Little Loafers

Here's some more pieces that I did yesterday.

Kojak says he likes the coffee cup because it might actually be big enough for his hands. I guess he keeps forgetting that I made him a coffee cup about the size of this pitcher. See below!

Okay so it's more like a coffee MUG!

I made these birdhouses last night also and added a little biult-in perch below the door. I made these four pieces with Little Loafers which is a white clay! You would be surprised how differently a glaze looks on this clay!

I love using Speckled Brownstone but sometimes I like to use this one for the difference in finished color! It is a much smoother clay easier to manipulate on the wheel! It also has a few drawbacks, for one, it's become nearly impossible for me to throw something without getting the bottom too thin. I have to make and attach a new bottom on these peices, which is still okay! Second, because it is so smooth it takes some effort to keep it from completely going all womple-jawed and ending up in your lap! And yes that has happened to me! I slung one at Christopher one time too, but that was funny!

Moving on!

This is a cookie jar that I made a few months back, it's been bisque fired but I ahve no clue as to what I'm going to do with it now.

Ambre

THEY'RE DONE!!!!!!!

Well, they're finally done. We had a really good turnout in the kiln. The four you see below were all hand painted, then dipped in clear to glaze. I painted the one on the far left and the third one over. Ambre painted the other two. The one with the white dots was supposed to be mint green, but because it was speckled brownstone, it turned gray instead. You can't see it but the middle two are full on tiny little flecks from the specks in the brownstone. The little yellow one is one of my favorites.


Next, are the three we tried the new glazes on. The cup is cappachino mint and the other two are Tahiti Grape. They have little flecks in the glaze that when heated to the correct temperature burst and cause the spots you see.

These are fantastic. Ambre first dipped them in cobalt and Rutile green. The deep blue in the colbalt turned the green a bluish color. Aren't they beautiful.

Ambre let Haley paint one. That's the one on the left. The one on the right is the Whoville house. Ambre painted it with blue underglaze, then carved the glaze out of the trees. It turned out pretty good.
These three pieces were dipped in raspberry. The bowl on the right was only dipped once. and the other two twice. I like raspberry, it is a gorgeous color and turns out beautiful, especially on speckled brownstone.

I almost forgot this one. It's my little teapot that I painted last year and it has been sitting on the shelf waiting to be glazed. I turned out beautifully. This one is going in my china cabinet.

Well, that's all for now. We have five more pieces that are ready to glaze. But we don't have the glazes here. Danny's sister, Diane, has one and the other is at the college. Ambre is going to take them down there Wednesday night and dip them. So keep checking back and we'll have them up asap. Thanks again for stopping by. See ya later.

Sorry Everyone!

We had to leave early this morning and we just got back home! We will have the pictures up in just a little bit! Thank you so much for all your comments and your patience. Sorry again!

P.S. We have some awesome stuff in this kiln load!

Good news, Bad news!

Bad news is we didn't get to glaze and fire yesterday so we got started this morning.

Good news is I should have finished pictures up sometime tomorrow!

In the meantime, I wanted to give you a little preview of what's to come!

This is a picture I took after some of the pieces were painted/glazed! If all goes well in the kiln tonight they will look alot different than they do here! Most of the pieces you see here were painted and then dipped in clear glaze!

This is a shot in side the kiln after we dipped everything that needed to be dipped! This is only the bottom shelf! Anyway, we turned it on about 6:30 so it will shut off sometime tonight! It takes a while for the kiln to cool so tomorrow I should have some pics! If everything fires properly!

Okay, so I'm really looking forward to this opening tomorrow...(trust me, I'll be peeking in it all day) and I hope that you all come back to check it out!

Thanks, Ambre

Inspiration....

In the last couple days I've seen a few comments on the birdhouses and there was some mention of watching birds at their feeders (Aunt Joan). I too enjoy watching them fly around the yard but you know those comments really got me started thinking! Inspiration! This is how my thoughts developed, (bare with me it might get scary)! First, I thought "I need to refill my feeder" , then " I need to get some more feeders" and "maybe I should". "What if I took some....", "it wouldn't be too hard", "if I pulled it up", "closed it off", "made the holes", "slabbed some cups", "perches", "removable tops", " HEY, I can SO pull this off", " let's go see" and I immediately went to Mom's!

