Shaped tiles

Continuing my documentation of alphabet letter tiles...

Most of these are about six and seven inches tall

Tried a green glaze over the d, but not too successful, 

The b is Mishima,

The a is one of the few that has no silk screening , instead it is carved and a green glaze applied thickly and allowed to pool, 

I continue to like the dark grey wash to emphasize the scratches and the slip trailing, and to dirty up the color a bit,

The reason they have holes is so that they can be hung on the wall,

The t and the s might be a bit too busy, 

Misc square tiles

Only one cracked, 

More tiles

These tiles all have some green on them. I like the chartreuse underglaze, and I have been trying to develop another darker green glaze that won't go all of or brown at cone six

This is closest I've come to a medium green, and I wish I could remember what I did to get it. I think I must have combined chartreuse with another color.

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Notes on some ongoing ideas

 Just a couple of notes on things...
I changed the SD card on the camera, and found that I had taken a photo of my letter tiles a week or two ago.  They are shown here laid out on a paper.  the largest tiles are about 8 inches tall,

 Of course there are lots of things to look at and mull over.  there were a lot of square tiles that have letters on them that i did not think to take a photo of.   I'm not really satisfied with them at this point.  I need to mull over why that is and what to do next about this project. 

2.  About a year ago I made this little tree and the birds.  You can tell the scale of  them by the size of the lilies.

 The birds aren't permanently affixed to the tree branch, but there are holes with a wire that connects them. 

 I think that I'd like to try another thing like this, and vary it a bit.  Also, what about leaves on a tree.  Or maybe a more abstract perch for the birds.  Maybe more birds. 

This morning I went to a sculpture class at "Savannah's Clay Spot" (HI Lisa).  It was quite fun, and somewhat stimulating.  I need to think about what I want to make, but in the meantime, I have started to make a large oval, "boat-shaped" footed bowl.  and also a hill with a couple of sheep on it.  Not sure where I'm going with that yet. 

Little trays

I have been keeping most of the pots I made recently, partly because I tried out so many different combinations of underglaze colors and motifs.
This is one of the color combinations that I liked, shown on two little slab dishes.they are about 3" wide, 5" long, and 1-1/4" tall.

 both of them use a beige underglaze coating, 3 layers,
silkscreened ovals in white,
silkscreened pattern in deep yellow, either the crosshatching or the dots
silkscreened motifs in chocolate brown,
trailed underglaze dots in chocolate brown

 the white over beige makes a kind of iridescent look.

Some Close-ups

These are some close-ups of surfaces,

Responding to Leigh

I want to respond to a question from Leigh that I just noticed in a comment from October, sorry about not answering earlier. About what clear glaze might work well on Little Loafers clay body...
I live in two different places-- savannah, Georgia and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and so I work with two different clay bodies, and in two different studios with different kilns....
I am most happy with the clear glaze that I have been using on the clay I use in Canada. It doesn't craze and is really glossy, plus it is pretty user friendly during application.
I am wondering what it would be like on little loafers, and so I brought back a piece of greenware from Savannah that I will try glazing with it. Haven't got a glaze fire load ready yet, so I will let you know how it goes.
The glaze I'm using is 1215U by digital fire, the glaze site from Plainsman Clays in Alberta

Starting up again

I didn't really intend to take such a lengthy break from working with clay, but things kept happening, and all of a sudden I realized that I hadn't gone into the studio since mid- October.
However, last weekend I picked up some clay, and my niece came for an overnight visit, and we had a nice time doing some hand-building.
That seemed to get the ball rolling again, and today I spent a few hours in my backyard studio here in Asquith.

I noticed that someone had been interested in how the silkscreening with underglaze is done, and a while back I had taken some photos to illustrate the process.
I won't go into how to make the silkscreens, since that is pretty technical, and you have to do some trial and error to get your setup right. It is also explained in various places if you google it.

This is what I do:
Sometimes I lay down a base layer of underglaze color by painting three coats onto a leather hard clay surface
In the photos, I am working on some tiles, although I am usually working on a rounded surface.
If I want to mask off a section or a shape, I use newsprint shapes that are dipped in water, then they stick to the leather hard clay surface.
Dip the silkscreen into a bucket of water and then blot off the extra water on a towel. If the screen is damp it sort of helps the underglaze to pass through the mesh better. Also it clings better to the surface
Hold the screen against the surface of the clay.
With a small piece of a dry sponge, dip into some thickened under glaze, I usually let some get thicker by letting some of the water evaporate out of it. If the underglaze is too runny, it makes a mess, and the image is blurred.
Dab the underglaze through the screen, or you can rub it in a circular motion.
You can add more than one color to get shaded effects. Take the screen away from the surface
You can screen other images to layer patterns.
If you used a newsprint resist, take it off when everything is still damp. I use a pin tool to lift a corner and then pull it off.

Often I then add slip trailing, or scratch some marks over the screened image for more interest.
I usually bisque, and then cover all with a clear glaze, but recently I fired some things up to cone six with no glaze over, and that was an interesting surface.