Clay Roulettes Redux
Clay Roulettes
Several weeks ago, I participated in a stamp exchange with other members of the Etsy Mud Team. Swaps are fun – you just never know what you’re going to get in return. I was pretty happy with the ones I received, but didn’t know how the recipients of my stamps/roulettes had used the ones I sent. Yesterday, the recipient of one of my roulettes, shared some photos of work she has made using a roulette (left one in photo above) I posted last month. Lisa has really integrated the roulette into her work nicely – take a look at the photos below:
Platter using roulette for the rim – Photo courtesy of Lapella Pottery
Pen pillow – my personal favorite! Photo courtesy of Lapella Pottery
In my opinion, Lisa and her hubby, Alex, are Etsy success stories – they’re really selling a lot of pottery online. So go on, check out their awesome hand built and wheel thrown work in their Etsy Shop.
But, let’s not stop here…what happens when a clay roulette is “super sized”?
Tire roulette
This site was brought to my attention by another fellow Etsy Mud Team Member – pretty dang cool, huh?
Meanwhile, I had hoped to do a ^04 decal firing this afternoon, but it just didn’t happen. I’ll start the kiln early tomorrow morning – I’m going to bed as soon as the bread is done baking, hence the late (for me) night post.
~Cynthia
Homemade Clay Stamps & Roulettes
Stamps I received from 2 other EMT members
Back in February, I participated in the Etsy Mud Team’s (EMT) stamp exchange. The EMT is a group comprised of Etsy Sellers who make any type of clay work (as long as it starts as wet clay and isn’t pre-purchased bisque ware). Nearly every month, we have “challenges” or swaps and not that our membership is swelling, it’s always fun. I don’t participate in every swap or challenge, but aim for about every other one. Yesterday, I had a chance to play with some of the stamps that I received as part of the swap. I did ask both EMTers whether I could use my new stamps for ceramic jewelry that I plan to sell – and both Ericka and Jude replied yes. Thanks so much!
Ericka O-Rourke, otherwise known as Elm Studios, made the polymer clay stamps and hails from Pennsylvania. Jude Prevost, known as Muddy Waters on Etsy, made the bisque stamps and calls Canada home. I love both sets of stamps – and have been playing around with combining textures from both potters to make some new porcelain pendants.
Stamps I sent to 2 EMT members
On my end, I sent two EMT members a roulette and 2 smaller stamps to use as they wish in their work. One aspect of making these stamps that I really appreciate is that I made roulettes (clay stamps in the round – perfect for rolling out a continuous pattern or texture) for the first time ever even though the project has been on my to-do list for a long time. To make the roulettes, I rolled out slabs of clay and wrapped the slabs around paper wrapped card board toilet paper rolls. After the clay had stiffened, but before it had shrunk too much which would make removing the card board support tricky, I pulled the clay rolls off of the card board supports and then let them set up a bit more to almost leather hard. In the evening, I carved designs onto the clay tubes free style. The other stamps I made from plaster molds I had made of a starfish and a button.
The Spring Colorado Potter’s Guild Show and Sale is just around the corner – the sale opens on April 30th at 5pm. Eeek – that’s about a month from now and I need to make some work. Yesterday, I did a bit of inventorying and I have about 40 items made so far to include in the show. Each member is allowed 105 pieces which can include a few sets. That means that I can make another 65 items between now and April 30th – sounds like a lot, but after doing some math, if I make 4.55 items each day for 14 days straight, I could make it. 
That doesn’t seem like an overwhelming # does it?
It’s Saturday morning, and I am heading to the studio – I’m inspired to make a covered baking dish that I watched Laura Ross make on a Ceramic Arts Daily video. I love that she combines wheel throwing and hand-building techniques – a woman after my own heart!
Have a great weekend,
~Cynthia
Linocut Experiment part II
I entered the studio yesterday with the intention of throwing some ceramic tumblers to use as backgrounds for my lino-cut prints. And, I did, however, I got sidetracked making these little canvases (photo above) and some more pendants. I rolled out a few slabs of white stoneware clay because I’m just not going to deal with the slumping of the porcelain for this type of work. Some of the best tools that I use are a transluscent 18″ x 24″ self healing cutting mat, a metal ruler and an X-Acto knife. I use these tools for multiple mediums from painting, ceramics and fiber art. Couldn’t live without them!
Choices, choices, choices…I decided that I wanted 3″ square clay canvases for my prints for a couple of reasons. The lino-cuts I made are small, and I wouldn’t be using a lot of material if things don’t work out. I don’t have a slab roller in my studio, so I roll these out by hand with a rolling pin, and some 1/4″ thick pieces of wood to use as guides so that I can get an even slab. Once I let the slabs set up for about an hour, I placed the slabs directly on the cutting mat, lined up the clay with the 1″ guides and cut the slabs using my ruler and an X-Acto knife. I’m trying a couple of different techniques and 2 of the canvases are like tiles with no walls, however, the for the other 6, I added walls to the back so that they’ll protrude 1″ from the wall when they’re hung.
In the past, I’ve constructed ceramic boxes, by mitering the slabs for a really seamless look. It’s a little tricky, but it looks good. Last week, I watched Mary Cay demo making a box from clay using the butt to end joint construction method and decided to give it a try. It was fairly easy, but I’m not sure I’m sold yet. I’m going to sand the edges of the boxes today to see if they clean up a little better. I was perusing claystamps.com the other day because I’m considering buying a signature stamp to use on my ceramic work, and saw the owner also has another cool tool for sale: the Bevel-O-Matic – a tool that bevels clay slabs. I might have to pony up the $14.00 for this tool. When I was in college, I beveled slabs using a 2 x 2 which I had mitred using a power saw to use as a beveling guide. I can’t find my bevel guides, and while I like power tools, I’m a little afraid that I’m going to cut off afinger or two I tried this again.
I threw 3 tumblers yesterday. Don’t ask me why I stopped at 3, because I had prepared 8 – 1 lb. balls of clay. I think the idea to use the lino-cuts on a flat surface popped into my head and I left my wheel to pursue that. I sometimes work in my studio like I talk – in tangents. And boy oh boy – they zing out from no where sometimes. Anyway, when I went back to my tumblers, they were too dry to work anymore. I cracked 2 of them trying to alter the shape. So, for the 3rd and final one, I just printed my ginkgo leaf lino-cut using blue underglaze.
The remaining 2 tumblers, I cut in half. They felt a little heavy and since I have decided not to trim the bottoms of these, I wanted to see how well I did getting the side walls thin. As you can see from the photograph, the bottom is a little too heavy in comparison to the walls. That tells me that I can can go a little further down when I open the clay up and begin to throw. Now, if I had decided to add a foot to these, I think these would have been perfect.
I’ve decided to pass on the Gocco for right now, because I found EZ-Screenprint. You can create 8.5″ x 11″ screen prints that develop using light and regular water – no special bulbs, chemicals or goop. I think I’m going to order one of these starter kits and give it a try. I also found a supplier of special ceramic ink to use to make custom color ceramic decals. First things first…I must push the relief printing a little more.
What are your favorite tools?
