Happy New Year! Here's a Pie, a Skull, and Jewelry

More pieces to show.

First, here's the scary skull after firing.  Very shiny but grungy

The pie turned out delicious.  The apples have a little more red in them than I would like.

Here's the swirled clay pieces after glazing and firing.

I then decided to make some jewelry with decals. 2 gold, a dichroic film, and a creative image.

Added a few ebellishments to the jewelry and made a 5th dichroic glass piece.  Ready to fire.

New Workshop!

It's our first workshop of the new year!  We will meet Saturday January 19 at 10 a.m. and will finish around 1 p.m.  Feel free to bring snacks and drinks. Go to our workshop page to enroll or view all the workshops we have scheduled.  You can also call or come in to enroll - (314) 842-0110.  This year we'll do 2 projects, so while one is drying, you can work on the other.  This first class is $60 and includes all supplies and materials.

Our first project will be this lovely home decor tray.

We'll also make this striking sushi plate with hand-painted poppies.

Well we survived Christmas 2012! You all kept me hopping! And a big thank you for that! 

Since we love our customers SOOOOOO much, we have decided to give you a bonus as well! 

Until the end of business on Sunday, all Christmas items are 30% off! That's right, all trees, snowmen, reindeer, and ornaments are all 30% off! First come first serve. No pushing, no shoving. 

Just good will towards men! 

Muah! 

Jim

More Finished Items

Here's the finished Owl painted on a leaf plate.

And the scratched up vase.

One Flop and Two WIPs

The lemon soap dish turned out all wrong.  Way too crackly.  Should have known with all the crackling happening even before firing.  Oh well, might try again later.

The large soap dish turned out better.  Does anyone know if a plant exists with orange berries and leaves like this?

Here's a new shape from Duncan that I like.  Trying out some sgraffito effects.  Lots of scraping and scratching going on.

And finally this guy.  Just some quick antiquing on a fun skull.

Two Finished Projects and Two WIPs

This plate needed something so I wrote on it with a Pebeo pen and baked it in.

Orange plate with flowers all fired up and finished.

Two more WIPs.  This tropical leaf plate wasn't selling so I made a new sample for it - inspired by Tim McPhearson's ornament dish owl design.  Actually the second try on the lemon soap dish.  I tried white crackle glaze first and the color faded into it and the crackling was less than stellar.  Here I'm using cobblestone.  It's cracking a lot.  I'll have to be careful not to flake any off before it goes in the kiln.

Frame with Elm branch

I finished this frame with a kind of wood look.  I pre-painted the leaves behind the creative image.  As you can see, I missed a couple of them - oh well.  Parker deigned to model for the picture.

Ice Cream Bowls

More plain goodness.  One color on the inside and nothin' on the outside.  Just needs vanilla ice cream to make it complete.

Sante Fe Plates

A quick sample I made of the Sante Fe Plates from Bisque Imports to demonstrate that a set of plates doesn't have to be so matchy-matchy.  I like that this set has un-matching, but complementary shapes.  The dark border helps bring them all together as a set, but it's a little uneven :( .  I should have made it a little broader to help hide the sloppiness.

Marbled Clay

Playing with two colors of clay mixed together for these slumped dishes.  I will probably just put a clear glaze on them.

Finished Eiffel Plate

Just a quickie. A finished plate with an image of the Eiffel tower.  It faded a little more than I wanted - not sure if it's because of the pink base glaze, or too high a firing temperature.

Teapots

 Here's the finished teapot.  The glaze didn't run as much as I thought it would.  Maybe it's because I put a base clear glaze.  You can see how the speckles in the clay really come out in the cone 6 firing.

 Teapot 2.  This one has legs and a little different handle on the lid.  The first one actually had legs to start with, but I scoot-moved it while it was greenware and the legs fell off and I didn't bother re-attaching them.

Comments are welcome and make me feel good too.

New just painted plate.  Still needs to be fired.

 

Comments welcome.

More WIPs and Finished Pieces

Glazed the little teapot with clear glaze base and a jungle gem on top.  Notice I stayed away from the bottom since JGs are low-fire glazes and the pot is mid-fire stoneware.

Here's a piece done mostly with matte glazes (The black is gloss).  The matte glazes are still food safe but give a totally different look.

Here's the poppy dish all finished and fired.  I love the smeary pencil.

And the swirly crumbles plate after firing.

Hope you like!

Underglaze Poppies

Used the underglaze black pencil and some red paint.

Easy squeezy.

Swirls and Crumbs

I used some crumbled black paint in a swirl pattern.  It's not quite as controlled as I wanted it to be.  Then I followed the swirl with a ribbon of black paint.

Finished Koi

Third step was adding a dark blue layer and then wiping it all down with a damp sponge to expose all the layers.  Then I painted the eyes.

Not exactly what I was going for, but it has an antique stoneware look that I like.

A Little Teapot

This is my first try at a handbuilt teapot.  I used the half-sphere mold in the picture for the main part of the body (is that cheating?).  It's still a little rough at this stage but I'll try to smooth it down more later.

Nate's WIPs

I've decided to start blogging my work - good or bad.  This will be a diary of some of my ceramic and glass creations.  Hopefully they will turn out great, but I'll even post the stinkers as well.  Please let me know what you think, but try to be nice. Thanks.

 I've wanted to paint this piece for a while, but couldn't decide on a design.  Well I've finally jumped in.  I drew a quick layout of some scroll work in pencil to get started.

 

Here is a little further in with some of the painting started.  The color is a dull brown.

 A koi fish I've started as well.  Two coats of a bright blue...

...and two coats of a lighter dull blue.

Stay tuned...

Nate

Did I fall asleep again? Here are some treats  - an no tricks!

I love a good owl...

 Sometimes, its whats on the inside that counts...

Stunning! 

 Simplicity and fabulosity! 

 I don't know why, but this caught my eye...

 This mug has a lot of heart....you know I crack myself up, right? 

Love the detail!

Until next time, 

Jim

Here are some cuties for you today!
(click to enlarge)

Is that pumpkin wearing a cat as a hat? 

Precious teapot! 

Play ball! 

Wait a minute! That's not pottery, that's my precious Parker! How did she sneak in here? 

Much love, 

Jim

A couple of cuties for today!

All this pitcher needs is some margaritas!

 What a pretty pumpkin! 

Hope to have more for you soon!

Much love, 

Jim