 |
| Why, yes I do have enough room for a body in my suitcase! |
Check!
Yards and yards of tulle? Check!
Corsets? Check!
We are ready for takeoff!
The old booth was serviceable. Somewhat generic, though the coffin shelves were a nice touch. Sporting the usual Halloween lights around the ordinary shelving, it had nothing really stand-out to recommend it, aside from its contents.
Any attempts to redesign it were shot down by the other person I had in my life at that time.
Well, that's not an issue, any more. Amazing how much growth and expansion can happen when your wings aren't being clipped, eh?
Sneak peek:
Full reveal this weekend!
Today is going to be the last day for glazing! I hope, that is. It always takes me longer than I think it will!
These pieces are all going to be low-fire, many of them with clear glaze, but I have a few stray jacks to get their orange, yellow and green treatments before they go in the kiln for their final firing. I've been doing low-fire for so long, I no longer worry about how the glazes turn out or if anything sticks together.
And to be honest, I don't even care if some of you read that post title a little dirty, at first! Lol!
I worked hard on this guy and I couldn't be happier with the results!
I took him over to UPS today to get a ballpark idea of how much he would be to ship, should someone need that service at Midsummer Scream, and everyone there was ecstatic to see him and know I'd be entrusting him to their care.
As with my other jacks, I glazed his inside yellow, so that whatever lighting goes in his head really pops!
I also re-fired this jar. I had used a lavender celadon over obsidian celadon, but when I pulled it out of the first glaze firing, the lavender was almost unnoticeable. I decided to slop on another thick coat of lavender over it and take the chance it would show up when it came out.
And it did! Not as much of a contrast as I would have liked, but I like the quality of how the lavender blends in, almost like cream getting poured into black coffee. Next time, I'll fiddle with the application and see what results I can get.
I am so loving firing at cone 6, again. I have some really fun stuff in mind (when don't I?) and as always, it's going to be a matter of being able to make time for some experimenting. Work, aging parents and creating Halloween ceramics. What more is there to life?
I have been pushing my Skutt kiln to live up to its workhorse reputation by firing day after day, nonstop, for the past four or five firings. As soon as it cools down enough to open, everything gets emptied and the next load goes in!
Case in point: these pieces were unloaded this morning and my large jack-o'-lantern and one of the jars are in their glaze firing right now. The jar is a second firing because the purple over the black wasn't very apparent, and while I don't really think slapping another coat of the lavender over the obsidian on a red clay body will make a huge difference for the good, I don't think it will hurt it any. We'll see! It's all mad scientist experimentation.
The two above are a good example of that experimentation. I wanted to see if the "Ice" celadon would give a contrast to the clay body and the glaze, or whether the translucency of the glaze would cause the color to wash out. Turns out it was the latter, but even so, these turned out well! I'm just going back to the drawing board to find a lighter, bluer, glaze to contrast with this chocolate clay body.
However, the celadons I used on light clay bodies were predictably wonderful! The True Celadon glaze never disappoints! (Long-time followers with amazing memories might remember I used it on this carved porcelain punch bowl set.) I used it on two of the carved tumblers and I never cease to love the way it pools in the low spots and accentuates the dimensionality of carved pieces!
I took the opportunity to play with stoneware glaze combinations on the new clay body, too. I love how you can combine Deep Firebrick with Indigo Float and get this gorgeous and vibrant combo!
And I *love* how these guys turned out! They remind me of the old, sepia-toned photos from way back when!
I received a catalog in the mail from USPS yesterday and was delighted to be reminded they released these Day of the Dead stamps in September of last year. (It's been crazy here, so perhaps I can be forgiven for my lapse!)
Out of curiosity, I did a search for other skeleton-themed stamps and came up with these two beauties from the long-ago.
I always love the annual mugshot! This year taken by my patient and loving friend, Sherri Miranda. She has such a great eye!
All ready for Midsummer Scream? Not quite, but sooooo close!
Come on a creator's journey with me, today. Imagine you're a potter, and making a few jars for Midsummer Scream.
You get the body thrown, with enough clay at the top to create the gallery (the spot where the lid sits). You carefully measure and throw the inner part of the lid, then the outside rim, so it fits nicely.
You flatten out some clay by hand to make a "label." You carefully carve the letters of said label, then brush three layers of white over it to make it stand out.
You select your black underglaze and your favorite precision applicator with the thinnest needle you can squeeze the underglaze through. Your first application is gorgeous! It's textbook!
You will be inducted into the Potter's Hall of Fame for your precision in applying this underglaze!
Then comes the second coat of the black. And as you reach across your piece...
DAMMIT! You smear the fresh underglaze across that pristine, white surface. There are a few other choice word which follow, but "dammit" pretty much covers the feeling of the moment.
Fortunately, you know what you're doing and you can just wait for it to dry before gently scraping the smear off and reapplying both white and black.
Now these guys get to dry in the sun for a day or two and then go through their first firing.
Stay tuned for more excitement!
Posts
All Comments
