Rice Bowls & Show and Tell
Set of 2 rice bowls with chop stick rests
In my mind, there’s no better food than anything Asian – I could probably eat a derivative of the Asian food every day of the week as long as it contained rice. Maybe I just like eating food with chop sticks. 
I’ve been throwing a little bit more than usual as I reclaim clay and decided to turn some bowls into rice bowls – I’m not sure if they should be larger or not. What do you think? These probably hold about 2 – 3 cups of food and measure about 6″ wide at the rim and 3.5″ high.
Rice bowl
Do you know what I hate? When my chopsticks slide off the side of my bowl and hit the floor – so with that in mind, I added 2 little chopstick rests to each bowl. I contemplated adding a divot to the opposite side for the chopsticks, but after testing it out, the bowls don’t really need it. The chopsticks can rest either as shown, or inside the bowl in more of a vertical fashion. I might make a few sets of these to sell at the Colorado Potters Spring Show – I wonder if I could find some chopstick wholesale to include with the bowls if I look hard enough.
Next up, “Show and Tell” (though isn’t my blog all show and tell?):
Before – oval serving dish
Remember this little oval serving dish that I made about about a month or so ago? I decided it looked a little plain so I decided to add a decal to the piece which dresses it up nicely.
After – Oval serving dish with water lily decal
Much better! I’m also pleased to be getting a lot of mileage from my water lily sketch that I made using my Bamboo Fun Wacom Tablet. After assessing my studio glazes, I think I need to expand my glaze palette. I’ve found that a good contrast between glaze and the sepia tone of the decals works really well. I’d like to add a good matte white, maybe closer to bone/off white. Actually, what I’d really like is a nice reduction look off white with little crystals…probably more difficult to achieve in oxidation. But, I can still wish.
Porcelain pendants with laser toner decals
People reading this who know me in real life are probably laughing at me right now – I’m adding decals to everything in my studio, much like I “marbleized” everything in my home several years ago when I was really into faux painting. 
I can’t help it, everything that I make without a decal looks naked right now. Since taking this photo, I’ve added bails to the pendants and they’re now available in my Etsy Shop – or they will be after I write this post.
We’re headed up to Steamboat Springs tomorrow for a little spring skiing. I’m bringing my laptop because supposedly, the condo where we’re staying has wi-fi. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share some photos of one of my favorite areas & a really gorgeous part of Colorado with you.
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
Kid’s Cups and Laser Toner Decals
Personalized Kids Cups
This is the front view of my “I’m sorry cups” that I made for the kids enrolled in my after school clay class. Our last class of the session was yesterday and we always have a party to celebrate their clay successes. Luckily, despite my substitute teaching session last week, I managed to finish their cups in time for them to use at the party. The extra effort was worth it – they all loved their cups and since I put their names on each other cups they’ll have a permanent reminder of the class and a cup of their very own. (The one without a name is an extra I made just in case anything went awry – which didn’t happen in this case, so I gave it to the art teacher in appreciation for letting me use her room.)
Back side of cups with decals
The surprise part of the cups were the decals. Last week, I asked every student what their favorite animal is and I had quite a list ranging from koalas, to a fennec fox, an owl and I had one kid in class who is obsessed with Denver Bronco, Champ Bailey. (While not an animal, I decided to break my parameters for him.)
Photo decals
I have a great book titled, Animals: 1419 Copyright-Free Illustrations, published by Dover that has a gazillion animal/fish/reptile/insect etc. illustrations that I used for most of the decals with the exception of the 3 cups above and Champ Bailey. I had to look for photos on the ‘net for images of the fennec fox, arctic fox and the sand cat. There were some in the book, but they didn’t work for the decals. I figure since I’m not making any money on these and they’re a one time excursion, I’m okay copyright wise – I also looked on Flickr for the copyright free/fair use logos. It’s still a bit of a sticky topic.
Dover Clip Art decals with exception of football player which is a photo
More cups with decals – for the photo decals such as the one of football player, Champ Baily, I used Photoshop to desaturate and then the posterize and threshold tools to get a simpler image appropriate for decals.
More Dover Clip Art Decals
My daughter’s favorite animal is the koala – isn’t this one cute? I scanned the dover illustrations in at 300 dpi which is recommended for printing laser toner decals. I had to clean them up a bit once I opened them in Photoshop – there seemed to be a bit of noise around the images. The magic wand tool is great for selecting an expanse of similar color toned area and then easy to delete.
I spent a couple of hours in the studio yesterday afternoon, threw a bottle, but more importantly I started the reclaim process. I plan to play with clay most of today after I go on a run with the dogs.
