Monkey Pendant

Every two years (or longer) the Instar decal salesman makes his way to American Ceramics.  Every so often he has a special suitcase filled with out of print decals, sometimes they are very old.  This particular decal was in that batch.  So I grabbed the last sheet.  There are a few others on that same sheet, an adorable blue elephant and a red rooster, too. 

After I got home, I immediately wedged some clay and rolled it out to make some pendants.  I normally am a fan of round (square, ect ...) beads, but I could not see how to fit this size onto a round bead.  So I made a few pendants.

I still have some pendants to glaze, and those will be glazed with a smooth glossy clear. This batch, however, was glazed with a white matte glaze.

Stoneware Tumbler with Sprigs

Several months ago I threw a series of small tumblers/tea bowls from this wonderful stoneware Toas Red clay from Texas Pottery Supply.  I brushed white slip on the outside, and added sprigs of clay to form this flower.

Then they sat on my greenware shelf for quite a while. Finally I bisque fired them and they sat even longer. I've been busy with college and haven't found time to glaze and fire them until this past weekend. 

This is one from that batch.  There is twinge of purplish/pink tint to this red stoneware clay that left me quite surprised. I have the other two over on the Flickr account.

Raku-ing Beads in a Cylindrical Container

Here is the ceramic stoneware cylinder ready to go into the kiln. It is cone 10 stoneware which has been bisque fired to cone 04.  It's been through the raku process before which is why it is black.

 There are approximately 20 beads in there.  Notice that the stainless steel rods are bent between each bead as well as near the cylinder's holes. This is to keep the beads from bumping into each other and fusing together.


The raku process goes like this: put cylinder (or pot) into kiln. Heat to approx. 1885 degrees (cone 06), open, take out cylinder (or pot) using tongs. Place this into a trash can with some sort of combustible medium (such as sawdust or newspaper).

Let it cool down  for a half hour or so, open and be amazed.

OR.....

If the lid has been pressed down tightly, sometimes the lid can be briefly opened to let in some air.  This will allow the newspaper re-catch on fire.  Closing the lid, and repeating this process can make for some beautiful effects.  It is the process of reducing and/or eliminating the oxygen in the trash can which makes for gorgeous coloration, especially if there is some amount of copper in the glaze.

Here is a side view of the container. I bent the wires on the outside so that they would be more stable.  I'm sure there are easier ways to go about this, but this is what I have done thus far.
 

Raku Beads

College has kept me very busy.  I'm about halfway done with this semester.  In ceramics we have been rakuing every week, weather permitting.  I have been wanting to raku beads for so very long but trying to figure out a contraption to fire them in has stood in my way.

Finally I made a ceramic box, sans lid, and poked holes through each side.  I liked that, but it was hard to pull out of the kiln, being rectangular shaped and all.

I decided to throw a stoneware canister  and poked holes through the sides.  It ended up being about 8" tall after being bisque fired, and wide enough to fit three 20mm beads. Each holds about the same amount of beads (20 or so).  I have decided I prefer the canister to raku the beads inside.  I think the tall sides aid in the reduction process. 

SALE: Etsy Supply Street Team -- February 26th to February 28th on Etsy

The Etsy Supply Street Team (of which I am a member) is holding its "Team ESST Semi Annual Sale" from February 26th to February 28th on Etsy! There are lots of great bargains to be found, especially for the jewelry designers.

Click hereteamesst.blogspot.com for more information.

In my NKPbeads etsy store, I will be refunding shipping on orders totaling (not including shipping) $25.  During the sale, I will be uploading new listings.  There's no need to leave a message. If your order(s) total $25, I will refund all shipping, including international customers.

Happy beading!

New Whistles

These are three of the whistles I made while on vacation. I had brought some clay with me and when the urge to create hit, fashioned these. I used plastic tools instead of the stainless steel I use normally, but all was well and they all sound just as they should.

The first one I used a daisy type flower stamp and it ended up looking a bit like coral.  I applied underglaze, let it dry, then lightly sponged it off, and applied a coat of shiny gloss glaze.

The other two I decided to paint as though they were beads.  Lots of underglazes and bright colors, again followed by a coat of shiny gloss glaze.  I have more whistles to glaze and fire so I better get to it.

A Mug and Stuff

We're supposed to have a mild ice storm here in the Fort Worth, Texas area tonight and tomorrow. I don't think there is such a thing as a mild ice storm. Ice here is treacherous. Nobody knows how to drive in it nor do we have chains to put on our tires. I try to just stay home.


