Out Of The Kiln...Earthenware

I unloaded the kiln this morning with the glazed earthenware pieces.

 This is everything from this batch.  Lots of pretty colors.

 These are my favorite pieces.

 I was hoping for more color on this dragonfly.  It measures 1 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches.  I thought it would be fun to use on the side of a necklace.

 This one should have had more green in it but the white was a little too overpowering for such a soft green.

 Here are two pieces from the custom order that was in this firing.

 I love this blue!

That's it for today.  The kiln has been reloaded and started for the second half of this batch of earthenware clay.  I have a bunch of porcelain to glaze today - a few orders in there that need to be finished before Friday.

I blogged this rock that Kellie found at the beach on my other blog today, but it's so cool that I wanted to post it here too.

Isn't that the coolest rock?  She found it in the surf with a bunch of shells.

I Really Like Red Earthenware Clay...I do.

I don't know why I haven't worked with this clay in months.  I really like it.  I unloaded the kiln this morning and plan to spend today glazing all of the red pieces.  I want to glaze fire them tomorrow because there are several orders in here.

 and a few porcelain pieces.  I really like this pattern on the clay.  I won't be glazing these until later in the week but I thought I would show them to you anyway.

 I'm really like these pieces, especially the buttons.

 This is one of the big shank buttons I made for an order.  The pattern is from a piece of lace and it really came out clean on this one.

 and I love wonky bowls so I made a few out of porcelain too.  They will also be set aside until later in the week when I'm ready for another code 6 firing.

That's what I'm working on today.  I hope you are having a nice Sunday.  Looking forward to Tuesday morning when I can see how the red pieces come out with the glaze.

Molly's Bowl

Molly and her friends went to one of those paint your own ceramic places a few weeks ago.  I know, she could have bought a bisque bowl and glazed and fired it here for a heck of a lot less, but you know how teenagers are.  Anyway, I love it.

I think it is really cool, love all the colors and shapes.

But look!  They chipped it!  When they were packing it up for her the manager said "oh my, it has a chip.  We'll give you a discount on your next item."  Well, hello?! the discount should have been on THIS item.  Maybe Molly doesn't plan to go back.  And I don't like that she didn't write down exactly what that discount would be.  I wish I had been there to intervene on this one.  Really angry about it.  and it's such a shame - it's a great bowl.

Valentine's Day Sale!

Hi!  I just wanted to pop in and let you know that I'm having a sale in my etsy shop for Valentine's Day.  Use code 214LOVE and receive 20% off your purchase (excluding shipping) now through Monday 2/14/11!  See link at top of page.

Success!

Remember the other day when I showed these pendants that I hate...

 I decided to redo a few of them.  In the photo above I redid the rust button and the brown pendant on the bottom next to the button.  In the photo below I redid the large pendant with the triangles and the large red pendant. 

 I'm not a fan of brown so I added a blue glaze over this one and refired it and here is what it looks like now.

I am so glad I did that I really like it now.  And I'm happy with this one...

I'm not sure I like this one.  I like it better than before, but I'm not as happy as I am with that blue one.

and then there is this...

still to rusty for me, but I like it a lot better than before.  Unfortunately, I didn't write down what I did so I have no idea what glazes were used and so I can't make them again.  I know - I had my journal right there on the desk and I know you should always write everything down.  Lesson learned (again) oh well.

Out of the Kiln..Some Good, Some Not So Good.

I was finally able to do a glaze firing yesterday!  The weather has really messed up my schedule.  I unloaded the kiln this morning and was pretty happy overall but there are several duds in this batch.

 First I'll show you what I'm pretty happy with...  I like these buttons.  They are all from those patterns I carved last week. (you might be able to click on the photos for a better look)

 and I like how these pieces came out.  I have several of these made in other colors.  I'm definitely going to make more of all of them.

 I like these patterns, not crazy about the glazes but they're okay compared to some of the items in this batch.

 I like these the most... I'm really loving this blue on this clay...

 And this soft blue is pretty.

 I really like this glaze it's so different from what I would normally pick.

 Love love love all of the leaves!  I could seriously make a gazillion of these and never get sick of them.

 There were only a few beads in this batch, but I like them all.

 And now for the funky stuff.

 These are all from my carved patterns again, but the glazes - ugh! Definitely NOT my favorite colors.  Every one of them came out weired.  They did some crazy stuff in that kiln.

 These two buttons are usable, but I'm not crazy about them.

 and this poor little leaf that is so pretty is permanently one with the wire. sad.

So that's it for today.  Some good, some not so good, and some down right awful.  There is another batch in the kiln now so I'm hoping for better results tomorrow.  Have a great Friday!

Ice Is Getting In My Way!

It is so dark in my house today. gloomy gloomy gloomy.  My kiln is loaded and ready to go but I'm afraid to turn it on because we already have ice from last nights storm (kids home again - at this rate they will be in school till July!) and we are expecting a huge ice storm later today.  There may be wide spreed power outages and I'm afraid that it would be just my luck that the power would go out mid firing.  Better safe than sorry - I'm going to wait and fire everything tomorrow instead.  Not happy about that - I'm really anxious for the new pieces to be finished.  These are some of the porcelain pieces I made with those carved blocks that I did last week.

 These are stoneware.  I made a lot of buttons this time.

I can't wait to see these glazed!  Oh! I hate ice - I'm ready for spring!  It's days like this that I really regret that we didn't move to Arizona a few years ago!  I could go for blazing hot 120 degrees right about now. :O)