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 Cross-over

I am a quilter as well as a potter, and often the two crafts intersect.  Most obviously, sometimes I use motifs found on fabrics for decoration.  I also seem to echo color combinations, and repeating shapes. 
This photo shows the same design that was a machine quilting sample used as a mishima decoration:

 I think that machine quilting designs lend themselves particularly well to slip trailing as well.

 and of course, I can't keep myself from dividing up a pot into pieces to decorate with different patterns...

Decorating

Some time ago I was decorating some pieces and using newspaper shapes as resists.  I couldn't help but notice how nice the actual paper shapes looked on the clay.

I love the little bursts of random color surrounded by the more controlled colors.

 I don't know how to get this effect on a finished piece without a whole lot of trouble.  Maybe just get some sheets of decals made up that are copies of actual newspaper pages! But where do you get decals made that are full color and in lots less than 100 sheets of the same thing..... hmm.

"Mug Analysis"

-- being quite a blow by blow description of what went down on this first batch of mugs...

1.  my favorite at the moment, as you can tell from the coffee drip.  I like the color off this green, but there was some crawling.  I think because I used the black wash under the glaze, which could have acted like dust, and Lisa said that this is sort of a finicky glaze.

2.  Least favorite.  I don't like the great big leaf being so dark against the lightness of the flower.  Also, the flower could be outlined a bit more.  Also, the mugs look a lot better with a more pronounced foot "bump"

3. again, the carved drawing lines didn't pick up the black wash very well. 

4.  this looks a lot like a Mel Bolen mug to me.  On the positive side, the incised lines did pick up the black quite well, and there is also a nice halo of grey around the slip trailed dots!

same mug, shot of handle

5.  I like this mug, but the transparent glaze looks quite milky.  These were all on the bottom shelf of the kiln, so maybe it was cooler down there.  I wonder if I should re-fire them and see what happens

here you can see that the glaze is pretty stony down on the bottom edge.  Do you think that re-firing makes a piece warp more?

6.  The background of the main section on this one was rose underglaze.  Now it appears sort of grey,

7.  the turquoise blue seems pretty reliable.  Haven't got a clue what the color was on the top edge.

8.  light blue and grey , the decorative lines are pretty faint.

9.  This one is supposed to be orange.  again, the glaze is pretty milky,

where it was thinner on the top edge, you can see the color a bit better.  Re-fire? I sort of like this shape, and the bottom edge,

10.  Another one with this green glaze,  lots of crawling. These ones I brushed wax on the circles, and along the straight vertical edge, wiped away the dry clay to get the relief.  I really like this effect. 

11. Again, I really like the glaze trailed stuff.

12

and just for something different, a tile.  it had mishima where the black is.  I like the tree on the bottom right edge.  I think I might try it in slip trailing with charcoal grey slip.  

That's the initial round-up.  Feedback is welcomed.

The plan was good

I went to the studio today armed with my watercolor sketches. This was good and I got right down to painting some mugs and dishes that I made earlier this week
However I think there is a cut-off time when my brain starts to shut down on decorating
The kiln was still too hot to open so I will have to wait a bit longer to see some finished pots.
It was pretty warm out when I got in the car-- the thermostat read 36 degrees Celsius, or 96 farenheit. It probably was from standing in the sun but still!