So, I threw, pulled, closed, cut, slabbed, holed, cupped and topped! Then I thought, "Yeehaw, I did it!" And then I did it a few more times! Check them out!

They're like little feather-friendly diners! Those are removable stopper tops to make refilling easier. The smaller holes will have little stick perches in them for the birdies to sit and chow!

I will keep these updated in pictures as well as all the other pieces!

Moving on!

We loaded the kiln this evening for a bisque firing and I wanted to show some of those pictures!

This is inside the partially loaded kiln. There's quite a few birdhouses in there.

See that little red looking thing in the center of this picture? That's the cone! Cone o4 to be exact. It's sitting between those prongs and a lever on the top side, when the kiln gets to a specific temperature that cone is designed to bend and the lever falls! That lever shuts the kiln off and the cooling process begins! There are many different types of cones and each kind is designed to bend at varying temps. It takes several hours for the kiln to get hot enough to bend that cone and then several hours for it to cool down enough to look inside! It takes a bit longer to do a glaze firing! I honestly can't wait to show you all what it looks like to open that kiln after a glaze fire and see all those beautiful colors staring back at you! MAGIC!

Anyway, here's a few more pics that I took to show you!

A cookie jar that I threw and then carved! It has been bisque fired already but truthfully I am at a loss for what I want to glaze it with!

This sweet little teapot is Mom's! She threw it, altered it, and painted those pretty little flowers on it! It has been bisque fired and is waiting to be dipped in clear glaze and fired! Very talented, that mother of mine!

And here we have a garlic jar that Mom threw a couple days ago! It is green (not bisque fired yet, FRAGILE)! When dry it will be sanded, fired, glazed, fired again and soon used to store someone's cloves of garlic!

Thanks for visiting, come back soon!

No, really come back soon because I'm gonna be posting finished product pics in the very near future and you don't want to miss it!

Ambre

Birdhouses Bisqued!!!!

Here are the four birdhouses that were bisque fired yesterday in Diane's kiln. See how they have turned a pinkish color? The clay is called speckled brownstone but they bisque to this color. Weird! Oh well, they make a pretty "tink-tink" noise when you tap them so they are done and ready to glaze for the next and final firing!

I love these birdhouses! Can you tell? I don't like taking pictures!

Okay, so these babies are ready for the next act!

But first, we need to get the rest of them bisque fired. I am hoping to get that done on Friday evening so they will be ready to glaze and put back in the kiln on Saturday! So, if the Good Lord will it and the creeks don't rise we may have the finished photos up on Sunday! Everyone start praying for a good turn out, okay? I know I will be!

Once again, thanks for stopping by!

Ambre

Progress and Pretties........

Hi all! Ambre here: I wanted to give you a little update on some progress! Aunt Diane (Daddy's sister) called me today and she only had a few pieces ready to bisque but wanted to get them done asap. She had some extra space in her kiln and thought I might like to fire some things....very sweet huh? So I took some bird houses and a few coffee cups up there. This is a picture inside the kiln! Sweet!

I will post some after bisque pictures tommorow. Moving on!

While I was at Aunt Diane's, she was showing me some of her recent pieces and I thought it might be nice to do a blog featuring the work of another local potter....and when I say "local", I mean she lives like less than 2 miles up the road. Diane does alot of sculpting and handbuilding, especially cowboys, horses (amazing) and some other awesome stuff! Just take a look!

This pot was thrown, altered and that rose up there is actually a stopper! Creative!

These "Woodsmen" are slabbed and sculpted! They are stained instead of glazed and this picture does not do them justice!

This is one of my favorites! If I had ANY blue in my kitchen this would SO be on my table filled with oranges! It is slabbed and then formed! That glaze is cappucino and cobalt and the combo makes my heart sing!

Side view: you really can't tell but this thing is so big and beyond beautiful! I would say that a basketball would fit or almost fit in it! AWESOME! Seriously, I'm thinking about painting but Kojak would shoot me if he had to do it again!

This is another slabbed piece and I like it because it's funky! And I'm a funky kinda gal, ya dig?

These sweet little people are called "Rufftons", get it? We live in Rutherfordton, AKA Ruffton to locals who talk too fast to pronounce it right! Anyway, they are slabbed and sculpted then stained!
This is one her cowboys, very original I think and so cute!

Closer pic of a "Ruffton".

