Latest pottery...again

Well, I've been a busy potter...churning out interesting shapes, being satisfied (on the whole) with the glazes these days.

 This little vase has eggshell glaze, inside and out, wiped on the highlight places with a sponge while still wet...to give the blush from the thin glaze over speckled brownstone clay.  I do like that!

 Here are two blues... floating above, and Black Mountain Blue below.

A coffee filter cone...which I've started using rather than all the trouble with espresso machine.  Just wait till the tea kettle says I've got hot water, and pour it through the grounds.  And I found out how the extra heat from pouring boiling water stays in the ceramic cone and I get really well brewed coffee, and enjoy the flavor more.  So at this point, it's staying in my kitchen.  I may make another one...maybe.

When I tried brushing off some of the blue glaze, it gave some interesting colorations from the thin glaze and the bare clay.  I happen to like this effect.

From New Grange, Ireland, or perhaps Malta's goddess temples, the triple spiral is a design which has meditative possibilities.  Our Women of Wisdom class participants painted their Triple Spirial Finger Labyrinths with glaze, and now will be able to use them for meditation.  I made a few extras that I'm willing to sell.

I sold both of these pitchers the day I put them out at the Tail Gate market.  It's too late to make any more before the market closes for the season.  But I'll try to have a couple by the time I next sell things at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts...that will be the first Fri. in December.  Until then, I'll just be enjoying exploring what can be done in clay.

Platter or not to platter

Just a quick shot of a combination of thin eggshell glaze and Mexico.  The sponged glaze on top of both is Amber...also thin coat, but it gives a difference in texture.

The closeup shows the pimples that Mexico glaze has most times I use it...so I may try putting another coat of something over it...or jsut leave it like it is.  I'm not happy about it though.

tiny vases

Four fold speckled brownstone with raspberry and Black Mountain Blue glazes

 Three-fold speckled brownstone with Raspberry and Eggshell glazes

July pitchers & bowls

 A set of nesting bowls...wasn't that hard to make, and I kind of like that they all nestle within each other for storage.

 This is speckled brownstone clay with Mexico glaze outside, and eggshell inside.

 Pitcher number 2 (of my series) is celedon glaze (which means it looks a bit greener than these pics show).

Clay is Little Loafers.

 I found I had to use a lot more water to throw with it rather than Bellas Blend, the last white clay (cone 6) which I'd been using.

I do enjoy making those folds in the body...and they go so well with the pitcher form (I think anyway)

Pitcher number 3 has eggshell inside and as accents on the outside, with Matt Bronze Green over it on lower three quarters.

I'm not pulling the handles, rather working with thick slab and cutting them, then forming them with a little hand-friendly curve in a cross section.

So far they seem to be able to hold the weight, and these guys were all 3.5 pounds of clay.  I'm sure I could get them thinner with Bellas Blend, but LL just stays thick for me.

This Number 4 pitcher has Mexico inside and out.  Again, the color isn't quite as "sky blue' as these pictures show.  It's the same Mexico that looks very turquoise on the bowls at the top, but it gets a metalic sheen sometimes.  (I noted that this doesn't always last with wear in an earlier post)

So here are the first four...number 4 on far left, #3, #1 (posted earlier) and #2.  There really is much more variety in the blue/greens than shows here...and I used natural light thinking that would help it show.  Oh well. 

The next three will be colored a bit differently...and they are smaller 3 pounders.

There are a couple of cat boxes that I can't show until I deliver them to the birthday girls...my highschool mates who've stayed in touch with me via internet for the last few years!

I've also got some interesting crone vases...with little heads poking out.  I'll post them later too.

Gardenias and glazes

Loving having new windows, which do swish up and down like butter, and my commentor said.  I've got one person making comments with this blog.  What does that say about me?  I'm fine with it...cause I know the rest of you are lurkers.  I do that lots of places, then someday or another I decide I really want that blogger to know what I think.  And that's how commentaries start.

The first 2 gardenias opened today.  I couldn't smell them until my head cleared out a bit.  Now they are the wonderful heady arroma that catches your attention as you walk by.

Cake Stand

I don't love having a bruised toe on right foot such that I can't wear shoes.  I dropped a 35 pound plastic tub of kitty litter from the height of the bottom rack of a grocery cart where it just wouldn't fit onto my foot.  Believe me it hurt.  it still does, and the toe is swollen and red still, but it wiggles fine.  I would have gone to ER and sued Walmart if it hadn't.

It has also limited my walking for a few days.  But I've still got other things waiting for attention.

I now have curtain material.  I now have a working sewing machine vintage Sears 1960's.  I stuck oil in all the right places yesterday, and wiped with an oily cloth where only dust bunnies could hide.  May still need a new belt, since this is only the second one on it.  I'll be so happy if it can just do simple straight stitches.  My mending is mainly requiring that.  And hemming new curtains was the impetus to get it fixed and running.  I actually still have the owners manual, which says just call the Sears repair man to come out any time.  Right.  But I am glad I looked inside and found some more places that I can squirt oil into the machine.

 This is cobalt stain with eggshell glaze over it...

 

 Here's the blue stain with HR Satin over it. 

 And I do love the silky finish it has.

Just wish I could count on the Satin glaze.  I may try it again tomorrow.  This is the look I want, and I keep throwing out pots because it has craters in it from being applied too thickly.  I am determined to get it right.

I also am a collector of pottery.  I have two small pieces by Akira Satake of Swannanoa, and one by Cathy Babula, and one by Bilbro (she didn't write her whole name on the bottom).  I don't like that my mark on my pots won't let anyone know my name, the little goddess figure.  So I think I'll also do my name.  I'm not exactly well known enough that people will see that goddess with arms stretched to the sky and think, ah it's done by Barbara Rogers!  My art is not meant to be anonymous.

Now that starts my thinking, why does it matter that an observer, someone who at least picks it up and looks on the bottom, should find my name?  I shall be thinking about that all day now.  I think it's an ego thing.  But it may also be connected to being a lurker.

A blogger note, after fuming for weeks why blogger won't remove blogs that I'm no longer following from the list on the "gadget"...  they don't do it automatically, so those blogs, even when they are no longer active, are just listed forever as blogs I'm following.  I would have thought once I stop following a blog, it would be removed from the list.  Logical, no?  Anyway, if I go through "design" and edit the "gadget list," that takes care of it completly.  Duh.