Blog Favourites

My favourite blogs I discovered this year are:

ad sinistram - an enlightening blog criticising very intelligently the political and economical circumstances in Germany and the rest of the world from a left perspective; and

HellOnHairyLegs - sharp-witted angry thoughts of a young feminist, who is able to tell a lot of truths in very few sentences.

I highly recommend you to read them! Both writers are very aware of iniquities and social imbalances and I admire them for their ability to raise conciousness and for not giving in.

With this in mind I wish you a very Happy New Year!

Gift Wrapping

I rather enjoyed wrapping presents for Christmas this year. I wasn't very satisfied with the first ones I decorated with some doodles, but then I remembered the gift wrap ideas I saw at Bugs and Fishes and was inspired by the paper snowflakes. (Look also at this lovely winterly curtain!) I changed it to square designs that look quite folkloric in my opinion and used almost 30 year old gummed coloured paper, that has a backside like stamps. (As you can see, I never throw things away! I'd like to know if something like this still gets produced.) It still was incredibly sticky and worked really well and I had fun like a little child!

Glowing Windows

I hope to get rid of my dull fatigue now that the days slowly are getting longer again as winter solstice is behind us in the northern hemisphere. I need more light! I want to come out of hibernation. The sun was out today and yesterday after a long row of unpleasant grey and dark days and I squeezed in some crafty tasks by making some Christmas greeting cards and wrapping presents. (Does this count? I think so.) There isn't much happening at the moment on the muddy side of life but I'm also terribly behind with posting photos of my finished pieces.

unlit

Here is my tea light house in an attempt to arouse some Christmas feelings (which I lack completely so far). I'm pretty satisfied with the house, but it wasn't a good idea to leave off the chimney I originally wanted to add. The roof gets quite hot very fast and may even crack. I recommend to everyone who intends to build something that should hold a candle inside to make holes at the top.

lit

Merry Christmas, my dear readers, and to everyone who doesn't celebrate it (and is lucky to avoid the madness) have a great time too!

More Texture, More Glass

I've been extremely tired and uninspired all week. Nevertheless I tried a new texture that I cant wait to see glazed.


In class I challenged my patience by intricately arranging my glass in this carved pattern. I used the finest grain of my blue shards for the petals. It took ages and I hope everything stays in place during firing.

Texture, Glaze and Glass

In class this week I mainly proceeded with the work on the second of my textured bowls. This time I applied the glaze with a brush in the parts that catched air bubbles and remained unglazed after dipping. Afterwards I sprinkled tiny shards of green glass over the surface and also added some glass beads. Looking at the picture now I think to myself I should have used more glass. I also would like to try this texture with glaze only.

I sorted my smashed glass by size together with my father. We sieved the shards so they are easier to handle when I need big ones or small ones or tiny ones only. I carry quite a heavy assortment of glass in different colours and sizes with me when I go to class and sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one carrying around glass shards in her rucksack. You should hear the sound it makes when I move fast!

My Glassy Tree

I love it, I really do! It's a rare thing, that I'm absolutely satisfied with one of my creations, but this tree immediately got me enthralled when it was fresh out of the kiln and it still makes me smile with delight. It's about 11 cm tall, quite small like most of my pieces.

Christmas Ornaments

Here are my Christmas ornaments along with some of the little test pieces I made to see how the glass reacts with the glazes. The nicer ones can be used as pendants and I can put them on the wall to give me new inspiration. I like how the blue bauble turned out (I drowned most of the imprints of the red one in glaze). My fellow claymates say it looks very oriental.

This is what the backsides look like. I decorated both sides so they can actually be used as Christmas ornaments without hiding a blank side.

Recycled Glass

This week I glazed my secret surprise and still didn't really work on new stuff, apart from what could be called some experimental playing with mud, that gave me some ideas for designs to come.

Here are more of my finished pieces, three small bowls in different sizes. They all have glass melted into their bottoms.

I tried a runny green glaze on the rim of this one and like the result.

This is my favourite of the batch. I love the blues.

Here's the smallest. It has an unglazed spot on the outside but still it's quite cute.

Poppies

Last week has been fairly unproductive for me. The class has been cancelled due to illness, my hands needed some rest after the work on the secret surprise, that has yet to be finished, I'm freaking out over the pressure of time and the pessimist in me can't stop thinking that I will break it, which already almost happened.

So, I have no pictures of things in the making, but one of a finished piece. This little poppy bowl turned out rather nice.