Just reminding you that the ShellHawk's Creations Etsy shop is open right now!
And you can grab a few Halloween things ahead of schedule!
I will probably be putting the shop on vacation shortly, to stock up for the next store update, so be sure to do your shopping now!
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!
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!
It's been a busy month, and it's only day 3? Holy goodnight!
Well, to be honest, I'd been working to get a new bunch of Supernatural cups and mugs finished before my annual Thanksgiving trip to Sacramento to get together with friends.
But you know me, if you've followed the blog for any amount of time. I don't let discomfort slow me down a whole lot! (Though I do admit to taking all the glazing inside that I can, so I can be comfy.)
I've been getting ideas for some more Castiel-themed, bee-related cups and mugs. So far, I just have the one, but the response has been so great, I plan on more like it! The first picture is the unfired cup, with the underglaze painted in. The others are after the first firing.
I always love how they look out of that first firing! The colors are so vibrant! But they need to have their clear glaze and a second firing if they're going to be food-safe, so there's another round of work to do for them: glazing!
I've been considering the last glaze failures and think I might have the issue solved with a new clay body. It's a nice, soft white, cone 5 clay. Although it's white like porcelain (without being as white or translucent as porcelain can be), it's a stoneware clay and a bit tougher. I managed to get a layer or two of glaze on some of them before I left for my trip. You can see I take my studio assistant with me everywhere, nowadays!
I saw my ceramics teacher while I was there and got a mini-lecture for some troubleshooting questions which, as always, was super helpful. I really miss the clay gang of folks I had available to me there. Maybe after this Covid-Omicron nonsense settles down, I'll get some classes here in LA.
I decided to do these cups a couple of different ways, to see what ends up working best. Some, I covered in black underglaze with the colored pattern and words and did the bisque firing. When I got them out of the bisque, I covered the words and patterns in wax resist, so that when they're dipped in glaze, the glaze will flow off the wax and keep the pattern and words clean. You can see the process on this video, at around 5:15, if you're interested.
Others, I just covered in a celadon glaze I kept from my old studio and just painted it on in layers. Because a good celadon glaze has a translucent quality to it, the deeper carving will show up in a darker pool of green and the higher points will be lighter in color. I think they're going to turn out really pretty, and the celadon gives it a bit of an Asian feel. The celadon, by the way, looks almost white before it's fired.
Finally, we have those medallion mugs! In playing with the design, I thought having a combination of colors would be fun to have on the cup and partially around the medallion. The picture below shows only one layer of glaze, which is actually going to be blue! You'd think it would be red, but that's not how the chemistry of the glaze works.
After all of that, and cleaning up the bottoms so they don't stick to the kiln shelves and get destroyed, and checking for overflow into the patterns, they were ready to get loaded into the kiln. When I left for work yesterday, the kiln temp had gone from 45°F to 97°F. When it's done, it will have gone up to around 2167°F with a twenty minute hold.
Now I get to spend some time getting all the other work into the shop that I haven't gotten to, yet!
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