I have been having a hard time keeping up with this blog lately. I have been keeping myself so busy with not only my business but also with a few personal projects I started.
This month I took another session of the wheel-throwing class. Here are some of the pieces I have thrown this month. I wanted to try bellying out this bowl and if you really look closely you will notice that it is not even on both sides. I did figure out what I did wrong here.
I didn't take pictures of the clay cut out and when it was fired on these stars. I used these as test tiles, to test out some of the glazed I purchased. Some of them are so pretty.
This is the bowl from above after it was trimmed.
This is another thrown piece and I like the shape of it. It is funny how after you are done you think it is taller than it is, there is some shrinkage but it still always seems taller after I throw it.
I threw this one the same night as the above piece.
The cylinder from above I made into a small mug. This is a picture after it had been trimmed and I put a handle on it. My handles tend to still be a bit wonky. I need to practice this more.
And the little bowl from above after it was trimmed.
This mug I threw on a Saturday for more practice. I think this one has ended up being one of my favorites. I still didn't get it has tall as I wanted but it is the perfect coffee mug size. I need to make more time to go in on Saturdays and practice. I am thinking about making a series of these smaller beer stein looking mugs.
Here it is all trimmed and with a handle.
This one I threw in class and it ended up wider but not taller.
Here it is trimmed up with a handle added.
This is the white mug from above. I decided to paint some green underglaze on the earthenware and sgraffito some shamrocks in it.
Here are some pieces I finished the glazing process on them. I plan on doing some blog posts of just the finished pieces on some of these.
Another smaller beer stein. I was able to get this one a bit taller but I think it is a bit to narrow.
I decided this year to give a yearly project another try. I wanted to practice painting with watercolor and decided to do a small mini painting everyday, well almost everyday. I did give myself permission to do makeup days. I got this idea from Andrea Gomoll, over the month of December she created an Advent calendar where she did a small painting in a circle everyday for Advent. I thought it was such a great idea that I decided to give it a try as a yearly project. I wanted to put a whole week on one page, so seven days per page. The journal I am using is a Mixed Media Strathmore Visual Journal that is 5.5 in x 8 in. I am also using a few different kinds of watercolor paint and might add to it throughout the year. I am using a Sakura Koi Pan Watercolor Travel Set, I have a few of the Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolor tubes, and I have purchased both of Jane Davenport's travel watercolor sets. As for the black linework I am using a few different types of fineliner pens, and also some gel pens for details and additional color.
Here are the weekly pages from January.
This month a couple of my girlfriends decided we need to get out of the house more often. We planned to do this on Sunday's when we could all get together and go explore some of the local parks and nature preserves. If you would like to see more pictures from this hike you can check them out on my flicker page.
Our city has started a group where you paint rocks and hid them on your outdoor adventures. We spent a rainy Sunday painting some rocks. Here are the 2 rocks I painted. I still have yet to set them free into the world.
