Sgraffito Maddness

 Mirror frame = 11" diameter - the mirror is small - about  3 1/2" diameter

Cheese dome with platter and serving plate:

Serving platter, wide/low bowl and cup:

Serving platter - put glaze on the wet clay instead of slip (by mistake) but it turned out OK : )

Here's a Moroccan tagine - keeping this one:

Here's a small bowl - not sure I like how the underglaze ran under the clear on this one:

Garlic roaster:

Garlic keeper:

Serving platter:

In the works:  

Serving platter 

Cheese Dome:

Platter for cheese dome:

Ikebana vases upside down

 I've been inspired by a number of bell shaped ikebana vases that I've seen as I've perused the web.      The spectacular, elegant work of Matthew Allison is particularly inspiring.  

Check some of his work out at this link:  http://www.mattallisonceramics.com/2013/01/16/ikebana-bell-form-thrown-altered-2/.

After the pot stiffened up a bit, I flipped it so it sat upside down.  I removed the clay from the narrow base, which created a new opening and added a slab to create a new base.  I also incised lines around the new lip and the bottom of the pot.

Here is the finished pot.  It's glazed with a glossy black glaze on the inside, and a really pretty commercial glaze called textured honey on the outside.  

And here is is with a companion piece.  I like the overall shape of the larger piece much better, so I'll be trying the smaller piece again. 

Olive trays

I've been dreaming of olive trays for some reason - I wanted a long, narrow pot, but didn't know how to go about making one.  So, I found a clay project demonstration by Gail Kendall of a tray that had just the shape I wanted.  It's a fairly simple slab constructed pot, and we have been having fun making them in the studio.  Three of us have tried this project and I'm enjoying the variations on a theme.  For the step-by-step detail, watch Gail Kendall's video:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/427560558345819577/   - here is my process and results:

Next, she flipped the piece over so it sat on the coil foot.

.

And here are two that Linna made - she altered the ends, which loosened them up and gave them a more organic, poddish sort of look.  She textured the rim, carved them and painted some happy olives:

Really fun project!  Thanks Gail!

My foray into throwing porcelain - the glaze is new too - Coyote Crazed Copper - that didn't craze.   Pretty but not exactly what I planned.  After consulting with Coyote, I found that several things made a difference:  1)  being patient  - the crazing seems to take a bit longer to appear - on a couple of pieces, I discovered crazing a week after taking the piece out of the kiln  2) a thicker application of the glaze - since I was afraid of the glaze running and dripping onto the kiln shelves, I was a bit tepid on first try.  I did subsequent pieces with thicker applications and those crazed.  3) Coyote also suggested that clay compatibility might be part of the problem, but eventually I found that the glaze crazed on both the stoneware as well as the porcelain we use.  pretty glaze.

Newish works

I love how the glazes flowed on this one:

The landscape plates are fun.  In this one, I imagine we are looking landward from a boat in the water:

This squared bowl is currently most favored pot - closer to the more elegant and more voluptuous  look I crave - everything about it just worked - from the shape of the bowl to how the glaze flowed in the kiln:

And here are some - not elegant but pretty - fruit/serving bowls in the same series:

I also did a bowl using some brown clay rather than the white stoneware that I typically use - the glazes are the same, but you can see how the manganese in the brown clay reacted with the glazes, which gave the pot a beautiful speckled look - the dark blue (either Croc blue or Pam's blue) kind of lost it's mojo on the brown clay - not as successful as it is on the white stoneware:

So, that's it - more coming soon...

Linna's Fish Ka-Bobs

Linna is my ceramics teacher (and good friend) and among her many talents, she is a fish "nerd" who knows everything there is to know about fish.  A marriage of her love of fish and love of clay has resulted in all sorts of cool clay fish creations, including her most recent: fish totems, which have been variously called Fish Ka-Bobs, Fish Sticks and Vertical Aquariums : ).  Call them what you will - I love them!

 Jackal Nude

8 3/4" x 4 3/4"
Stoneware - fired in an electric kiln in oxidation to cone 6 - collaboration between Linna, my clay teacher, and me.  I made the torso, she plopped the head of a dog - originally for a different collaborative project - on top of the torso - and the nude Jackal was born : )