Toodles,
Cynthia
Post #500
There is a part of me that thinks that a post as auspicious and milestone marking as #500 deserves to be a little more interesting than what you are about to read – but, I feel happy just to be posting anything at all. It has been one crazy week. I substitute taught the past 3 days in a row, and yesterday about did me in. If there ever was a time where I thought I wanted to be a full time teacher, I am now fully convinced that I am not up to the task. Kudos to teachers who are still smiling at the end of each and every day and who are willing to get up and do it again and again!
I subbed for the art teacher and while I had some really great classes, I also had some nerve wracking – drive me to drink ones too that are forever etched in my mind. 2nd grade girl yelling and dishing huge attitude at me (and I’m considered to be a “fun” sub) – group of girls painting on the bathroom walls, instead of washing their hands. Their homeroom teacher and the principal were not happy! But, I think the worst thing is that the poor art teacher only has 45 minutes to spend with each class once a week – so it’s a whirlwind of setting up/making/cleaning and I had a hard time catching my breath. There were other minor incidents – mostly ones involved trying to motivate kids to make the projects, follow directions etc. Maybe I’ll post some of their apology letters that their teachers had them write to me – they’re pretty funny.
Porcelain cups for my students
Despite wanting to envelope myself in a cocoon every night, I forced myself into the studio to finish making cups for the students enrolled in my after school clay class. You might remember that these are my little apologies for over-firing their work a couple of weeks ago. I procrastinated, so now I’m under pressure to finish them by Tuesday afternoon – our last class of the session. I decided to forgo trimming a foot in favor of using a “wiggle” wire in the interest of my time constraint sort of like the Lapella’s post describes here.
The cool thing about throwing this past week is that even though I had to force myself into the studio after work, just having my hands in clay and watching the wheel spin around in circles had a meditative effect and wiped the stress of the day away.
Ubuntu successfully installed on my daughter's laptop
Meanwhile, my daughter’s old Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop has Ubuntu running and I also have wireless internet access working on it too. I had to buy a new wireless adapter card (a D-Link WNA-2330 RangeBooster) that was more compatible with Linux based operating systems to make it work, but for $29.99 + tax, she now has a really fast computer. Considering we were thinking about buying a new one for her for middle school, I think my time, effort & $29.99 investment will be worth it in the long run. Instead of seeing the usual Windows logo at boot up, the photo above is what pops up first thing after turning on the computer.
And, being a kid who has literally grown up with a computer, she has already figured out how to customize her space, install programs etc. – she’s off and running – unlike myself. I have a stack of books on my coffee table for reference as I use the system. Kids seem to be able to use computers intuitively – not sure why I’m a little slower.
So, there you have it, post #500. More next week – no subbing in the near future and I’ve decided to take myself off of the availablitity list for my own sanity.
Have a great weekend,
Cynthia
Miscellany Pottery and Food Chopper
Wheel thrown mugs with signature chop
I’ve been making a little bit of pottery here and there, but not any type of production work per se. Mostly, I’m making a few forms to test fire ceramic decals. Hence, these forms have very limited ornamentation because that will come later after glazing. I pulled the handles for these mugs which proved trying since I’ve been out of practice thanks to my love of hand building. I think I made 6 handles before I finally pulled 2 that I liked.
Chop close up right under handle
I used my signature chop for the first time too and placed it right under the handle since I cut these right off the wheel head and there’s no foot on these mugs. I wonder if I’d rather have a stamp mark instead of a raised motif.
Mini covered ring sized box
Here’s a mini covered box that I finally finished – it’s really small, less than 2″ (5cm) in any direction. I’m really not sure what someone could use this for other than as a very elaborate gift box for special jewelry of some kind.
There was just enough room for my chop mark on the bottom of the box
Food chopper
Meanwhile, my daughter and I went shopping yesterday. It’s not something that I do very often (other than for food) and I was on a quest to find a new duvet cover. I’ve been patching our well worn ones for quite awhile and let’s just say that it’s time. So, off we went with cash in hand and do you think I could find one that I liked (in my price range that it)? No, 5 hours later, nursing sore feet, I stumbled into William Sonoma and saw the holy grail of food choppers. I have actually had my eye on a mandoline, but when I saw this chopper, I decided to give it a try. I always like when I’m checking out at the register and the sales person (who wasn’t helping me btw) mentions that she just loves this product (whatever it may be) and uses it at home too. A more effective sales technique than the one you get on the showroom floor.
So, on the way home I stopped by the grocery store and picked up things to chop – limes, apples, zucchini, cucumbers, onions – everything this thing says it can core, cut, chop, julienne etc. Guess what? It works! Cored and cut apple into slices, julienned zucchini beautifully, and even cut the lime into perfect wedges (to use in my Cuba Libre cocktail).
Still don’t have a duvet cover…and I’m not sure I have it in me to go out again today.
~Cynthia
