Textured Pendant

I'd like y'all to meet my maine coon cat, Harvey. Harvey was in one of those cat cuddle moods and kept crawling on my back, up my shoulders, and around my lap as I was attempting to photo some of my newest beads and pendants. Maine Coons are quite demanding and if you've ever had one or have one you know what I mean. I was lucky to get this one pendant shot before he noticed me sitting in the patch of sun near the window.

This is a cone 6 glaze on a stoneware clay body. It's been stamped for texture. The hole is quite small as the glaze settled into the hole during the firing.

And here is the back.

Cat Tongue Yucca Brush

Yesterday I glazed using a teensy tiny 'cat tongue' shaped brush that I made out of a small yucca frond (I soaked the frond in water for a few days, then scraped off the pulp with knife ). This was an experiment that I wanted to try since reading a book called, "Talking With The Clay", The Art of Pueblo Pottery by Stephen Trimble. I felt like jumping up and down, "It Works It Works". I didn't want to chew on the yucca as suggested in the book but I googled "making a brush out of yucca plant" and found the suggestion on soaking it instead of chewing it. (ick)

After some are fired, I'll post a photo here. I'll have to take a better photo of this brush, too.

1200 Bisqued Beads

Ever wonder what 1200 beads all piled up looked like? I've been working steadily getting up the inventory and these go in the kiln on Friday. Here are 12 textures, 4 sizes ... I did about 50 a day for almost a month.

My goal is to get 200 of each texture and size into stock. That will be almost 10,000 beads! Right now I have about 25 of each texture in every size in stock. Rolling Rolling Rolling!

Just Playing Around

I had fun making examples of what can be done with bisqued beads, but I am left with some beads. So I made a couple more beads and strung a couple of bracelets. The pinks have three mother-of-pearls disks between each.












The golds have Faceted Austrian Lemon Crystals between each.

Ceramic Bisque Art Bead Examples

I updated my Bisqued Beads webpage today (http://nkpdesigns.com/bisquedbeads.html) because I wanted to show some more examples of what can be done with bisqued beads.




Foam Paint is amazing. It comes with an application tip. This bead was first coated with rings of pink foam paint then smoothed with an index finger. Next raised dots were applied. Afterwards, small googly eyes were easily attached. This stuff adheres better things than glue, yet it is non-toxic.











I covered this bead with a blue watercolor, then took Scotch tape and lightly dabbed the surface. Then I covered it with a glossy sealer. It ended up with an attractive blue jean texture.












Apply small stickers of any type. Apply 1-3 coats of clear sealer.















This is also an example of colorful stickers that have been covered with clear sealer.









I used candy wrapper foil on these beads. It is thin and, of course, first you get to eat the candy bar. Put glue on bead and a bit on the foil. Wrap around bead until smooth. Let dry for 1-2 minutes. Apply 1 to 3 coats of clear sealer. This takes a while to dry between coats. I prefer 3 coats.

Lesson for the Day

Today I sat down at the wheel to begin trimming. About a week ago I had wrapped up some of the pots I had thrown with plastic. Two days ago I had noticed they had dried out almost past the leather hard stage so I wrapped them with damp paper towels. Today they are just right for trimming.

I just finished and the room is still swirling around me. It's like when you go to the beach and you look down at the incoming foamy waves and the outgoing foamy waves and suddenly you are zooming backward. Yeah, that's what it's like when you forget to look up from the wheel for such a long time.

I turned off the wheel and thought, "Wait ... I just turned off the wheel." The wheel still looked like it was spinning but soon I realized the pot was was not moving ... just the room.

It's just a minor annoyance in the wonderful life as a potter -- one I'm willing to deal with from time to time. I'll remember to look up more often next time I'm trimming. Usually I do, but one particular pot kept giving me problems.

Isn't that just like a pot?

Plain Carved Bead

I am fiddling around with a few leather hard porcelain beads, carving them in random patterns. I think this one is good for some inlay of some sort or another. I'm thinking art clay silver for the groove and a gemstone for the round holes. There's three more round holes on the other side of this.