Becky, this one I put on here because he's awesome and I thought you'd like him!

Well, I hope you've all enjoyed this post, stay tuned people, I foresee some awesome posts in the near future! Thanks for stopping by!

Ambre

Did someone say Orangestone?

Ambre usually works with Speckled Brownstone, while I tend to go for Little Loafers. But there is a clay out there that is as close to the color of real Georgia clay as you can get. It's called Orangestone. We picked up a bag at Highwater Clays over the weekend and Ambre tried some out tonight.

Here is another birdhouse. If you scroll down to the post before this one you can see the difference. If you look closely you can see what appears to be white dots sprinkled around the top. That's sawdust. Ambre sat the birdhouse on the top of the kiln out on the porch. It has to dry for a little while so she can cut the holes in it. Well, we have a problem with wood boring bumble bees and apparently there was one boring right over the kiln. Don't worry it will come off when it is sanded.

Here is a soup cup made with Orangestone. I'll keep these posted thru to finish also. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave your comments.

Some more great birdhouses

Well, it's been a few days since I added some birdhouses that Ambre had done. She has really made good use of her time off from school. She has made some more birdhouses and a couple of cups. I'm going to show these and some close-ups of detail on a few. These houses will be dry enough in about 5 days that we can bisque fire them in the kiln and then they will be ready to glaze. First we have two houses. One of them is made with two different clays that has been swirled.

The second one is a double tier one that kind of resembles a dome on top of the Kremlin in Moscow. Next we have a couple of coffee cups with handles.
Beautiful, aren't they. They will be gorgeous when they have been glazed. Next we have two different sized and shaped ones with ribbing. I think these are going to sell like hotcakes.
The ribbing is created by turning the wheel while pressing against the clay with a small carving tool. It's very easy to do but she has to take care that she doesn't cut all the way through because the walls on the house are thin.

This one is especially beautiful. Ambre carved three wicked trees in it. I am going to show the view all the way around, so you can see all sides.

This is the back and left sides.

And here we have the full left side with a Welcome sign for the bird to come on in and make himself a home.

I think these are two of my favorites, they also resembles the dome caps on the Kremlin. Ambre added a twisted embellishment around the doors on these. The next picture will show some of that detail.
These last two that Ambre made are both double tiered. The solid one is actually the one in the first picture with the door cut in. The second one is a double tiered swirl pattern.
Now, last but not least, I'm going to throw in a couple of items I made from slabwork. Slabwork is made by taking a large lump of clay and running it between two rollers to flatten it out. You can then cut and shape it into different things and even use molds and forms to shape the piece in a design you like. They are both made with Little Loafers clay. It is about the whitest clay you can get besides porcelain.
This square platter is about 11 1/2" square. I will make four plates to go with it and paint them all with an oriental design to be used with stirfry. I used a glass light cover as a mold for this one.

Here it is from the top. On the bottom I added a four inch square piece to raise it up from the table and give it some height. Next, I made a tray using an very old, very large ( turkey size) platter I found at a flea market years ago. I can't wait to paint it. I think I may paint some roses in the center.
OK, well, that's all for now. We'll keep you posted on these items as well. Let us know what you think. And thanks for stopping by.

Projects in the Making

Here we have a few pieces that Ambre started today. We'll try to follow them through the process, 'til they're finished.

Here we have the ball of clay before it is turned into a piece of pottery. It is shaped into a ball and then centered which I will show later.

This is the piece after Ambre has thrown the clay. This will be a birdhouse, so after opening the clay in the center and making what looks like a small bowl, she began to bring the top in and close it up to form the cone at top. It is completely hollow on the inside.

Now, here is the birdhouse looking more like a birdhouse with the little door cut into the side and a lip formed for the perch. At the top point a hole is cut through for the hanger. Well, I'm going to show a couple more pictures of Ambre's work today, then we'll wait until these pieces dry and are ready for the kiln to bisque fire.

A small pitcher with a rib design around the top and heavy handle.

This is the other birdhouse Ambre made today. It is a little smaller than the first and has a rib cut design all the way around. It looks a little like a beehive, doesn't it?

Here is our first picture. I made this bowl and two coffee cups a while back. The glaze is brown glass with the top re-dipped in white. It is a very beautiful glaze, and presents an intriguing pattern when fired.