This mug on the left is one I listed today.  This angle is a bit odd. It's smaller on bottom than top. It looks better from the side.  I think it would fit nicely in one of those car console drink holders.  This is a combination of Ferguson Yellow and a High Iron Shino glazes.  It was gas fired in a reduction kiln.  I added feet, and the handle is hand pulled. 

Right now I have about 3-4 whistles in the smaller kiln. I have several more to glaze and fire and another example in the GIMP manual to complete.  The next example is to draw a tree ... from scratch.  After I drew a cloud I was learning about paintbrushes (in GIMP) and found quite a bit of paintbrushes that made clouds.  I imagine if I looked around I would find quite a few tree 'paintbrushes' as well.  However, it is always great to start from scratch. 

The New Year

It's back to Ceramics class again.  This semester I am going to be focusing on throwing larger, concentrating on pulling up all that extra clay.  Last semester I focused on form.  So hopefully once I get all that clay from the bottom to the top, the form will take care of itself.

Also, I'm learning how to work with GIMP. I have a very old edition of Paint Shop Pro (version 5) that has served me well over the years.  However, when the time comes to upgrade this computer, which should be sometime this year, all the software will have to be 64 bit and PSP is 32 bit.  GIMP is open source and PSP is a pretty penny. Plus, I would have to learn PSP from the bottom as well. So when one can, one goes with free.  Here's what I drew with the help of a GIMP tutorial and a Bamboo tablet:

The interface on GIMP is vastly different than on PSP. I spend a lot of time googling what are probably easy to follow directions, for everyone that is but myself.  I have a hard time following directions, especially written ones.

Also over the Christmas break I made about 20 palm sized whistles. They are bisque firing today in the smaller kiln.  I also have a new listing in the bead store.  I guess it's official. The new year has begun.

Christmas Morning Ceramic Whistles

Many times potters compare an opening of the kiln to a Christmas morning -- so when a potter opens a kiln on Christmas morning, what then is the comparison? Christmas squared?

I had some pottery to bisque but I also had some whistles that I wanted to glaze in bright colors. I also did not want the opening of the whistle clay to 'move' or 'warp' during the firing. In the past, I've lost several whistles 'tones' by firing them too hot. The opening moved a bit and sadly, no more whistle.   Therefore, I decided to use lowfire glazes on these and help fill up the top shelf of the kiln.  They came through the firing with their whistle intact., ie., they sound great. 

Here they are:

Back in the Studio with cone 5 clay

I got on the wheel yesterday with one of my favorite clays from Texas Pottery, it's a cone 5 red stoneware clay that does vitrify without bloating, called Red Taos. It's yummy to work with, no grog, and reminds me of porcelain. It wedges nicely, throws nicely, and is very plastic.

I decided to take some Laguna Frost, cone 5 also, and make a slip to use for decorating. I got a hake brush and dipped it into the slip and let the wheel turn until each piece was fairly well coated. I cut each piece off the wheel, but touching was a no no until each piece became almost leather hard.


However, even after each piece was leather hard, and even though I tried my best not to smudge the slip, alas .... my fingermarks are everywhere. If you click on each of these photos, you can get a bigger image and you can clear see my fingermarks. This is what pottery does to me: it makes me crazy! All day long I'm going to be trying to figure out how to hold these in my hands long enough to add a handle or add more sprigs without ruining the lovely look of the slip.

I'm not a complete stranger to this technique. I did this same thing last year to this mug in this photo. I liked how it came out, but now that I want to alter it, I'm going to have to think about this some more if I want to make each piece completely unique. I'm going to take this mug, the glazed one, and add some laser decals to it and see how that shows up. Maybe I could play with these some and make some earthy "In The Garden" series from Red Taos instead of porcelain like I have been doing.

Just more things to think about. :) It's all good.

Two Dinnerware Patterns (2009-2010)

I suppose I should be mortified that it has been so long between postings. I'm not really. I've been busy in the studio, too busy to post anything or do anything but create, list items, and go to the post office.


I've been working mostly on pottery, my In The Garden series and Carved Porcelain series. The In The Garden series starts out with a porcelain mug or bowl or plate that has been bisque-fired (cone 04) and decorated with a black under-glaze to simulate plant life. Then it is dipped in a clear glaze and fired to maturity (cone 10). The next step is to affix a decal that I have drawn of a daisy character and put it back into the kiln at a lower temperature (cone 04) than the first firing. The last step is to affix colorful commercial decals which fire at a lower temperature (cone 015).

