Spoons!

The spoons worked! No slumping or warping, and after a good sand with wet and dry paper, the unglazed stoneware is fairly lick-able. 

[the yellow and blue ones are my fav by far.]

shiny birds

My first glaze firing in the Gold Coast Potter Assoc. baby kiln (affectionately known as Minnie) was a complete success! Hurrah!

['scuse the dull kiln picture, artificial light]

Folded ramekins with a new feather
Lovely lori cups!
My clear glaze was perfect, despite long months of neglect! The cobalt gloss is gorgeous as ever and I managed to be pedantic enough to remove all traces of cobalt from the outside of the cups. The yellow gloss looks good, but could use some more pigment and I certainly shouldn't be watering it down any more for roll glazing.
I owe a gratitude to the lovely ladies of the GC Potters - everyone is so supportive and helpful as I develop my ceramics practice :)

pots

It was a fairly good firing;
Just the odd dry edge and smudge of cobalt glaze. The bugger is practically invisible in it's raw state.

I feel quite sad now that I've said that might be the last firing for the year. Maybe I can squeeze out some more pots?!

my creative space

The kiln gods have been kind to me of late; my new batch of clear gloss glaze works perfectly. Phew. I've been preparing work for a Christmas retail showcase in Brisbane this year, but now that most of the pieces are finished, I'm having a confidence crisis. So my creative space is full of glazed pots. I was asked to make some feather pots without the coloured glazes, so 2 of these square slip-cast sets are just clear gloss glazed. I like them, but I worry that they are too plain; there is only one or two feathers on just one side of each piece and now I feel I should have painted more feathers. I've been making this collection with the bright glazes for 5 months now, maybe I'm just too used to them.

Lined up like this, they look great, simple with a touch of colour. I've finally perfected the paint layers to achieve those bright colours.
But when seated together, they look so...white. Not even white, because the clay is stoneware, not porcelain. The bases are a little uneven too, so they wobble a bit. This can't be helped, some pots have a tendancy to warp in the kiln, especially wide flat pieces like the trays. I feel like the quality should be higher for a high profile retail showcase like this. But at the same time I can't see a way that I could have improved the production and that the point of the showcase is to promote handmade. That means imperfect.

I'm so worried that I'll send these to Brisbane and they won't like them! What if I'm told that they're no good?! I'll have ruined my first wholesale opportunity! I'd love to hear some advice from folks who are in/have been in this situation? For now I will calm myself with tea and tim tams and visit Kootoyoo to distract myself.

square

olive

Katy = happy.
Hello olive dishes!