Showing posts with label inspirational. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspirational. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Art Journal Finished on June 26th... I am not always a procrastinator

I can't believe it. I have finished my art journal this month with FOUR days to spare! This has to be a record for me. I even remembered to photograph it.

The journal I received this month was potter Lori Buff's. The theme was inspirational places. My greatest inspiration these days comes from the nature that is right outside my studio door.

 Lori's pages reflected on her time spent at Penland and how much this special place inspired her work.

Joanne's page in Lori's journal is a castle and it appears to be her inside of it... no explanation. I am left to ponder it's meaning.

I was feeling so smug about finishing this journal early. I actually had my painting done two weeks ago, and glued it into the book last week. Lo and behold, a few days ago Joanne sent me the July journal... she was a few days ahead of me!
The next theme is "Rebirth".
I will have to think on that one a bit.

Monday, February 18, 2013

cheesy inspiration

 A couple of weeks ago I saw a simple tutorial on Pinterest about how to make a wedding ring dish. I thought it was clever so I pinned it to my "crafty ideas" board. I don't feel it meets the criteria to be on my ceramics board because I don't think it takes much talent to make these.

I tweaked it some and cut the dishes into heart shapes. I have lots of doilies made by my mother and grandmother and they add a nice lacy texture.
The holes are used for ribbons to be tied on. Some couples use these little dishes for the ring bearer at their wedding ceremony. Jeff teased me about these, asking if I was going to start imprinting cheesy inspirational words on porcelain dishes... you know that whole "live, laugh, love" fad that's been hanging around for a few years... you can even buy inspirational paper towels these days. His teasing led me to think about making some in the vein of Valentine's Day conversation hearts and imprinting them with sarcastic words... boy could I have fun with that!


I used some bowls as a slump mold to get the curve I was looking for. Should I decide to continue with these I will throw some bowls and bisque them for this purpose. I lined these with plastic wrap so that I could get them out of the bowl once they set up. With a bisqued bowl they would set up a little more quickly as well. Today I will slip trail a few with a colorless porcelain slip. I used porcelain for these and my plan is to experiment with some Amoco underglaze on the texture and words and then glaze them in my Temple white. Lori Buff had some nice results with the underglaze and texture, you can check out her results here.


Aside from a little playing this weekend, I did complete a bunch of small pitchers. We will have another load of pots to bisque fire very shortly. Jeff fired the gas kiln yesterday, while I worked at the Co-op gallery in town. I glazed a few pigs in some new colors this time, I'll post some pics as soon as we are cooled down.