A handy tip for you!

About 10 years ago, I discovered this fun little tip. If you add a bisque piece of pottery to items such as sugar, it will never clump. It's true, I have been doing this for the last decade and I have had the same container of sugar for at least a couple years with no clumping. I used to give these little bisque pieces away with my pottery sales. If you bought $30 worth of pottery I would throw one of these little gems in as a bonus. Otherwise I think I sold them for about $3.00 a piece. I think I might have to start doing this again.

First Crystalline firing

This is my first crystalline firing in several years. And it is the first time I've done cone 10 crystals on porcelain body. In the past I have worked in cone 5/6 and several clay bodies. I have a long way to go but it isn't a bad start.

These are my porcelain garden markers. My two year old had fun putting them in the garden.

Garden Markers

I've made and sold these for years. Now, against all odds (because we move so darn much with the military), I am starting my own garden. When you live in limbo, as we have done for the past 13 years you are never able to plan for the future, so I've always worried about starting a garden only to move soon after, but hubby said, "go ahead start your garden". (Incidentally, after I did all the work and expense of setting up this garden we did get orders to move...WHATEVER!!!) So I am making it a container garden and will try to move it with us...we'll see how that goes!
Anyhow, these markers are for moi!
As I was stamping in the letters I realized that an "H" was missing. So for "Herbs" and "Squash", I had to use a stamp from another set, so the letters don't exactly match...and for some reason that completely irritates the garbage out of me! I HATE when things are not where they belong when I need them. My hubby is especially adept at not putting things back where they belong when he is done with them, and it is the bane of my existence, (we are talking teeth grindingly exasperating). I can't blame the misplaced "H" on him though; completely my own fault. Afterwards I did a thorough search, and finally did find the missing "H", so the next time I need it, it will be there!

New projects in porcelain...

I am working excusively in porcelain right now. Porcelain is an area in which I do NOT have a vast pool of knowledge, so like everything else, my learning curve will be steep! This is a large baking dish; some call it a fish dish. It is quite boring now, but will hopefully spruce up after glazing.

This is a very large decorative bowl. It is quite thin as to get that translucent effect. It is decorated with a pretty lace texture.
It took over a week, but Boris did "champion" in reclaiming my dried out porcelain. Right now, working with it is like butter!

I don't have a whole lot of time in the studio since I am gearing up for next weeks big tatting convention. I have some super top secret projects I've been working on that I cannot wait to unveil to the tatting world.
With that said, I desperately need my "clay time" to stave off insanity, so a few hours in my happy place does the trick. I'm sure the tatting world won't mind!

Switching over to Porcelain

I spent over 8 hours on Easter weekend cleaning and organizing my studio for porcelain use. There can't be any cross contamination, so I had to wash EVERYTHING! I cleaned up about a thousand spider corpses....yeah that was exciting!



Here are a couple of views of my studio. I use it for hand dyeing tatting thread. Encaustic Paintings. Metal and glass work and of course POTTERY!
This is a 25lb pile of porcelain which dried out on me.
I will be reclaiming it in this awesome Pugmill. It took at least two hours to clean Boris. But he is now up and ready to roll.
Come back to see what I have planned for this pile of clay!

Customized Slumped bottles

It was quite a process, but I created a custom stamp from one of the patches for a local squadron. With that stamp, I then created a mold to slump bottles on. I think the effect is nothing short of awesome! Now there will be "Bold Tigers" all over the world with some of my very special artwork to brighten their day!

Ceramic Utensil Handles

I was inspired by the most recent cover of Pottery Making Illustrated. So I went thrift store shopping and picked these up. I had a time getting some of the original plastic handles off but persistence prevailed. I am pleasantly pleased with the results of my very first attempt. I found the epoxy process to be a complete and messy hassle. I'll have to work on ways to streamline that process. I think the next group I make I would like to put a hole at the bottom of the handle so that they can be hung and displayed in the kitchen. They are a bit too chunky to put away in drawers. I totally love them and have been using mine on a daily basis! Thank you PMI!