New in the Shop and Coming Soon!

Things are always busy and I am so here for it!

I have some new Moose and Squirrel mug sets coming to the ShellHawk's Creations Etsy shop, and I am so doggone pleased with how they turned out! Black with red inlay and gorgeous copper on the rim!

I've been playing with new gold decals and new underglaze patterns, too! These are currently in the shop and ready to come live with you!

And there are some fun, NSFW mugs ready to go, too!

Head on over to the ShellHawk's Creations Etsy store and get a little somethin'-somethin' for yourself!

2023 - 0 Stars. Would Not Recommend

The short version is that a bunch of people in my life died within a six-week period and the aftermath is, well, just a lot to deal with. Hiding in bed, while effective for short periods of time, is not a sustainable option!

But life goes on, right?

After the rains let off, I started to get back out to making things, this time with a specific market in mind.

These particular cups will have some Dungeons and Dragons-related phrases on their medallions! I have some new glaze combinations to play with and I am so excited to be able to offer these soon! There's a game shop close by and I'm going to take a few over there to see if perhaps they'd like to carry them. I haven't made the effort to get in a retail shop before, so it's a new adventure!

There's another nearby shop which expressed interest in my "just breathe" cups, so I made some to take over to them. The kiln is nearly full enough to run a bisque firing, and after that, it'll be at least a full day of agonizing over colors and glaze combinations, and then several more days of glazing and putting the glaze combos into my spreadsheet!

After that, there will be a shop update with some of the new bowls in addition to new cups!

Onwards!

New WIPs

Well, it seems like there's a pause in the rains and the cold here in good ol' L.A., so I got back outside to my wheel and started making, again.

I've had more requests for really big mugs, so I've thrown a few of those, too. I'm guessing those will end up at around 30-ish ounces once they're out of the glaze firing.

Clay shrinks as it goes from wet to dry, then shrinks again in the bisque (first) firing, then shrinks one last time in the glaze firing, which for these guys will be at ^5-^6. The little carrot means "cone," which is how hot it's going to be fired to.

I've had the idea to make some mugs for Pride, to support my LGBTQIA+ friends and fans, and what better way to do that than to start with what we in the Supernatural fandom call "The Ship of Dreams," Destiel!

And life has been difficult of late for many of us in my age group. I lost both my aunt and my mom within weeks of each other, and decided that a couple of naughty language cups were on par with the current mood...

I figured I'd give you a sense of scale and capacity, too, so my two-cup measuring cup was the best tool for that!

This morning, I unpacked the kiln, and will start cleaning the clay dust off these pieces before I agonize and overthink the glaze combinations! Three of the pieces are commissions, which I seldom take anymore due to people "Karening" too much. I just don't have that kind of patience left in me, anymore!

"Carry On" is one of those commission pieces, actually. The client wants it in yellow, so it gives me the excuse to buy and have fun with a new (to me) Celadon glaze from Amaco.

I was down to just a few bowls this year, so I took some time to make a couple of larger ones, and a bunch of smaller bowls that would make good ice cream or prep bowls. I still want to get to ramen or Pho bowls, but just haven't gotten there as of yet!

And then there's this guy! My first cookie jar, requested as a gift for a friend's brother. I've really enjoyed making him so far! Lots of thought about the handle, I have to say...

This cup is a replacement for another one of similar design, because my friend wanted even more caffeine at her disposal!

This guy is just a glaze test for a new to me glaze which has a reputation for being runny. I have a piece in mind which will use this texture, and I want to be sure I know what to expect! Aren't the bees adorable?

Time to get glazing!

This Year's Offerings

 

Many of you who have been following my blog for a while (did I really start this in 2008?!) will remember that I started studying ceramics not long after. Through the years, I've developed a Hallowe'en style, one definitely influenced by my Japanese-American teacher, Yoshio Taylor. 

I've tried to maintain a mix of whimsy and creepiness, probably a leftover of my memories of those Hallowe'ens of the 1970's, largely thought to be the "golden age" of Hallowe'en. We had had the Universal Monsters for years and years, we had those horrors of the 1950's and the Addams Family and the Munsters from the 1960's. In the 1970's and 1980's, we got our horror hosts, and waited eagerly for Zacherle or Elvira to stalk (or slink, in Elvira's case!) across the screen and show us our movie of the week.

Mixed in there was the artistic aesthetic of the 1920's and 30's Hallowe'en retailers who released The Bogie Book and other catalogues like it. Beistle was releasing wonderful die-cuts, which some people were smart enough to keep so future collectors could enjoy them.

I've been doing this for a while now, and while my intent was never to get rich, I've enjoyed a small measure of success. More so now that I'm officially back from an unwanted and forced five-year hiatus from the Hallowe'en folk art circuit.

While the location of what's come to be known as, "The Annual Mugshot" has changed, my love for making these critters has not! Someone suggested I'd get tired of carving jack-o'-lanterns at some point and move on to other things, but that hasn't happened, yet. I still love them, and the joy people have in the jacks they purchase from me keeps me making them. 

After all, jack-o'-lanterns are meant to ward off evil spirits, and we definitely want that protection when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest!

Meanwhile, I've added functional ceramics into the mix, changing up the style a little here and there as new glazes get added to my palette and new ideas surface.

Some are pop-culture inspired, some are things I'd imagine in some witch's apothecary, holding spell components.

This jar is a little Zen. Curses on one side, Blessings on the other. They're always a mixed bag, aren't they?

And then there are those other parts of the spell's recipe...

Some things are just a fun way to get that all-important spell component - caffeine - into your system with a little style...

My annual Artist Open House is this Sunday, and the remainder of this year's Hallowe'en offerings will be available towards the end of next week in the ShellHawk's Creations Etsy store. (No, I haven't gotten my other shop up, yet. I have yet to find someone to do the work of figuring out the platform!) I'll do an announcement as to when the shop update will be so you all will have a crack at getting a piece of handmade, Hallowe'en bliss before it's too late!