaminess of white stoneware clay, without my coloured glazes.

The eggs turned out perfectly, just as I imaged them.

Even the iron spots that regularly appear from Michaela's gas kiln don't bug me, in fact they almost add to the eggs.

my (dishy) creative space

Continuing on from last week's creative space, I've been painting bowls to match my new flat dishes.

I've had a few egg-related incidents this last week - one being accidentally stepping on a gecko egg on my studio floor :( I didn't even figure out what it was til 5 hours later and I was devastated! But the lady mother gecko living in the apartment must have returned, as I found this one in almost the same place on the floor of the studio yesterday! So tiny! (though yes, I KNOW, they are considered pests. Hush.)
More creative spaces over here and a new weekly meeting place for clay folk over here.

eggs

For weeks I've been aching for a new design. I love the lorikeet feathers, but I don't want to overdo them - I need to keep them special. Everything I thought of was too different, too unconnected. I want to keep some thread of correlation between all of my work. I wanted to extend the line, not abandon it.

Then I thought of the eggs. I've painted the feathers, then the birds, so it only makes sense to paint the eggs now. Completing the circle of life?

I also wanted to develop the feathers somewhat, make them softer and truer to the real form. I started with a soft grey wash, darkened around the feathers and eggs, then used a white underglaze for the egg with grey and blue shading and instead of black line work for the feathers I scratched a line into the clay and added the detailing in dark grey.

I can only hope that the colours behave themselves once glazed!

my (egg) creative space

Inspiring me this week: sparkling blood orange, sunshine, jacaranda blossom and discovering a new (to me) potter.

[sketchbook]

[lorikeet nests?]

 

[plates/shallow dishes]

[sliiiightly larger bowls]

More creative spaces over here.