The cone 10 firing sometimes leaves beautiful red splotches on the porcelain in various places, which add to each piece's uniqueness.

This is not quite so labor and firing extensive. Basically I throw the piece, let it dry to leather-hard, cut out a foot (most times), and then I hand trim to as thin as possible on the bottom without cutting through the piece. It's very relaxing actually and I enjoy the rhythm. This is then bisque fired (cone 04), glazed and refired (cone 10)to bring out the texture.

I like each of these patterns for different reasons, one of which is to explore texture, color, and form. I'm going to continue making these patterns in my home studio with cone 5-6 porcelains and glazes. This frees me up to experiment and grow at school.

Etsy Supply Team Slideshow Promo

Stoneware & Porcelain Beads

These are the three clay bodies I commonly use when I make beads. In my last post I wrote about how I was finally mixing up some of my own glazes. Like most, I started with a simple clear glossy glaze. I did not use any underglazes or stains because I wanted to see how the glaze performed on each clay body.

I took some pics with my digital camera on its macro setting. There are some fine bubbles in here which are not visible to the naked eye, and only really show up on the porcelain (white) beads. Click the photo to see these beads bigger. I love the macro setting on my camera for that reason. It's like having a mini microscope. I'm not sure what the bubbles mean. It could mean that I could fire this glaze even hotter. It could mean that the beads need a longer firing time or a longer holding time or both. I don't know. I'll bring them to my professor tonight and she can enlighten me. What I'm really happiest about is that this glaze does fit these clay bodies, which all mature between cones 5 and 6. The white and the red mature at cone 5 and the light brown matures at cone 6. That is what I was hoping for the most! And yay!

Therefore, I think this glaze passes my test. It's a once fire clear glossy glaze that definitely fires to cone one and does not crackle or craze.

Glaze Making

Yesterday I bought the final items I needed in order to begin making many of my own glazes: a gram scale and some final common glaze chemicals. I decided that any glazes I made would not be toxic, so I have no toxic materials such as lead or barium.

For now my glazes will only be applied to my beads. In the kiln right now are beads which have applied to them a clear glaze that matures at cone 1. This is a once fire glaze that my professor at college let me copy out of one of her glaze recipe books. It's a simple recipe. The problem is that my glaze scale does not weight 'half' grams. I had to estimate. I'm considering taking it back but I'll see how this batch comes out first.

In the small kiln are three types of clay bodies which all mature at cone 5: a porcelain, and two stonewares, brown and red. These were all greenware beads, meaning they had not been bisque fired first. However, in the interest of experimentation, I also put in some beads of the same clay body that were bisque fired. I wanted to see what kind of difference there is, if any.

I have the kiln programed for a medium fire with a holding of 10 minutes after it reaches temperature. Because my kiln sits outside, weather is often a factor in how things turn out, so I have begun keeping a record like the one below in case I have a certain glaze that I would like to turn out similar:

Current weather and moon phase in the DFW area:

Temp: 74°
Dew Point: 58°
Humidity: 57%
Wind: South 21 mph
Visibility: 10.0 miles
Pressure: 30.01 in. -
Sky: Scattered Clouds
Moon: Waning (new moon was on the 18th)

Tomorrow about this time I will be opening the kiln to find out and will post the results here. Now I'm off to take photos of some more pottery.

Frenzied Listing

I realized a couple of weeks ago that I have not really photographed or listed pottery in quite a long time. My shelves are brimming full, especially after this last kiln opening at the college.

So I've been taking pictures every day for about a week. If I take, say, 10 items, maybe 2 come out good enough to list. It seems like noontime lighting is best. When it was raining all last week, it took a while to figure out how to get enough light without casting a shadow. About the time I got used to that setup, it stopped raining.

Taking pictures of pottery is vastly different than taking photos of beads. It requires much more setting up and taking down afterward. It also requires different programs in which to process the pictures. Usually I use Picasa to export and then Paint Shop Pro to adjust simple contrast. With pottery I use Picasa to export, straighten, auto color (which takes out too much 'yellow') and then I have to put those in a different program called "Gimp" in order to adjust the contrast because auto contrast in Picasa really takes that contrast to a level to where the dish does NOT resemble the real dish.

So that is the backdoor into how I take my photos. I use an old Nikon Coolpix 4500 to take my photos in case anyone was wondering. I still have a lot to learn about digital photography. Much of it is completely baffling to me. But I keep trying. Hopefully I will keep learning.