What's New On My Desk...

The weather man completely screwed up our forecast for today.  They called for a little snow starting later tonight.  Instead we woke up to snow.  Schools are closed so the kids are home with me again today (5th day straight - they are getting a tad sick of being in the house).  The weather man said the snow would stop around 9:00am and start again around 4pm - it's never stopped snowing.  I'm not listening to the weather man anymore.  Clearly he's clueless.  It's a pretty snow, isn't it?

I'm making some patterns for my clay.  I'm liking them - I hope they work well.  I left the centers of the shapes open because I want to make a lot of versions of the basic patterns. 

 and I did a firing of low fire glazed stuff yesterday and some of my red earthenware clay glaze samples were in it.  These are my favorites.

 this one is really cool in person.  It's a very dark blue and I love how the red is showing through.

 Molly's mug needed to be fired.  Bad mother that I am - she finished this over a month ago and I finally got around to firing it for her.  I wish the lighting was better today - these photos just don't do it justice.

 I love the quote around the bottom and the inside is so fun.

 Is 45 too old to steal these shoes from a 10 year old?  These are Kellie's shoes and I love them - I want them!  Those new shamrock laces are so awesome!  My two favorite things - shamrocks and that green! oh that green!

Hope you are having a great day!

Fresh From The Kiln

Here is today's batch of pieces from the kiln.

 These are my favorite pendants.  The green one on the top right is from a piece of lace.  I really like it.

 I love making these little disks.

 And these little pieces.  I could make them all day.  They are so fun.  But then it's time to glaze them and I curse them.  They are not fun to glaze, but then they come out of the kiln all colorful and I love them again and they are completely worth it.

 When I first saw these two I was like ugh, that is a seriously ugly color and I will never use it again!

 But then I saw these pieces and I love this color yellow!  And then I remembered that on those first two I had added another color on top and that's why it's such a funky color.  Actually, in the sun they are kind of pretty so for now I'll just throw them off to the side and maybe I'll learn to like them.

Kiln is running again with a few more beads and a bunch of glaze swatches.  Nothing fun in there.  And today is house cleaning day so no fun their either.  I hope you are having a nice Friday.  I was worried that the schools would be closed today because we had some snow over night, but it was only 2 inches so they were off to school 2 hours late.  It's much easier to clean with an empty house.  I'm too easily distracted and all they have to say is "mom, lets watch a movie" and I'm like cleaning? what cleaning?  It's nice and sunny here so that's a plus - with all of that white snow out there it makes my house really bright - and I'm all for that!

Finally, The First Batch Is Finished.

These photos aren't the best because it's early and cloudy, but I wanted to show you what this group looks like before I go back down to reload the kiln again.  I have more new glaze colors and I'm anxious to see what they look like on my clay.

I love this green.

And this blue.

I'm normally not a fan of matte glaze, but I'm kinda liking this on all four clays

This is a new pink.  I like it in person.

I like the toggle

This is a new brand of glaze for me and I'm not loving the texture of it.  I like the color though so I think I'll add a clear glaze over a few pieces and see if I like it better.

These two are really light.  A light lavender and a light pink.

Okay, I'm off to reload the kiln and glaze.  I only have today to finish glazing because if my house isn't cleaned tomorrow it will really start to make me crazy.  I did get all of my laundry finished so I'm not too far behind in the housework department.  I hope the sun comes out today because these photos are terrible and I'll need to take better shots to list some of this on etsy later.

It Was The Best Of Plans...

Well, remember last week when I said that I was going to glaze everything and have it out of the kiln by Tuesday...that didn't happen.  Every time I plan my schedule my life gets in the way of my plan!  And then I decided to order a bunch of new Coyote cone 6 glazes to go with the ones I received for Christmas and they are taking longer than I would like to get here.  According to FedX they arrived at the FedX location 20 minutes away from me and were on a truck for delivery Saturday morning but they would not be delivered until Monday.  rrrr.  Why?  Why FedX? Why?  I must have passed 10 FedX trucks Saturday when I went to pick up Howard's meds.  I know I have received clay deliveries from FedX on Saturdays before = why not this time?  hhhhh, frustrated. 

I have been productive this week.  I made and bisque fired all of these pieces (porcelain and stoneware)

 And I made all of these pieces (they are going into the kiln this morning for their bisque firing.

I am definitely going to start glazing today! ToDAY!  and I'll finish tomorrow when the rest of the glaze arrives.  I'm planning to have everything finished and start listing items on Etsy by Wednesday!  I probably just jinxed myself by writing that.  But that is the plan.  Of course Monday is a holiday and Mark and the kids will all be home, so...you know...I'm probably setting myself up for disappointment in the glaze scheduling department. 

I made some tags for Howard in the stoneware.  I made one to hang on his leash too.  I'm not sure you can make a dog tag in stoneware - It may break, I certainly won't be listing any until I test it on Howard.  I hope you are having a wonderful (sunny - yeah!) Sunday.  Wish me luck on the glaze schedule.

Two Good Clay Days...

I was able to get a lot of items made over the past two days.

 I love these leaves!  I can't wait to glaze them.

 And I was playing around with these little doughnut things.  I'm not really sure how to use them once they are glazed and ready, but I like them.

 This is what they look like on the side.

 I also made a bunch of beads.  Some have little wire loops so they can dangle.  Though that was kind of fun.

Today I have to clean each piece.  Smooth out any rough areas, etc.  And they will be loaded and fired tomorrow.  Plan on spending Sunday glazing everything while I watch football (Go Ravens!).  My plan is to have everything glazed and fired and out of the kiln by Tuesday.  Have a great weekend!

And Now You Know Why...

I always make glaze samples.  I didn't this time because I was in a rush to have these finished before Christmas because they were going to be tied to gifts.  This is chocolate clay with a really pretty green glaze - of course you can't see that because the clay is so dark and I didn't use an underglaze...
Oh well.  Am making little things today - connectors, toggles, and charms.  Hope to have a bunch to fire by Friday.

A New Year...A New Blog

Happy New Year! I have decided to start this blog so that my stitching friends from White Clover Stitches won't have to hear about clay if they don't want to. I will only be talking about clay on this blog...what I'm making, how I'm making it, and what I'm doing with what I've made.