Raku Jacks

Start to finish, the most fun you'll have if you don't burn your face off, first!

  

Just did this firing over the weekend, with help from friends who had also come over to lend a hand for studio work mixing glazes and reconstituting clay. They are rock stars! All the work they did in one afternoon would easily have taken me five or six days by myself.

I'm still freaking out about not having enough for the show, so out to the studio I go to get some work done before I go to work!

Works in Progress

 It's been a busy week in the studio and out of it, too! I've been working on several projects at one time, because sometimes I'm able to complete more things that way; when one piece is drying, I can be glazing something else. When the glaze firing is going (making the studio unbearably hot in already overly-hot weather) I can be inside, working on a sculpture. It's a bit crazy-making, but it seems to work for me.


I decided to throw in a couple of bigger-ticket Hallowe'en items this year, the first being the above-pictured porcelain punch bowl and ten cups. Porcelain is an interesting clay. Aside from being exceedingly fussy and hard to throw because it has no grog in it, everything contaminates it and shows, even after firing. That includes oils from handling and all other residue from other clays. 


Which brings me to how I nearly murdered my older, idiot dog.


Because porcelain has no grog, it can actually be carved when it's bone-dry if you throw it thickly enough. (If you try to carve other, grogged clays, the grog actually shows up and can scratch the surface of the piece.) I threw the bowl above with the idea of carving a haunted house on it, and carving various appropriate themes on the coordinating cups.


So, a couple of days ago, I'm out in my garage, wearing my respirator (hot) and wearing my latex surgical gloves (really freaking hot) so I don't contaminate the clay with the oils from my hands, and I have the bowl lying on a towel on my lap. I am sweating buckets, but I Am An Artist, and I am willing to Suffer For My Art. It is 108° in the studio. I am carving over a bucket of water to keep the dust to a minimum. I carve a little, then take a soft brush and brush away the powdered clay so I can see to carve more.


Idiot dog walks in. He normally doesn't want to be in the studio much, but that day, he made an exception. He lays down for a little bit, then notices the neighbors across the street messing with their car in their driveway.


Ooo! Something interesting is happening! The ears perk.


He gets up, somehow dipping his tail in the bucket I use for reclaiming my red clay.


He walks forward to the baby gate I keep across the door to keep the dogs from dashing outside, recognizes the people across the street, and begins to wag. His. Tail!


I have been completely, utterly focused on carving my bowl. I have not noticed that idiot dog has dipped his tail in the Red Death of Porcelain Clay (a bucket of water and red clay that I will reclaim later). 


I hear splattering noises as his tail wags oh-so-slightly faster. Small red splatters appear inside my porcelain bowl. Screaming and ranting ensues, and idiot dog is banished from the studio, looking baffled.


I set the bowl down and take a deep breath, muttering threats about dogs becoming rugs so they would actually be useful, for once. I take another breath and examine the bowl. I realize that there are, by some miracle, no huge chunks of Red Death of Porcelain clay in the bowl. The splatters are little more than red colored water. If I let it dry, I can gently sand it off. I won't actually have to throw the entire bowl away.


The idiot dog has no idea how lucky he is. He has, however, rubbed his tail in numerous places all over the house, to the dismay of our housekeeper, who had just cleaned all of those places. I dragged him outside and hosed off the offending tail while seriously considering bobbing it myself and saving myself a vet bill...

Meanwhile, work continues. I am glazing the chandelier and the matching globes, and if I get it finished this weekend, I may be able to open the kiln on Sunday morning. The pumpkins in the above shot (with the exception of the top middle one, which has already been fired) are drying and awaiting final touch-ups before their first firing. I have a small witch sculpture I'm working on, and work on Raven continues. (We can rebuild him! We have the technology!)


So, happy Friday the 13th, boils and ghouls. I'm off to glaze some jacks! I leave you with this track from Sinister 6, which will be on the upcoming Halloween at High Noon album coming out in October. I can hardly wait!

Happy 4th and Other Things!

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I hope it's wonderful, safe and full of great friends and great food!


In other news this here pumpkin came out of Monday's Raku firing:

I put him in my Etsy story this morning, and he was gone in less than five minutes. He's going to go live with Chris and Jeff Davis and their brood of kitties!


I got a few disappointed posts on that one, so I'll be making more of the Raku variety with evil faces similar to this guy. Later today or tomorrow, I'll be putting another jack from Monday's firing in the shop, so keep an eye out.


Lastly, I guess no one is interested in a giveaway, because I'm still not hitting that 260 follower mark. Sad panda. I was in a giving mood. *dramatic sigh*

New Jacks in ShellHawk's Creations Etsy Store!

Don't let the warts fool you. He's a great guy!

 ShellHawk's Creations on Etsy.

Open House-Eek!

In a valiant attempt to induce my very own first nervous breakdown, I'm having a pre-season open house here at my home on Sunday.


I've been throwing and glazing and firing like it's going out of style; I'm not looking forward to seeing my electric bill this month.


In any case, this is a shameless promotion! If there is anything in my Etsy story that you've really been wanting, but haven't yet gotten around to purchasing, now is a good time to do that, as it may well be gone after Sunday.


And remember to enter the Apothecary Label Giveaway, which was announced in the post just below. These are really fantastic labels for your apothecary display!

New Shop Pumpkins

Off to make some more! Meanwhile, buy at ShellHawk's Creations!

Lucky You

I'm too busy to change the shipping profile on my Etsy items, so enjoy free shipping until Sunday the 19th.

Come on. You know you want one!

Ghostly Pumpkin

Now available in the shop. ShellHawk's Creations on Etsy.

Bad News, Good News

So, the bad news (for me) is that The Folsom Fine Arts and Gourd Festival has been cancelled. I'm disappointed, as it was to be my first art show, but, as they say in the Old Country: shit happens.

