Sunday, March 27, 2011

I did a glaze firing a few days ago, so here are the results: The pot below is 13" tall. I need to think of a name for it, as I will enter it in a show tomorrow. That would be the Cypress Gallery Spring Show, a judged show. The bowl is about 9" in diameter.
I like the top view of this pitcher.
I got a fair iron red on this pitcher, but still not quite what I was hoping for.
These were made for the local Empty Bowls charity event.
Six porcelain cups. I made them quite thin and light....good thing, as they hold 12 oz. Not sure why I made them so large. My favorite cup for coffee only holds 8 oz.
Fun arranging cups...
These are 4" plates, for dipping sauces, or ? I like 3 of them, the other two not so much.
The impressions on the larger bowl are made by using the edge of a peach pit.

Monday, March 21, 2011

This is an earthenware pot, with base, that I fired last fall. Actually had to refire it because the black stain was uneven and streaky. The reddish area is bare clay, waxed before glazing. It is 13 inches high overall. Here is the other side...

Here are a few high fired stoneware pots from last fall. They were in with some larger pieces which I photographed and posted earlier.


Monday, November 01, 2010

These earthenware pots are from last week's glaze firing. The square one started out as a thrown disc. I tried some crystals on the lid of the box. The pattern on the bowl in fron is made with a peach pit.

This glaze always looks like paint to me. I think it has too much opacifier in it.



Sunday, October 24, 2010

Some pots from my latest firing: This is a hanging lamp I was asked to make to replace a broken one. Theirs was terra cotta, but I am temporarily out of earthenware clay, so made it of Death Valley high fire clay. It's about 12" tall.
This one is the same size, but I tried a symmetrical arrangement of holes.

I played around with the idea and made a few others before throwing the "replica". About 9 inches high.

The bottom of this one warped out of round, so I will keep it or give it away.




The vase is 9" tall. I may reglaze & refire this one- it doesn't look like much to me this way. In earlier posts I have some cups & saucers and other things, where I have put Death Valley slip on white clay, then used this same translucent white glaze over it, and the slip turns navy to black, depending on how thick the glaze is. So when I used the glaze over Death Valley clay itself, I expected a totally different result than what I got here. The answer must be that there is something else in my "Death Valley Slip". Must do some tests.



Here I threw white stoneware with bars of Death Valley inserted. More contrast would have been nice. Maybe I'll ask Laguna if they are using less RIO in their Death Valley clay lately.








This is our cabin on a hilltop in central California. You need a 4wheel drive vehicle to get to it. We spent a few days there last week. A slightly tilted picture, it was snapped after we were in the car, ready to leave. We call it "The Palace" (because NOT) At sunrise, looking out over the San Joaquin valley. On a really clear day you can see the Sierras. A few times we spotted Half Dome with binoculars.


We harvested our little crop of pomegranates after taking this photo.


This is on the way up to our place, going west out of Patterson, into the Diablo Range. The hill in the middle is my favorite- a dragon? a camel?




Tuesday, September 21, 2010

These two necklaces feature scales from a redfish! (red drum) Our friend in Houston sent them to me a while ago, and I just recently finally figured out a design that works well, I think. I'll make more if he sends more scales. They are not brittle, but tough like a fingernail- I noticed this when drilling the holes.


The series of pictures following are of works by the Lompoc Sculptors Guild. We have a show at the Grossman Gallery in Lompoc, during September.

A work in metal, by Ron Barrows


Noreen LaPointe made this ceramic piece.



These two are also by Noreen LaPointe



Small tiles by Noreen LaPointe, other one by Dee Frasher





Noreen did the tiles & sculpture on the left, Carol S. Moore created the shrunken wool fantasy pieces in the middle, and the ceramic basket with weaving is by Dee Frasher.



Noreen LaPointe's clay dragon and dog, Dee Frasher's four pieces






A bas-relief by Peggy Kizziah.




From top left, clockwise: an aluminum sculpture by Eric Morlan, a welded metal piece by Ron Barrows, a bisque sculpture by Peggy Kizziah, and a stoneware bowl-mine.



Our show is named "Art in the Making", and the idea was to show process as well as finished product. Here Eric Morlan shows the maquette he made in planning this aluminum sculpture.



Two pieces by Dee Frasher, and another knitted creature by Carol S. Moore.



A ceramic grouping by Dee Frasher, and a work in progress by Eric Morlan, with maquette.



This is Dee Frashers explanatory panel showing the process of her work with gourds.



Dee Frasher, Carol S. Moore, and Noreen LaPointe



a styrofoam (mostly) piece by Carol S. Moore, and a 13" tile with purple shapes, by me. (it looked better raw, before glazing and firing, haha!)



My large platter, pictured in an earlier post.



This altered disc is alson on a 12" tile.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I unloaded these pieces today. This bowl is about 15 inches across. Notice the labor intensive pick-pick carving on the rim! The impressed places were done with a peach pit, or stone, whichever you call it. Finished diameter is 15.5 "
The decoration is Death Valley Clay (from Laguna) used as slip. I also used it on the platter above, when leather hard. It turns black under my creme glaze.



These are each about 8" in diameter.


The yellow bottle is 6" tall. The black pot without a neck HAD a neck, until my elbow hit it while glazing other stuff, and it fell on the floor and broke raggedly. I took a pair of pliers and broke the bisque until almost to the body of it, then took it over to my husband's bench grinder and shaped the top...good save, eh?






Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Below are the pots from a ^7 ox. stoneware firing- the last firing before Flower Festival this weekend. Fog ALL DAY is forecasted for Friday- hope the other two days will be warmer. Plus I like sunlight on my pots. This is an 8" little plate. This is a 14" platter. It is so muted in color because of refired several times to get rid of little faults. It's finally ok.






This is a 12" platter.









about 8 "



...a 10" plate




I played around with colored inlay for these two trays.





...a nine" bowl



about 9"






This one is 10" in diameter










...trying different shapes of mugs