Some new projects,

These are some of the things I've been working on lately. Clay whistles, yet to be decorated, but they all make noise! 

spools,

 a little covered jar,

 and something I refer to as the bunny hill.

My Favorite Spot!

This is about my favorite spot in Savannah. Savannah's Clay spot! It is the pottery studio where I spend two or three chunks of time each week. The owner and operator's name is Lisa and she has created a very comfortable and stylish place. She is so friendly that you feel right at home. There is always a good conversation and interesting things to look at and think about. These photos show what a great environment she has created.

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. 

New project!

Although it's been a little while since I posted, I have been dabbling a bit with Clay now and again recently. Being back in Savannah I have left my letter project, and started a new project. Earlier this week I decided that I needed some Special spools to hold my special ribbons. I am slab building them with shaped Ends cut with a cookie cutter. Yesterday I decorated them with some simple underglaze patterns.
I'm still undecided whether to fire them up to cone six unglazed or whether to cover them with clear glaze.

Brief Post

I've gotten a new laptop, and so of course it's a time to go through all sorts of files and transfer from the old to the new.  Also, making sure that the new laptop has all the internet bookmarks I need, and the application programs...

Part of it is making sure that the blogger functions are all workable, and the uploading pathways are okay.  this is a bit overwhelming, but I'm trying to do it step by step.
Things have been quiet on the clay front lately.  I glazed all my letter tiles, but in the first firing of them, the kiln seemed to stop heating in the top ring.  Disappointing, since I just replaced the element in the autumn.  I need to unload the kiln and take it apart to fix it.  So far I haven't done this.  Maybe soon.  In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of store stuff. 

Critique #2

On the whole, I really enjoy making these little trays. They are quite a nice shape to try out ideas on.

Often the underside is quite different than the top. I like the way the signature is in a cartouche.

It can be surprisingly tricky to paint an even edge when using 3 coats of underglaze. the circles are trailed dots, using wet newsprint circles as guides.

mishima with red underglaze, trailed white slip over pale blue underglaze.

I like trailed lines and dots, it seems. I like a dotted line better than a solid outline, in general, unless it is mishima.

the same flowers as in the dish above, but this time using trailed underglaze instead of mishima,. the rabbit shape was masked off with newsprint, then outlined in brown.

I rather like this one. It uses one of my favorite screens, with the numbers on it. I also like the dots in turquoise over the deep yellow. I like the fanning of the white trailed lines over the dark blue.

this is the underside of the same dish.

This is the link to Mud Colony to see what others are doing this week! http://mudcolony.blogspot.ca/

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.