The good news for you all is that all the stuff I have made and been making for the show will now be available in my Etsy store in the coming weeks. Keep in mind I am still messing around with my shipping profiles in the shop and will do my best to keep the costs down for you.

Happy shopping, kids!

Fresh Out of the Kiln

I've been a bit remiss in my posting, because I've been pushing to get some pieces done for the show in September. The one that's taken the most time has been Pumpkin Head, who is pictured below, pre-bisque firing.

Here he is, just out of the kiln this morning. I layered a couple of different glazes on his head, and I really like the slightly mottled result.

Here he is with a couple of new friends. I've been playing with some new glaze colors, so all my pumpkins don't look exactly the same.

I've also thrown a couple of larger bowls. There's the bat and moon pictured below

and this guy is actually made with a slump mold. I wanted his edges a little raggedy, hopefully someone will like that, too. I'll make another with normal edges.

I'll get some better pictures later, after dark.

Alright! Back to writing my podcast!

Faces for Show

I've been playing with making some new faces and making a few of my pots more "pumpkin-y." I've also been trying out new glazes, and one client wanted a radically different, non-pumpkin glaze.

I have so much to get done before the Fine Arts Festival, it's crazy! But I think these guys are a good start.

Giveaway update

I noticed that I have a few new anonymous followers and wanted to let them know my Summer Pumpkin Giveaway is going on right now! Click the highlighted words for details!

If you Anonymous followers would like to enter, please leave a comment on the original post so I can enter you in the upcoming drawing!

Also, I did a dumb thing and didn't realize I would be in Chicago this Friday, so giveaway winners will be announced on Monday!

Good luck!

Giveaway? Alright...

Since I now have one hundred forty-one followers, I shall have to keep my word and pull together a giveaway! Give me a day or two to see which jackos I'm going to give away and we'll get the ball rolling. I will include my new mini-pumpkins somehow, as well...

What I know for sure is that for every ten "I want it" comments I get on the giveaway post (not counting the ones that tell me that someone's posted on their blog or that they're a new Twitter or Facebook follower, etc), I will give out one more item.

Stay tuned!

Oh, and P.S. Thanks and welcome to the new follwers who made the upcoming giveaway possible!

News From the Nest

It's been busy at the Nest. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, and quite recently, but it remains true. I'm busier now than when I had a full-time job, and I'm still looking for one of those.

Some folks have contacted me for special orders of my pumpkin pots, which is great! Even better is that I've managed to throw some larger pots without them collapsing, so once I can do that consistently, I'll be offering them in my Etsy store. It shouldn't be long. I've also been working on some small, hand-carved pumpkins that I'll fire and either paint or glaze; I'm not sure which one I'll do yet. Maybe I'll do some of each. Since both Pumpkinrot's beloved Bean and Ghoul Friday also do tiny pumpkins, I made a conscious decision not to look at their little guys so I'm not copying their designs or faces by accident. It's kind of tough to avoid similarities, since jacko faces can look very much alike, but I think they hold my style, rather than others'. I'll do a reveal soon, and you can let me know if I've succeeded.

The reason I decided to make some tiny pumpkins is in preparation for a show I hope to be accepted into in September. (It's the Folsom Fine Arts Festival, so there's a chance my stuff won't be considered "artsy" enough, but I'm crossing my fingers.) I wanted small, inexpensive things that folks can buy in addition to my larger pots, and I think if I make enough of them, they'll move. I'm working my ass off to make sure I have enough different products to fill a 10'x10' stall. If all goes well (i.e. if I can get a few people to help me), I'll set Stewie up in the back of the stall as a draw. I'm hoping they have electricity so I can plug him in.

Teaching has been going well. Last week I put together an idea/resource guide for them as a handout, since it seems they needed one, and I found out that the Parks and Rec department has a projector that I can use and I can hop onto their Internet. So, I got to show a couple of videos to them last week, and plan to show them another one today: Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned Wood in these pages before, but for those who don't know why she's such a hero of mine, it's because she was already forty years old when she started to learn ceramics and she continued to work in her studio until she was 104. She passed away at age 105. (Considering my grandma is turning 101 next month, I'm hoping that continuing in art and ceramics will keep my mental acuity up for a long time, in case I make it as long as Oma!)

I'm in process of writing my Hauntcast segment right now, too, and managed to justify buying a book I needed for research. (I've had a bit of a shift in attitude about book purchases. Since I've made a major effort to get rid of many of the books I've been schlepping around for the past thirty years or so, I'm very picky about the books I purchase these days. They have to meet certain criteria, and this one fit the bill.) I had another topic in mind initially, but wasn't able to find as much research material on it as I would like, so I'm bumping that topic onto the back burner for a couple of months until I can find what I need. July's segment topic has already been decided; I just need to get it written up and recorded in the next couple of weeks. I'll probably be asking for your help in finding that elusive information for my August segment, so stay tuned!

Lastly, please remember the postcard giveaway that's going on right now! Rules here. I include my postcard from My Postcard Printing in every package of pumpkin love I send out to people, so they have my various haunts right there for them. I only have one contestant right now, but I'd like to see more. Good luck, all!

Only 142 Shopping Days Left Until Hallows!

A few new guys in the shop, and I've created the "Hanging" section. You really, really, need one of these! And my Raku guys need new homes, too, so take a gander and fall in love!

Hungry Fang, Too...

I took my Hungry Fang design and treated him to a Raku facial. You can pick him up for cheap, since he's a "second" and has a couple of cracks in him. Click on the Etsy badge and check him out!

In the Shop

Pumpkin love has hit the shop. Click on the Etsy badge to go to the latest shop listings. I just finished a Raku firing on Friday, so there are some Raku Jackos available.

Faces and Bats