Examples of what can be done with Bisqued Beads

I updated my Bisqued Beads webpage today (http://nkpdesigns.com/bisquedbeads.html) because I wanted to show some examples of what can be done with bisqued beads. So I decided to include them here as well. Enjoy!




A blue watercolor was applied and while wet, salt was sprinkled on it. This is a trick many watercolor artists use to gain texture onto a color. Then a clear glossy sealer was applied after the salt sprinkles were rubbed off.










This Stone colored nailpolish was brushed over, then wiped off. Next a Crystal Lime nailpolish was applied for a glittery effect. A clear overglaze of nailpolish was the last coat.












This was a purple acrylic paint which was covered with a thick coat of clear glossy sealer. While it was still wet, Swarouski Crystal components were pressed into the sealer. Surprisingly, it is quite durable.











These markings are made with a Sharpie Permanant Marker. Then it is covered lightly with a yellow & green mix of watercolor. Last it is glazed with a clear glossy sealer.












These markings were made with a Sharpie Permanant Marker. Then it is simply coated with a clear glossy sealer.










This is covered with a Garnet Red nailpolish. Then it is sealed with clear nailpolish.

Pendant Video

These are some simple pendants I have made recently. Enjoy.

Newest Update on ETSY Store

Click on any of the thumbnails on the sidepanel to visit each item in my store. Thanks for looking!

You Tube Vase Glazed and Finished Teapots

This is how the vase that I threw on the YOU TUBE Video came out. I'm putting up the video again for all those who have emailed asking to see how the finished vase turned out.
















ALSO UPDATED: Here are the extruded teapots, glazed. I used a clear glaze with a Yucca Stamp near the bottom. Gotta love those underglazed "ink" stamps.

Spring Blossom #2

Here's the first batch of the "new and improved" version of The Spring Blossom Line. I like it just as much as the first version. I ended up substituting the "lime green" dots for "turquoise" and I fell in love with a new clay (new for me) from Texas Pottery -- it's a speckled ironstone and the turquoise dots work wonderfully with the speckles.














I'll put up the rest as a slideshow.

This is what is going into the kiln today. The underglazes are covered with a clear gloss glaze that dries "white".

These are Cone 6 stoneware. No leaded glazes are used. They are dishwasher, microwave, and oven safe.

More to come.

The Whole Batch of Bisque

Here's the two kiln loads. About half of them I sanded yesterday. I glazed a kiln load full last night and will put them into the kiln today for their second cook. I'm liking the Spring Blossom Design (that's what I've decided to call it) that I've come up with this year. So most of these will be decorated with that pattern. In an earlier post I have two different shots of the same bowl posted. If you browse through recent entries you'll see it.







This is two pieces that I attached to one another, a small saucer turned upsidedown and attached to a pot to form a Grecian urn.

















I had just read "Talking With The Clay", The Art of Pueblo Pottery by Stephen Trimble when I threw this pot. So I decided to burnish it with some river rocks I picked up on a trip to New York a few years back. It took about 3 hours to do the outside and inside but it was very different than anything I've tried before. The outside came out better than the inside, which dried as I was working on the outside and so was All I can say is that I REALLY know THIS particular POT!










On this particular piece I wanted to integrate some of my bead work onto the pot. The Tri-Leaf pattern is one of my favorites. I considered putting a verticle hole in each one and later hanging some other beads through it but by the time I thought of that they were leatherhard and piercing through them could have damaged the pot. It's an idea for another pot and another day.

Kilning

I loaded up the kiln this morning and only about 1/2 of what I was planning to kiln actually fit. So I have another load ready to go in tomorrow afternoon.

Then its sanding and glazing time.

In the Kiln

A ton of greenware is going into the kiln tomorrow. Well, okay, maybe not a ton, but more than I usually stack in there. Since my studio is in my house, the greenware and bisqueware tends to end up occupying every spare space in the house. It's now on the top of every shelf, every bookshelf ... sometimes even used as bookends.

Think of it as temporary art.