Packing Pottery

One thing good thing about packing pottery is having to pick each piece up and hold it. That's what I've been doing with all my pottery while I've been packing it into boxes. I made this Spirit Bird, 5 3/4 x 5 inches, with some left over pieces of black mountains clay at the end of a day of making back in 2008. The glaze is blue flambe and it was reduction fired.

If I had to give one piece of advice to clay students it would be: "Allow yourself to play around with the clay without a particular idea in your mind. You never know how the clay will speak to you". This post is part of Mud Colony what's happening in the studio and Artist's in Blogland show and tell Saturday. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Sale Pricing, Then Sabbatical

Over the next few weeks I'll be offering recent work at sale pricing in my Etsy pottery shop.

This is a limited time offer. About the middle of April my shop will be closed for what could be a long sabbatical. Things change and time is of the essence.

 Prices in the shop include shipping in USA, others please convo.

If you're looking for special handmade, one of a kind gifts for yourself or others, please have a look in my Etsy Pottery Shop.

As time permits, pieces will be added daily from my black clay sculpture series, abstract plate series, scenes of Florida series, stacked tower series, house and home series, and a few miscellaneous pots too.

Information about my sabbatical coming soon. This post is part of Artist's in Blogland, show and tell Saturday. Thanks for reading and for all your comments. 

Mistakes & Pottery Sales

There's a video making the blog rounds by Chris Staley called Liking Mistakes which struck a chord with me. I can remember so many mistakes, or what I thought were mistakes, in my pottery. For instance the red bowl above an otherwise acceptable bowl but for the black dot just below the rim on the inside. A clay impurity bursting forth during the firing. A little bit of serendipity.



So many times the pieces I haven't initially liked have been the ones folks have chosen first from my pottery. So today I'm embracing my pottery mistakes. Do you have any handmade pottery with what might be considered a mistake? Is that why you chose it?

It got up to 85 today, perfect weather for our yard sale. I sold more pottery than I ever have before in one day. Thank goodness for small favors. I did so many firings this past month I've been dreading receiving the electric bill.

There are quite a few local folks who are collecting my pottery. One lady bought two boxes, yes boxes, full of pottery. Another lady bought a whole bag full. Even some of my experimental pieces sold. Thanks so much. I'll have more pottery tomorrow so come on by and see what else I have to sell. This post is part of Artists in Blogland show and tell Saturday. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Fern Platters

Here are the fern platters. I made these as pairs since the design runs from one to the other. I like the first pair better. Those are slipped with my own colored slips.

For this second pair I've used mostly commercial under glazes; once again the brush marks show more than I wanted. On some larger plates I'll show you tomorrow, the brush marks didn't show. Must be in my technique. Practice makes perfect I guess. Ha.

Here are some tea bag holder, or they could be used for tea lights, spoon rests, ring holders or spice prep dishes.

They're about three and one half inches in diameter. These seem easy to make, but it takes quite some time to sand each one in the nooks and crannies.

Once again I tried the clear satin glaze over one. I'm really liking the subtle sheen of the plain white. Can't wait to make a whole set of white dishes.

These will be in my Etsy Shop as soon as I get the five photos taken and upload them. This post is part of Artists in Blogland show and tell Saturday. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Bonsai in Selby Gardens

If you've just arrived, in the past two posts we've been touring the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. Last time we visited the bamboo section and koi pond. Today we'll continue our tour and see the bonsai display.

Bonsai take incredible work to grow, shape and keep healthy and can live hundreds of years. I admire the patience it must have taken those who grew these.

Believe it or not there's still more to see in the gardens like lots of palms, even coconut palms with coconuts, views of the gulf, and more, so stay tuned.

I've added a few items to my Etsy Shop; my shelves were full of pottery pieces I was reluctant to let go. I've decided to make a clean slate for the new year, so I'll be adding more as the days go by. I'm making room for new pieces running around in my head inspired by my trip to the gardens. This post is part of Artists in Blogland, what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Nature Coast Basket Weavers

Here are photos from the Nature Coast Basket Weavers meeting.

 We met upstairs at the blood bank classroom in Brooksville.

The basket I'm working on.

 The beginnings of my basket.

 Closeups for me to refer to.

It was a long day yesterday, more later. This post is part of Artists in Blogland show and tell Saturday. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Roasted Fennel and a Running Hare

This time I decided to paint with the underglaze colors rather than use sgraffito. I wanted to emphasize the fur of a running hare. We'll see how these colors fire in the kiln. Right now the hare has an antique look about him to my eye. The edges will be curved up to form a serving platter.

I was reading about the hare on the link which led me to read about the moon rabbit. Learning about folklore of other cultures is very interesting to me. Above is a white rabbit making an elixir of immortality from a weaving in a Chinese robe. I may have to explore more pieces with hares and rabbits.

I've always wanted to try fennel or sweet anise and the other day I saw some at the grocery store. The bulb is full of vitamins and minerals. Check the link I was amazed at how much nutrition this bulb has.

I cut the fennel up in 1/2 inch slices, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with balsamic vinegar. Don't remove the feathery leaves, they are quite good roasted too. If I had had more of them I would have sprinkled them over the top.

I roasted the fennel at 400 F for 40 minutes. For the last ten minutes I sprinkled some grated cheese over the top. To my surprise, it has a mild taste, quite delicious and easy to make. This post is part of Artists in Blogland what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Overlapping Layers

 Tree Luminary

14 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches

Can't wait to purchase a candle to put inside this one and turn off the lights. The plates were fired separately from the two trees.

 Tone on Tone Tree

12 x 8 inches

The feather doesn't really go in the top. I wanted to show you there's an opening at the top to insert something, just not sure what yet. Any ideas?

Maybe nothing in the top. Not sure why the tree looks pink in this photo.

 Sunset Rose Basket

8 3/4 h x 11 1/4 w x 6 1/4 w inches

I'm really liking all the overlapping layers on my new work.

Aqua and Brown Basket

4 3/4 h x 16 3/4 w x 6 1/4 w  inches

This could also be a casserole but basket occurred to me today. There's a few more pieces but I've got to pack up for Christmas in the Hills, more later. There's also lots of 'next times' I'll discuss in the next post. Meanwhile I'm thankful for my new work. White rabbit to you. This post is part of Artists in Blogland Show and Tell Saturday. Thanks for reading and for all your encouragement and comments.

Plates in Colors

For this firing I had ten rectangular plates and made two of each glaze color; the plates are 9 x 5 inches. Previously I made only one of each glaze and folks wanted multiples. Although I did have someone order a set of these and the smaller plates all in different colors. I have more of these drying with a different clay, we shall see how the glazes turn out with that clay. This first one is blue green and gold.

This one is a sort of a plum rose red color. Even though these plates seem simple to make I always have to sand the edges of each one before the bisque, because sometimes there are burrs left since the pattern goes all the way to the edge. Oh, I got a little driplet of glaze on the bottom of one plate, what do you use to sand the bottoms of your pots?

This one is a shino and green. Interesting the other plate is all green and just a hint of the brown.

This one is kind of a smokey blue and bronze, which normally doesn't get that wine color, but this time it did and I think it's nice.

This one is a spring or lime green and has a more even color.

Even though each one of these plates is made individually, they stack nicely in the cabinet and work well for luncheon plates, appetizers, serving plates, or even a catch all on a dresser or counter top. I'm taking these to the farmer's market today, hope there's lots of people and it doesn't rain till the afternoon. One of my leaf dishes was in this Olive Green Treasury on Etsy and another one in this Pale In Green Treasury on Etsy. This post is part of Artists in Blogland show and tell Saturday. Thanks for reading and for all  your comments.