Studio Cats

Our youngest cat, Simba, is an artist at heart. Named for the Swahili word for lion, because it would be hard to find a kitten more adventurous and courageous.  We had a devil of a time keeping him away from our unusually large (95+ lbs) greyhound when we first brought him home.  Our greyhound is so fond of cats that he thinks he himself is a cat, but he is not used to dealing with a 6-8 week old kitten, and can be a little rough.
  At 6 months of age Simba continues to approach every new situation as an adventure. He sits, barely able to keep from dipping his paws in my watercolor paint water, and watches me paint. He looks at the images and looks back at me as if to say "how did you do that?"  When I'm sculpting, he's a bit of a problem. I don't know how many times I have left a piece while I took a short break only to find Simba standing on it  and squishing his toes into the clay.  It can be frustrating, but at the same time I really love that he is so captivated by my work.  And now I must go and smooth yet another pawprint from a bowl I'm working on!

Loving Lichens

Today I enjoyed a long hike in the woods, enjoying the flora and fauna and searching for inspiration.
I am so attracted to mosses, lichens, and mushrooms! Lichens hold a big attraction because of the gorgeous shades of green (my favorite color).  I had to snap a photo of this stump, clad in several types of lichens. We had a stormy night so the lichens and mosses were extremely green and bright.  Lichens are actually a composite organism composed of a fungus and an algae.

I've been experimenting with creating some porcelain lichen pieces, trying to emulate the look and color.  My first piece is this tea light burner, but I'm working on creating jewelry for lichen lovers (haha).

I'm working on a tutorial for sculpting mushrooms that I should be adding to the end of the week!

As a "thank you" to any blog readers I have a 15% coupon code for use at my Etsy store www.alddesigns.etsy.com. Code: Mushroom

Spectrum Raku Glazes, Amaco Raku Glazes

So I've been really getting immersed into my raku firing.  I started out with Amaco Raku Glazes and I do like them, but I'm really excited about my new Spectrum Raku Glazes .  I do my raku firing on a very small scale, I have a small kiln about 8 inches by 8 inches. My "receptacle" is a repurposed metal pot with lid.  My "organic material" of choice has been by far to be newspaper, newsprint-not the colored ads. From my own tests and experiences I have learned this :

1. don't allow a lot of open space inside the "receptacle"
2. newspaper is superior because it readily ignites and doesn't mar the surface as much
3. allowing the item to sit in the flames with the can open has produced more dramatic color effects and thicker smoke which helps blacken unglazed surfaces better
4. always use the recommended three coats of raku glaze for best results.
5. Stoneware clay makes an excellent raku clay

Of course, this is my own personal observation, but since I've been following this, I've had better results with my pieces.

Spectrum Gator Skin is my new favorite. If anyone is just starting out and only buying one color, this is the one I recommend.  Applied thin, it gives an almost dappled streaky copper look. Applied thick, it looks very much like the sample picture.  It is a gorgeous matte color.  With a thick application it gets nice and crusty. It's a more expensive color but very well worth it in my opinion.

This picture is good for showing the glaze in thick and thinner applications. Applied thinner it is more earthy and dappled brown.

 

The pendant above has the "gator skin" put into the grooves of the heart.  Then I put 3 coats of Amaco white raku glaze. They seem to react very nice together, developing a warm silvery ivory to shades of copper.

Spectrum Nebula is another shade that I purchased.  This one is a bit trickier to work with, but I think I've discovered a trick.  Without enough time in the flame, "Nebula" is kind of a flat aqua shade, but if you give it enough time in the flame, it becomes very worthy of it's name. What I ended up with was : 

Blues, reds, and copper colors mainly.  It can produce a pretty rainbow effect.

Another color I purchased was Spectrum Cobalt .  So far I've gotten a few different results. None quite like the picture shown when I ordered it, but still very attractive.  I've gotten a deep slightly transparent blue, and with optimal conditions a lot of silvery metallic as well.

This is the cobalt. I used the gator skin for the beak, a very thin coat (produces a pretty rusty color).  I also rubbed some of the gator skin into the letters. When the two react, I've gotten a bit of a golden hue surrounding. 

This is what happens if there is not enough reduction going on in the "receptacle"

Still a pretty color, but not very dramatic.

I still like my Amaco raku glazes quite a bit. My favorite colors are white:

Copper Patina:

and Bluebell:

Hoping this helps anyone looking for some visual examples of some of the glazes out there. Please feel free to message me if you have any questions about any of my experiences with these colors.

Finished Jewelry, Dove update

I finally got some of my jewelry projects finished, photographed, and listed on Etsy.  I've been working on this since about 8 am, but I'm finally done.  My favorite new pieces are :

 

I'm excited about the raven because it's all free hand.  I just used a bamboo skewer to press the image into the soft clay.  It's a technique that I'm going to work on some more.  If anyone remembers, ravens and crows were some of my favorite subjects with lampworking.  I absolutely love them.  

The dove didn't exactly go as planned, but I still love him. I sculpted him using my male dove, Zeus as a model.  I wanted to raku fire him, so all bets were off when it came to color. The only disappointment with the color was the coral rings around his eyes became a silver too...and I really like the color contrast on the real doves.

The poppy earrings have been laying around for awhile, waiting for me to put them together. I must say what I like best about this listing is the picture I took.  I love the colors in the picture.  It's given me further inspiration for some more beads to make using my aqua raku glaze and my red.  

So far I don't think Zeus and Hera have laid any eggs but I'm keeping their cage in a more secluded part of the house.  They have been working diligently on their nest..it seems their favorite material is strips of index cards. 

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

THE GOOD -So I've been experimenting in the wild world of firing and glazing ceramics.  I've mostly had experience in the sculpting phase so this is uncharted territory.  I've had a few pieces so far that I'm quite pleased with, and I've come up with some techniques that I like.  Most of the pieces in the above pic are pretty much exactly what I was going for...color wise and also the finish is pretty. 

THE BAD-This is what happened when I tried my hand at raku firing.  I'm still in the trouble shooting phase obviously.  I was kind of heartbroken over this because a few of them looked very nice....until their heads cracked off.  I'm beginning to wish I had bought the raku clay after all but at the time I wasn't planning larger sculptures.  I was reading on a raku site where it recommended underfired stoneware clay...which I have about 80 lbs of..so I might see how it holds up to the thermal shock.  I also learned that mostly I'm not painting on my glaze nearly thick enough.  The thicker ones came out better.  Also so far spanish moss produces a nicer effect than pine hamster bedding.  I think I'll try newspaper next time though. 

THE UGLY--Structurally they are sound, yet the colors are pretty ghastly.  Some are from my first raku firing attempt  where I did not use a thick enough application of glaze.  I don't like the color of green on this bird and the other bird is not THAT bad, just rather dark so it's hard to see the detail.  These are the "what not to do beads". 

I've actually managed to have some jewelry quality beads though so that's not bad for just starting out.  My first lampworked beads were very grim so I need to remember that when I'm feeling disheartened.