Happy Valentine's Day 2013

Happy Valentine's Day--much love to everyone!  I honestly can not believe how fast time is flying by.  My studio had a very busy 2012 holiday season where I spent my most all of my time creating custom mug orders.  Still working on the ones that came in late December and January.  I think I'll enclose a few pictures here, I try to get some pictures out of every batch out of the kiln if possible.

 Custom pair travel mugs with silicone lids (custom order).

Custom pair of coffee mugs, ordered by BFF's for eachother.  How awesome!

Purplelicious travel mug - custom.

 

Custom soup mug "Breathe"

 Custom purple soup mug (over-sized coffee mug).

Hey, I've been thrilled with glaze mixing results lately!  My new favorite is the agate glaze with two other (unnamed) glazed where the kiln alchemy turns them into gold.  LOL...for me they are gold. I'm so excited about these colors because they represent EARTH, WOODS and SKY.  I'm thinking of calling this glaze combo "Ohio Woods," how does that sound?

 New glaze combo  "Ohio Woods"

Also been going bead crazy making tons of beads for pendants and earrings.  Hearts galore!  I really love to make beads!  I've got them listed in my Etsy shop and most of them on my own website too.  New earrings also! 

 

Ceramic candy hearts created using laser decals (3 firings,

bisque, cone 5 high and then cone 04 low again.)

Link to see ceramic hearts in my Etsy shop.

 

  Ceramic candy hearts using letter stamps; high fired to cone 5.

New sweet earrings!  Beads are 1/4" diameter, sterling silver

(Link to my Etsy shop listing for these earrings).

 Oh, I have to add a photo of Buddy playing in the snow!  He brings me such joy!  

Big stick?  Check!  Snow?  Check!  Life is Good!  Wheeeeeeee!

"...And here's my serious look"  Buddy Brower

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!  I'll be buying chocolate tomorrow for 50% off.  Yes!

Where has 2012 gone?

Oh my goodness!  Where has this year gone?  WOW!  It's flown by and now I find myself mid-way through August already.  Teachers and students are getting ready to go 'back to school' this week and its been pretty busy in our store.  I've been busy in the studio too, working on a wholesale order and lots of custom orders this summer.  Below are mugs in the process of being glazed for my wholesale order.
  

Also creating more ceramic travel mugs and I just ordered more lids! After wholesale order is complete, I'll start making some completed ones for my shop so they'll be 'ready to ship.

Some new earrings...

 New ceramic beads...

 And new pendants with brown leather rounded cord..

Also created a new themed mug in Honor of Mother Earth and all that she's going through with our planetary ascension.  It's called "Love Our Mother."  Hope to get more of these made too!  This was my prototype.  I designed the logo and had a stamp made.

Cheers!
Diana

Testing glazes is part of the process...

For those who aren't for all intents and purposes obsessed with creating with clay, you might not realize all the agonizing decisions that we potters have to make.  We are blessed to live in this time where there are literally thousands of glazes to chose from--especially those of us who buy commercial glazes!  But, every glaze looks different fired on various clays and in different kilns.  A glaze will even look different on pots within the same kiln!    So, glaze testing is an on-going process for potters.  Here are some pictures of some of my recent tests.

The KICKER is that to use my new LASER DECALS, I have to fire my pots 3x--taking them from a high fire cone 5 or 6 to a low fire cone 04.  This is disaster for some glazes, and I have to know what this will do to my glazes and my precious pots!!  It's such a heartbreak to be happy with a pot and then have it ruined in the glaze fire!

Crop Circle Clay comes in with Springtime

Last Fall I had the inspiration to combine my love of crop circle patterns with my love of clay.  The result is a new Etsy shop called "CropCircleClay"  The first batch of pots came of the kiln this past Sunday and I'd love to share a few of them with you!  There are really "Earthy" ones with the green agate (matte) glaze with dark chocolate on the inside, robin's egg blue/green glossy with light browns on the inside, and lilac and grape!  In the future, I'd like to have a glaze palette set so that I'd have some blues, greens, purples and browns.  This isn't as easy as it sounds because of working with the laser decals that create the crop circle patterns.  Each pot gets fired 3x and from the last high fire to the low fire for the decals, many great glazes go funky--especially on my dark brown clay. So, I've been doing lots of test tiles in the last few months!  Please keep tuned to my new Etsy Shop and I'll add more as I go!  Happy Spring!!

Mother Nature Inspires Me

I love Fall Harvest time in Ohio! There is a distinct scent in the air; it's dry leaves, campfires and crops being harvested all rolled into one. Deep blue skies and beautiful bright leaves! Leaves are one of my favorite things to study up close and personal. I'll have to get a microscope because I'm really fascinated by leaves. They're not all exactly the same at all. Even if you get them from the same tree--they can be different variations on a theme; and I think that's really cool. I gather as many leaf specimens as I can so that I can use them in my pottery. They come from our yard and downtown Troy near our store. Where-ever I am and happen to see some nice leaves, I pick them up! It's so exciting to see the clay pick up the veins and texture of the leaves! Then comes the challenge of glazing them!! I like to use a black underglaze first, to highlight the veins; brush on then wipe off with a sponge! Then I layer various other glazes on top; yellows, browns, oranges and reds. It's always thrilling to open up the kiln to see what you get!

Coil, Pebble & Spiral pots--glazed!

Hello! If you've been watching the progression of some of my new pots, I first mentioned two large coil & pebble pots after they were bisqued fired, and then as I was glazing them with black underglaze to bring out the stamps and the textures. Well, here they are glazed! Each one was layered with many different underglaze & glaze colors, then wiped off with a wet sponge to give them a weathered look. There's something elemental about these pots, I can't keep my hands off them--tee hee!! The pebbles make you just want to touch them for some reason. They're both listed in my Etsy shop and in our store in Troy. Thanks for stopping by!

In the studio...glazing

Happy Thursday, it's almost the holiday weekend for those of us in the U.S.! I just came in from my studio and thought I might share a couple of pictures. I've got 2 new coil & pebble pots that I bisque fired last weekend, so they're ready for glazing.

I've decided to cover them in black underglaze first, then layer other colors on top of the black; continually wiping off the glaze with a sponge. I want them to have a real "whitewash" or watercolor type of effect.

Here's the first stage...just put on the black tonight. I'm posting a "before" and "after" shot so you can see how much it helps bring out the stamps and the textures. (Nice towel, huh? Note to self, move towel next time! Actually there was a purpose for the towel, it was there to protect the bottom of that bowl from some black glaze on the wedging board). Too fun!!