Test Tile Madness!

First off, I don't feel like superwoman today.  Bummer, I know.  It's almost ten thirty in the morning and I am laying on an ice pack.  But hey, it gives me an excuse to update my blog.  No, I didn't get hurt, so to speak.  I keep forgetting that I have a tendency towards hyper mobile joints.  I have been doing a lot of stretching in the mornings to loosen up my back and my calfs. I also have been doing a lot of bike riding.  Well the stretching was working so well for a while that I think I have been over stretching without doing enough muscle strengthening exercises to compensate.  Combine that with my bicycle seat which I don't seem to be able to get the right shape, size, or comfort but I ride anyways and BAMB!  Yep, muscle spasms.

The upside?

Test Tiles!  Wait, did I say yesterday that I LOVE test tiles?  Oh yeah, but every time I make them I forget how LONG they take.  Of course, sometimes I do have a tendency to go overboard. Thank goodness I already had some color tests mixed up from about a year ago that I had never made tiles for.  So in between sessions of icing my back I kept myself pretty busy. This is Molly Hatch's vitreous engobe recipe that I got off Ceramic Arts Daily.  It is for use at cone 04-6 and I  have a bunch of different stains mixed in . I have used these to silkscreen directly onto leather hard clay and then fired to cone 04 and they looked great.  Now I will have test tiles of the engobe applied to leather hard and I will make some with the engobe applied as washes to bisque tiles.  I will fire them all in the cone 5-6 range.  

After finishing these tiles in the front I took some of the dry ones and applied terra sig which is normally used only in the low-fire range.  However, since I put it on my bowls and I decided I didn't want to sacrifice them as tests, tiles would be a good idea.  It will be interesting to see how they fire out at Cone 5-6.

And what post would be complete without out the kitty pics?  This girl is twelve years old and starting to slow down a little.  I've had her since she was three weeks old and I had to bottle feed her.  To say she is spoiled would be an understatement. She thinks the bed is hers and how can I blame her?  I spend maybe eight hours in it while she spends about twenty hours nested in blissful comfort, that is, when the light isn't too bright.  Yesterday, while I was laying on the ice, she kept kicking me with her back feet because there wasn't enough room for her to stretch out across the bed with me in her way.  Poor thing! Do you think I should upgrade to a queen or king size from the apparently tiny full size?

Having the bed right under the window does make for a perfect environment for a kitty.  All she needs to do is chill and watch the world go by.  Ah, sometimes that is a good philosophy to remind myself of from time to time.  So, peace be with you this weekend and remember to chill out. I know I certainly am, literally!

Sgraffito Madness!

I was sgraffito inspired by all of Kathy Kings work while at Penland so I decided to use this technique with some of my organic imagery.  I WAS originally going to use some of my silk screen slip images but those need to be transferred while the pieces are leather hard. These, I, um, forgot about and they were dry when I went to trim them.  Not wanting to have some boring bowls I decided to experiment with some colored terra sig.  I know, I know!  I should use test tiles first.  I am a bit worried that the sig will repel the glaze.  I did stick to the colors that I am fairly certain won't disappear at cone 6.  I will at least get these into the bisque and MAYBE, just maybe, I will make some test tiles before I glaze these.  I actually love test tiles but I get really excited about an idea and sometimes just go with it. That's the way I roll.  It's an adventure!

These tumblers where the very last pieces I made out at Penland but ran I out of time and couldn't get them into a glaze load.  I really wanted to see them fired out so I stuffed the bisqued pieces with socks, wrapped them in bubble wrap and gently nested them into my carry-on bag.  Success, they made it!  I took them over to the University and put them into the last cone 10 reduction of the semester.  Thanks peeps!  Pun intended:P   I  love the way they turned out.  I am addicted to tumblers, even more so than mugs. These have a great balance and feel awesome to hold.  I am drinking out of one of them as I write.  

It's warming up here in the interior valley of Northern California.  It is supposed to be 99 degrees today.  I'd better head out to the post office and get the last of my Kickstarter rewards shipped out before it gets too hot.  Then back to the real world of paperwork today.  Happy last day of May!

Another Etsy Treasury

 

I have been getting into a lot of Etsy treasuries lately.  This is a really nice fall themed one by Caitlin Sainio.  Besides playing around working with my Etsy shop I have been busy getting ready for BFA open studios the end of October.  I have about 4 or 5 different projects underway.  I have slip cast pieces, platters for decoration with terra sigillata and mishima, and thrown forms to assemble into sculptures.  Right now I am working on how to get them all to look like a cohesive body of work which I think I will do using the biomorphic imagery that I am so interested in.  Keep your fingers crossed that i will remember to take my camera so I can get picks for everyone:)  Have a great hump day!

P.S.  My piece is the Tomato Red Vase,  just in case you were wondering.  Peace.

Terra Sigillata Love!

Ok, it's official.  I am in love!  Oh, terra sigillata, how I love thee.  Let me count the ways.  This MIGHT even be better than chocolate.  Wait, what am I saying?  Have I lost my mind!  That could be possible.

I owe this new wave of insanity to Jenny Mendes.  She is an absolutely wonderful ceramic artist who decorates her work primarily using terra sig.  She spent a month at Chico State working and sharing her knowledge with the students.  There was a wonderful article about her techniques published in March on Ceramic Arts Daily.  Jenny left this week and gave us her terra sig to play and experiment with. So far I have just put the red terra sig, made from redart, on these new tile tests.  It felt like I was brushing silk onto my tiles!  I've never worked with this before and let me say, I was really missing out.  Thank you, Jenny!  I have been sworn by my instructors to share all experiments and results.  How can I not?  This is soooo much fun!  I want everyone to try it out.  I found myself fondling my tiles last night.  They were so smooth and soft.  Did I tell you? I have gone nutz!  In the picture above you can see the difference in the before and after.  The lighter tile on the bottom left is a funny, pink recycled clay I made last spring.  All the other ones have the terra sig.  Now, if I can just figure out what else I want to do with them.  So many colors of terra sig to choose from.  What will I ever do?