Gratitude!

This week has been beyond great, and everything seems to be coming up ShellHawk!

Last weekend, I made a few tumblers and cups to decorate, and got the initial underglaze laid down. The tumblers were for a girlfriend of mine, and we had a play date while both of us worked on our projects or prepping everything for some inlay work. God, it was nice to see her face in person!

So, since I've finally finished the whole Supernatural series and like many others have become a fan, I decided to make a few Supernatural-themed tankards. I posted my WIP to a Supernatural fan page and HOLY COW! The response has been unbelievable!

I really hadn't been doing self-promotion, more just a, "Hey, I, too, like this series, and I made a thing!" But now? I've got a bunch of orders and everyone knows they have to wait for a while until I can start filling them. They can get mass-produced merch, but nothing like what I make, and they seem to be smart enough to wait for quality.

The rough part is that I'm behind on Hallowe'en stuff, but I'll catch up. I've been accustomed to working long hours in the studio, so there's no reason I can't!

I have a number of other great things going on which I can't share with you, although I'm really itching to!

 Stay tuned...

New Works, New Toy!

Over the holidays, I was catching up with  my ceramics magazines. (Yes, I read those. Duh!) In Clay Times, there was an article about tools for glaze mixing and application.

If you saw my post regarding the last time I mixed glaze, you'll have seen me covered in glaze splashes.

It's a really sexy look. Honest! *eye roll*

So below on the right, you can see my usual mixing device. On the left is the Jiffy Mixer! 

In theory, the stainless steel Jiffy Mixer should be able to mix my glazes without splashing all over the place. It should also be able to scrape the dry stuff off the sides of my glaze bucket while moving everything down, up and in from the sides, and not get chunks of plastic bucket in my glaze while mixing. Yes, at $50 it's a bit spendy, but that's what Christmas money is for, right? I'm looking forward to using it this next glazing cycle.

So I've been playing with stamping, like Gary Jackson does, because it looked like fun. And you know what? It is fun!

I threw the above teapot, deliberately leaving the lid a little large to allow for the clay shrinkage. I'm playing around with teapot shapes, too, while I have a little time. I haven't done a lot of teapots, so cutting the spouts to fit still takes me a bit of time. I always throw several spouts for two reasons: 1) if I mess one up, I have others to fall back on. 2) I like to have different - sized and -shaped spouts to see which one looks best on the teapot. I thought that with all the little stamped daisies, a short spout would look cute. What do you think?

I've been on a cup kick, lately. I stamped two of the ones above, and "scribbled" on the other one while my wheel was turning. I've found it makes for a good spot for the glaze to "break," which will give it both visual and tactile interest.

I'm experimenting with yunomi, too. Yunomi are those wonderful handle-less Japanese tea cups you see in all the Japanese restaurants.

The process of fitting the lid involves letting the clay dry slowly and trimming
it a little at a time. I throw it slightly large to allow for shrinkage.

I enjoyed the stamping so much, I decided to throw a couple of teapots and stamp them, too! Then there was the bowl, which seems to have turned out well, too.

After a week or so out in the studio, I decided they were ready to be brought in to dry in front of the fire.

Then I decided to unpack the kiln and dry all the rest of them while I was at it.

 I still have a ways to go before the kiln is full and ready to be fired, but I think this is a nice start!