Clay Work 10/23/10 and 10/24/10

I had an idea for a sculpture dancing about in my head on Friday evening. I let the idea dance and these are the sculptural pieces from that dancing idea. 

Porcelain jar needing to dry a bit before making the neck where the lid will fit. 

Jim's latest sculptural piece. He's working with a ^04 fiber clay. 

Porcelain jar waiting for me to make the lid. 

Clay Studio Work 10-17-10

Jim is working on a mask made from mica clay. You can see some of the sparkles in the photos. 

Canister with an experimental lid. It's okay, but I like the petrie dish type lids better. 

Jar with the lid peeking out from behind. 

The lid is pretty tight fitting, so I may have to do some sanding before I finish this piece. 

My new bean pot made from mica clay. Mica has wonderful heat properties. In theory, pots made from mica clay can be used over a direct flame. I'm not so sure I'd try that. I need to round off the bottom edge and make a lid for it. I've been wanting a ceramic bean pot so I can make real baked beans. Beans can be made in a crock pot, but they aren't quite the same as slow baked in a ceramic pot. I'll glaze both the inside and the outside. Usually, I would not glaze the outside of a piece made from mica clay. But.... there are always a few beans that crawl out of the pot and go exploring. Glazed outside makes for easier cleanup after exploration beans. 

Small mica clay canister on the left, ^6 canister in the middle, and bean pot on the right. 

Carole's Inhaler Pouch

Some assembly required. I'm going to let Carole sew on the button and tell me how far down she put it. 


Carole wanted a pouch for her inhaler that would fit on her belt. I told her I'd make one and call it research and development. I can see I need to move the loop for the belt to fit through. I also need to do a little more work on how wide the flap should be. 


However, I've never had to use an inhaler, so I really don't know exactly what I'm doing here. The pouch is 3"x3". What would you do to improve on this design? 


Many thanks. 

More Beading

Pair of peanut wood stones with beads ready to be attached to fish hook earrings.  

Larimar cab freshly beaded. It needs to go on a necklace. 

Clay Studio 10-9-10

These are some of the beads I made from NM Clay's Monzano ^04 clay. I love the color of this clay so I used a clear glaze on the beads. 

This is my new sourdough starter jar. Same clay, same glaze. I'm trying for less plastic in my life. 

A Few Thoughts On Blogging

There's no privacy on the internet.  I knew that before I set up a blog. Today, while going through paperwork, I discovered that my employer is watching my blog. (Hello, Hugh - how's by you?) What they thought they could find is beyond me. I've always been very careful about what I put into cyberspace.

Why do I bring this up? Aside from saying hello to Hugh? As a warning. If you're on the internet, it's not private. Anyone can see this blog. Anyone can see your blog. You think your facebook page is private? Don't bet the rent check on it. Remember the Racing Periogi who complained - on his facebook page - about the baseball team which paid him to dress up like a dumpling and run around the bases? He got canned because of his comments.

And so... if you wouldn't want to see it on the front page of the NY Times, don't put it on the internet.

Clay Studio 10-3-10

The latest Qumran inspired jar. 

And with the lid. This is Laguna's ^6 Calico clay. It's mainly white with gray speckles. It's also great to do coil work with.  

No the handle is NOT coming apart from the top of the mug. It's just how it looks in the photo. Yes, I know the handles are clunky. I need to work on that. I was making wimpy handles and decided they were awful so I went for larger handles. 40 or so more mugs, and I may have the process down.  

And this is the other mug with a clunky handle. The wheel and I still don't get along, so these are coil built. I used a ^6 porcelain. 

This will be a menorah when it grows up. I used a ^6 clay that does great things in reduction. I'm going to leave the clay naked and just glaze the very top where the candles go. The idea of trying to get wax off unglazed clay doesn't sound like fun. I have aluminum candle cups that will get epoxied onto the top after firing. I'll put brown terra sig on the bottom to keep the grog in the clay from damaging whatever the menorah is set on. 

More Beading

Front and back of my latest beaded cabochon. Low fire clay with a crystal glaze and black terra sig on the back. 

New Blouse

I worked on a blouse yesterday. I used some bamboo dobby that I hand dyed. The fabric feels like silk but is as easy to care for as cotton. Then I got to playing with the fancy stitches and the fancy threads. 

Latest Beading Work

This is one of my low fire cabochons, glazed with a crystal glaze. I am thinking of a beaded bail and a fabric necklace for finishing. 

This is me having fun. I took some brown clay, used a special high tech tool to cut out circles (the top from a bottle of pop), and used slip trailing to make the little squirgle on top. My idea was to emulate a piece of chocolate candy. 

What to do with all these buttons I made. This one is fairly thick. I don't think I'm going to do much with the button holes on this one. 

If I Keep At It Long Enough, I'll Finally Make A Mug

^6 porcelain blend. I need to do a little shaping with the paddle tomorrow and pull handles. I figure if I keep working on mugs and handles, eventually, I'll have a mug. 

Menorah In Progress

I liked the menorah I made during the summer semester, and I want to make a few more from the same design. I used a very special tool to make the clay form a semi-circle. It's called a plastic bucket and was probably left over from something we ate. 

After the clay has started to dry but before I did any cleaning on it. 

Close up of the texture. I want to use a glaze that breaks over texture on this piece. 

I had to make the top wide enough to accommodate the candle cups and put a kind of frame around the piece to give it more support. 

^6 cashmere, a porcelain blend that fires very white and will make whatever glaze I use pop. 

Chic Firing Wear

We've been having a discussion on clayart about peeking into the kiln before the kiln has cooled. There have been several posts about protective clothing. Kilns are hot, synthetic fibers melt or burn at kiln temperatures. 

After singing my hair twice, I decided to cover my hair with a bandana. If I remember correctly, this bandana features Betty Boop as a biker chick. 

The goggles are something Jim has had for years. I think they are designed for wear when using a torch. All I know is they allow me to see the cones far more clearly than if I just looked with unprotected eyes. They also keep my eyebrows and eyelashes from being singed. 

I admit the pants are a problem because they contain spandex. Alas, my batik clay pants finally died and I'm left with pants with spandex until I can make me another pair of cotton pants. The blouse is 100% cotton. The shoes would be a disaster if I opened the kiln, but since I never put my feet up by the peep holes, I figure I'm okay.