Saturday 29 August 2009

Classes started again

Summer break is over and I can hope to get my crafting done more regularly now. I saw some familiar faces again and even some new. One of my clay mates commented on my pieces that I already have a signature style like a professional potter, a remark that makes me blush. It's boosting my ego! I like to try new things and techniques all the time, so I'm glad it is visible in some way that all these things are made by me.

As you can see in the pictures I painted my meadow with oxides as well as the vetch in the photo above. It originally belonged to a bigger botanical piece that I messed up when my knife fell right in the middle of it. This was the only part I could manage to keep.

I also proceded work on my dishes and try to fire them a third time with some glass although I have my doubts that this will work out as intended. Working with glass is always surprising and maybe it won't be that unpleasant.

Thursday 27 August 2009

Flowers on my Balcony

Sweet Peas

Snapdragon

Heather

(Crafting Pictures will return to this blog very soon!)

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Big Tomato Harvest

I harvested 192 tomatoes mainly from two of my plants, that looked very pitiful. There were barely bearing a green leaf anymore but plenty of very yummy red tomatoes, among them this big-nosed cyclops.

Monday 24 August 2009

Homegrown


Friday 21 August 2009

Green Peppers on my Balcony

My bell peppers grow very fine and they're very tasty. It's really nice to harvest one fresh for breakfast.


Saturday 8 August 2009

Inlaid Slip Decoration

Avid readers will know I like to get experimental, so I tried a new technique with inlaid slip.

I stamped a pattern, mostly with my own handmade stamps, and filled the indentations with contrasting slip. When the piece was leather-hard I scraped off the excess slip to reveal the pattern. This was quite labour intensive and by far the hardest part of the process. The smallest indentations I had made didn't fill completely with slip so there are only little holes left now. On one of the petals you can see that I went a little to far (or didn't stamp deeply enough) and reached the dark part. Despite the flaws I'm going to fire this little experiment. I want to see the finished result.

Thursday 6 August 2009

Meadow

On one of my strolls in the countryside I collected some grasses and leaves of wild plants for a wall piece I had in mind.

The photo shows it before I peeled them off of the clay to reveal the imprints. I love the look of this with the lovely greens and shapes against the grey background. I wish I knew a way to preserve it just like this.

Saturday 1 August 2009

The Joy of Oiling

Whenever I touch clay at the moment I mess up what I'm working on, so instead of further torturing myself with mischance and incompetence I decided to maintain my working tools.

I sanded and buffed my rolling pin and my other wooden tools and finished them with linseed oil (which smells heavenly). They are super-smooth now. I want to touch them all the time. It was such a satisfying and calming thing to do! I even wished I had more raw wooden stuff at home that I could sand and cover with oil!

As I have nothing new to show you, how about an older item?

This is a wall piece. I formed a loop for easy hanging but it filled with glaze on one side, so I must find another way to put it on the wall.