Leatherhard

 I know this will be a lot more interesting once the pieces come out of the glaze firing, but this is where we are, and I am in a sharing mood.
 
The first doily face plate got its foot ring and had the doily lifted out.

Sorry Tudors, I know we're not so very different but I just have to alter mugs unless they are explicitly for you. Which these are not. 

While I did the feet, altering, and handles on the mugs, one more plate got nearly hard enough to trim. I shouldn't have pushed it. I'll leave the others for tomorrow.

Alas, it is cooler than it ought to be and also rainier than it ought to be, so I have to use the heater in the studio if I want anything to dry at all. This is not the June I was expecting. But it'll work out.

Chugging right along

 Continuing with various clay activities, I had a glaze firing. The face plates are still V9G. The one with the green on the faces is going to get flowery decals on it, and the green will help with the gardeny camouflage look. The people are made of Earthstone 50 - Crank, and are unglazed.  The small plates are small indeed, probably only 5 or so inches across.

These just have a clear glaze, and will get decals on them.

This plate is growing on me. It's got a matte base glaze with shiny green streaks on the faces. 

The people mostly stay buff, but sometimes go a bit toasty on their extremities. There's no planning for it, the kiln decides. 

Back to wet work, I am doing a small batch of face plates with lace doilies pressed into the middles. 

I'm going to leave the doilies on until the feet are trimmed, then I'll lift them out and wash them, ready to be used again.  I get these from RETRoVERT, who source quality vintage items from around the county.  Someone's Nana made these, and they ended up in boot sales or charity shops. I immortalize the work of the Nanas here. 

Mugs. There have to be mugs. I will trim, alter, and handle these in the next day or two. I don't like to make them the same.  I like each one to be its own special beverage event venue.

I think I might do a little more work in V9G, then do a studio scrub-down for the switch to porcelain.

How those Tudor-ish mugs turned out

Some time ago, I was asked to make some Tudor compatible mugs for a family who intended to do a reenactment. I made the forms, I even glazed them and loaded them in the kiln, but then didn't fire. I hadn't got a full load, and I do like a tightly packed kiln. So they waited.

But the first ones were fine. Here they are, both with a flash and without. It's a glaze that changes quite a lot with lighting. I wonder how it will look in sunlight and by camp fire.

But in the mean time, I spent more time looking up Tudor mugs, and made a new batch with bigger feet. And higher handles. I can find examples for most shapes I like to do among Tudor mugs, but actually making them look Tudor was harder than I thought. I found some with a hint of green, which pleased me. I like my green glaze, and I felt I had permission to use it over my clear glaze.

I also dipped a few rims in my yellow glaze, which comes out anywhere from creamy white to dark orange, but rarely actually yellow. I got white. Subtle, but I think it works.

Brown is a bit classic, but still pleasing.

There was that one mug I felt I had to alter. I used all the colours from the Tudor mugs on it in my usual splashy style.

And I made some small ones, which were meant to be a joke on people who drop by and mock my large mugs, but as it turns out, they were wanted for Tudor children. So no joke.

They've been sent off to to the Tudors, except the one altered one. If any they come back, I'll have them at Cambridge Open Studios in July 2012.

Wet work

I'm back in the studio, making making making.  I'm throwing with Valentine Clays V9G at the moment. It's being very good for me. If I had more storage and drying space, I would be out there throwing still.

I have a commission for some Tudor-ish mugs to be used by a family of reenactors. The shape is already close to one I make, but the handles are higher and the footrings are bigger. At least some of the footrings are bigger.  The Tudors, sadly for them, did not bash their mugs with interestingly textured objects, though. These are smooth in the name of semi-authenticity. Except for one. I couldn't resist. It wasn't quite the right shape anyway.


I made a large selection of sizes to suit adults and small children. They're in the bisque kiln now, and will be glazed this week, so soon we will know actual volumes represented here. I'm guessing the largest is nearly a litre.

Yes, I did make way too many.







Plates of various sizes are not going to stay so very platey. I let them set up a little bit, then I faced them.

With the last batch, I was careful to approximate even spacing, whether the plate had six or eight faces. This time I mostly threw that out the window and went with random placement, which came out mostly to look as evenly spaced as the last batch. But not on this one.

Those plates in front are small. I think the little batts they're on are 5 inches square.  The ones in back are more of a meal size, but I don't know if anyone will actually be able to eat off these, what with all those faces scrutinizing the meal.

More on the lower shelf.

While I was waiting for things to dry, all out of space for more batts in the studio, I started making these small people. They're probably in the 3-6 inch range, although they will shrink when fired. They're made of ES-50 Crank clay from Valentine.  I'm going to take them to 1300C and leave them unglazed. They'll take on a nice, toasty look.  If they don't sell at Cambridge Open Studios, I'm going to bury some to confuse the archaeologists of the future.  One of them is pre-sold though, so I have moderate hopes of homes for some of the others. I've made more since this photo, so I ought to be able to get some into appreciative homes AND bury some.

Face plates

Face plates are my latest thing. Faces pressing out of the rims, some obscured, some clear.

This one is about 6 inches round, yellow base glaze with brown faces.

Oh, decals are so much fun. Faces in the garden. This one is about 11-12 inches across.

Another small one. Brown base glaze with yellow faces, about 6 inches.










 Close up of the Paparazzi plate. Charles and Diana sit innocently in the middle, pre-wedding.

 

And the whole thing. About 12 inches. 

More of these are in the works. I'll do another batch in this tan clay, and then switch to porcelain. Check back soon to see how that works out.

Lidded, altered porcelain jars with coloured finials

These are wheel throw and altered. They range in height from about 3 inches to 6.5 inches. They're made of Audrey Blackman porcelain with solid stained porcelain finials.

Ten all together. I expect to be making more of these in the near future. So much fun!  And it's always nice to have a small container to squirrel away small treasures in.

Some necklaces

Oh, I do have fun with the jewellery. I make my own coloured porcelain beads and kiln-fired glass cabochons for my necklaces. I also bend and case harden the copper features. I usually add a few other components I didn't make myself, such as chain, clasps, and Swarovski crystals.

No copper on this one, but seed beads are strung with my own beads, and woven erratically through black steel chain. Symmetry is over-rated.

I do like to use greens with the copper. It's only natural.



















And here? All tied up, that orange just needs to be restrained somehow.