lori.

A long overdue job done: documenting the remnants of my rainbow lorikeet feather collection.

I'll be moving on from these designs when I begin making in my new studio next month, but if you ask nicely I can make select pieces on order. 

See them all on my website.

Big thanks to Ruth for lending me her shiny new camera!

[ramekin :: 5 cm high 10.5 cm wide]

[cup :: 10 cm high 8 cm wide]

[plate :: 2 cm high 16 cm wide]

[plate :: detail]

july.

[forever spooning]

[swedish inspiration]

manx spoons

I'm making stacks of these little guys for a special project later on this summer...

travel treasures: peacock blue.

A rare small blue feather from a peacock in Beacon Hill Park, Victoria, BC.

progress

It feels like an age since I painted feathers! The 'tall' vases seem to be progressing nicely...

The Studio is developing too - more inspiration pinned on the walls and a new set of shelves to keep me tidy!

(have I mentioned how downright giddily excited I am about my new studio?!?!)

Thursday = Mud Colony! Thanks Adriana!

miro feathers.

Last week I posted these photos on Facebook and I am blown away with the positive response. I'm not sure if it's the designs themselves, or the jump into a new style that has caught everyone's attention. Either way, it got me thinking and I returned to some sketchbook work that I started before Christmas - pulling apart the colour sections in my feather designs and simplifying them.

[miro feathers?]

I think I like them...do you?

Thursday = Mud Colony!

indian ringneck

Making studies of some exquisite Indian Ringneck parrot feathers from a very generous friend.

Thursday: Our Creative Spaces + Mud Colony.

slab platters

I've had a few requests for larger pieces, like platters or fruit bowls, however my fledging throwing skills aren't up to making something that big, so I've been playing with simple slab platters;

It's lovely to have a wider area to play with the design composition.

spoons

It's difficult to pinpoint where the spoons first crossed my radar. It must be nearly 6 months now, that I've been aware of the seemingly increasing trend in ceramic spoons. I admired them, coveted them, but didn't want to make my own; don't be a copycat, I told myself. But I kept seeing them, finding them more and more lovely. Suddenly I thought: no one can copyright a spoon and my skills are relatively fledgling, no one will notice or mind if I make a few.

 So I sketched.

And I made.

[spoons cut from thin slab of clay and hand pinched into shape]

 I love.

However; I have no idea if they will hold their form during firing to 1270c? Are they small enough to evade slumping? I will certainly only glaze the top sides just in case...

[one other small motivation to this - perhaps if I put spoons in my bowls, unimaginative people will stop asking me 'what would I do with this bowl...?']

Thursday: Our Creative Spaces + Mud Colony.

painting

Building up stock for markets and my dear stockists.

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.