Clay meets Metal

After doing a series of Piston People a couple of years ago I thought I was done with it....apparently now.  Now with my access and knowledge of clay I have incorporated clay with metal and a new series of Piston People has started.

 The top face, torso and bottom face are all clay. I washed the pieces with a black underglaze so it would make them look old and used.

 The main body of the piece is a Model A piston.  All of the additional pieces and parts are things that I inherited from my father.  If it looks good and I can wire it on it gets added.

 On both of the faces I epoxied a spring to the back of the face so I could run rebar wire through it and secure it.

 Now I need for him/her to tell me her/his name.  I will sit with it for awhile and see what emerges.

Bird woman is done and another piece is finished!

This is a piece I did from extruded clay.  It was VERY fragile after it was dry.  Some pieces did break off but after it was glazed I was able to epoxy them back together.  The main glaze is Heirloom Silver and the raised dots are Cranberry.  It is hung with a painted dowl through the top and fibers running down the side.

 Bird woman now has her head - the skull of a dove.  Her wings are donations from a bird that the neighbors cat got.  Her skirt feathers are from our chickens.

 Her body, skirt and base are all made from slip molds.  I made the slip mold for the torso.

 Inside her skirt are nesting materials

 I'm very happy with the way she turned out!

And more new pieces!

Three more pieces out of the kiln.......

 This sweet little bowl is glazed on the outside with black glaze and then sgraffitoed into around the sides.  The inside is glazed Baby Blue although in the picture it looks white.  It is a very pale blue.

 This bowl is glazed around the outside with a Blue Enamelwaare glaze and glazed white inside.  The outside really reminds me of the old enamelware.

The piece below is my favorite of all.  I made the mold of the torso from a barbie doll torso.  Her skirting is an upside down bowl mold and the piece the skirt is sitting on is a slip cast slab.  Her body is glazed with Sand, Her skirt is Rustic Sunset with drips of Pumpkin Spice.  The slab is Iron Ore.  All of these colors went together so well.  From here she will get a dove skull for her head.  Around her skirt will be feathers and inside the skirt will be nesting material.  I have two wings from a small bird that will be attached to her shoulders.  As she progresses I will take photos and post them.  Thanks for stopping by!

new work from the kiln!

I brought home some new pieces from the kiln and wanted to share them with you!

 This bowl is glazed with black colored glaze and sgraffitoed into.  the top part is Fired Snow over Black Glaze.  The inside of the bowl is Ruby Red colored glaze.  I am really happy with the fired snow's texture and there is a cobalt blue showing through around the edges of it.

 Jerry is referring to these plates as the "sperm plates". This one is glazed with sun yellow colored glaze and the "sperms" are black glaze.

 I love this little bowl.  It is glazed all over with white colored glaze then I used a bottle with a tip to draw the lines with black colored glaze and filled in the little circles with different colors of colored glaze.

 The origin of this fish is from one of my hand carved rubber stamps pressed into the clay.  The body of the fish is a light turquoise colored glaze and the fins and tail are celedon altho they are showing up in the picture as a pink.  I took several pictures of this to try to get the coloring right but I am not a photographer and this is the best I can do.

 This bowl was painted with black colored glaze and sgraffitoed around the outside.  The inside is ruby red colored glaze

 This cup is painted with white colored glaze on the outside and sun yellow colored glaze on the inside and handle.  The outside was then painted with crackle. The handle was textured with a piece of fabric before being attached to the cup.  After it was fired I used a sharpie around the outside of the cup to bring out the crackle.

 This sweet little handless cup was painted with white colored glaze on the outside and then splattered with light turquoise colored glaze using a toothbrush.  The inside is painted with light turquoise glaze.

 And the last - so far - of the sperm plates.  This one is painted with foliage green and black spermies.

bad blogger

I have been a very very bad blogger......I have been so caught up with the clay I haven't spent the time to take pictures and post them.  This will now be rectified!. Here are some pictures of items I have completed in Ceramics 2.  One of the pictures is from Ceramics 1 but I completed it with fibers.  Enjoy!

 This is the piece I created in Ceramics 1 but just recently completed with the fibers going through the holes.  The stamped image is one of my carved rubber stamps.

 This is one of the Wonky Ware lines that I have created.  See how it kinda sticks out all wonky on the right.  Thus....Wonky Ware!  It is glazed in turquoise and then splattered using a toothbrush with black glaze.

 This one was painted with a red glaze and splattered with black.  The black splatter didn't show up very well but it is there.

 Bowl glazed with Indian Summer.  There is no rhyme or rhythm to this glaze.  it does whatever it wants to do and I'm fine with that.

 We were handed an extruded tube and told to do something with it.  This is what came from the extruded tube.

 Top and bottom of this bowl.  The glaze on the outside is Hawaiian sand and the inside is milky way.  Love these crystal glazes.

 Top and bottom of a plate.  I really enjoy the swirls on the bottom of the plate.

 The sgraffito image carved on the outside of the bowl is from one of my carved rubber stamps.  It is carved into black glaze and the inside of the bowl is a light kiwi glaze.

 Our assignment here was to use different extruded pieces to create a sculpture.  There are holes in the bottom so I can plant succulents in it.

This one is made from an extruded tube and then it has a bust and face mold attached.  at the bottom are three feet and at the top are two feet for a handle for the lid.  just under the face you can see the cut where the lid comes off.  At the handle there is a hole between the feet and I have inserted wire and beads.

When the rest comes out of the kiln I will post more photos!