Posts Tagged “emily murphy”

I’ve rolled out a slab of “ash” white stoneware clay purchased from Mile Hi Ceramics.  I’m going to give my new lino cut a try.

I found that I get a better print when I used a rubber mallet to set my lino-cut in place - otherwise it slipped a little when I ran the rolling pin over it several times from different directions.

After I printed the clay and before I lifted the lino-cut, I trimmed away the excess clay from the slab.  I cut my linoleum pretty precisely before I carved it.

Voila, my print - see the bottom center?  this is before I realized that I should use the rubber mallet to get a good print.

Here, I’ve got 4 sides of my poppy lino-cut printed and a large slab for the top and bottom.  If you do your math, you’ll see that i actually printed 5 sides, even though I only meant to do 4.  I turned the fifth one into a tile.

This could be why I printed out 5 sides instead of 4.  :D  It was after 8 pm after all.

A funny thing happened a few weeks ago.  About a month ago, I ordered a Bevel-o-Matic tool from claystamps.com after reading a tool review on Emily Murphy’s Pottery blog.  After 2 weeks, I didn’t receive an acknowledgment or the tool in the mail.  I had used the Paypal link on their website to purchase, so I followed up with an email and canceled the transaction.  About a week after that, I received an email from them apologizing and telling me that they’ll put one in the mail for me and that I should send them a check after receiving it.  I wasn’t quite sure I’d see one or not, but lo and behold, a Bevel-o-Matic tool arrived a week later.  It seemed so refreshing to me that the owner would trust me enough to send before receiving payment.  So, I am definitely one happy customer and promptly stuck a check in the mail.  By the way, it works like a charm!

I worked on 2 boxes simulataneously.  These are larger than the porcelain ones I’ve made in the past couple of months.

Here, I am dutifully adding clay coils to the joints to strengthen them.  I tried not adding them to a couple and experienced some cracking.  The glaze covered the cracks up, but I was worried the whole time while they were firing.

Walls are up - only have to add the tops.

Vine printed box is now drying and setting up.

Here’s the poppy printed box.  I think I like the way this print turned out.  I suppose the real test will be after glazing.  I’d like to see the glaze break nicely over the raised and recessed parts of the boxes.

Meanwhile, I am attending a one day hand-building workshop with Annie Chrietzberg tomorrow.  I hope to report back on Monday with all the wonderful things I learned at her studio!

Have a good weekend,

~Cynthia

Mary Cay and I at the opening standing in front of 2 of her pieces

I drove up to Evergreen by myself yesterday evening for the opening of the “Fine Art of Craft” at the Center for the Arts Evergreen where some of my work was on display. Unfortunately, my husband and daughter did not attend because my daughter came down with strep this past week and wasn’t feeling 100%. It was a fun evening, and while I had peeked at some of the other items on display when I dropped off my work last Monday, it truly was a feast for the eyes to see a variety of different crafts on display together ranging from glass blowing, fiber art, beading, ceramics, to wood working.

The gallery is fairly small, but at its busiest, there were about 150 people crammed in there (that’s my guesstimate). My ceramics mentor and good friend, Mary Cay, had some of her wonderful work on display, including groupings of her bone china canvases. Some former Art Student’s League classmates of mine also came up for the opening and afterwards we all enjoyed sitting down and catching up at The Wine Bar nestled in the pines by the Evergreen Lake.

On my drive up to Evergreen I snapped this photograph of a local landmark - the Spaceship House in Genessee, CO. I would love to tour it someday, but, it’s privately owned. Built in the 1960’s by architect Charles Deaton, its futuristic design is so unusual that it was used in the filming of Woody Allen’s movie, Sleeper in 1973.

Cone 10 porcelain platter freshly thrown

Meanwhile, last week in my studio I threw quite a bit of work to add to the gas firing at the guild taking place this weekend. Out of necessity, I threw bigger than I normally do in an attempt to take up real estate in the kiln since one of our firing partners dropped out at the last minute. I used the tutorial on Emily Murphy’s blog that she calls the “quarter trick” to throw this platter. I normally have a hard time centering more than 5 lbs of clay at a time, so I used 4 lbs as the base, and since I couldn’t find a quarter, I used a 1970’s nickel in the center. Then I centered another 5 lbs on top of the nickel. Once I opened it up, I removed the nickel and was pretty pleased with my 12″ platter. While that’s not as big as the 24″ raku platter I saw on display last night by Bob Smith, I was pleased with my efforts. After the guild sale next weekend, I’m going to practice throwing larger.

I just unloaded the bisque kiln this morning and was so happy to see the platter in one piece, with a nice deep foot. As expected, I lost 4 mugs that went into the kiln damp. I should have made them tumblers instead of trying to add handles at the last minute. Live and learn!

With that said, I have some glazing to do!

Happy weekend,

~Cynthia

PS.  By the time I got up to Evergreen, 2 of my pieces had already sold!

The other day, I was cruising through the blogs that I’ve linked to on my right hand side bar –> and came across a really helpful article on Emily Murphy’s Pottery Blog on how to make a textured rolling pin using a sharpie, a hot glue gun and a rolling pin. It clicked with me and I knew I had to give it a try - since I have been meaning to make some larger plaster texture plates. This is so much easier and less labor intensive. Check out her blog if you want to see the step by step instructions on how to make one yourself.

Just the day before, I had pulled out an older lino-cut relief plate to use to imprint texture on a slab that I really liked. Unfortunately, I don’t currently have a photograph of that bowl. This is a technique that hearkens back to some of my experiments of printing on clay after reading Paul Wandless’ book, Image transfer on Clay. I’ll have to share the results of my relief printed bowl with you at a later date.

In the new issue of Pottery Making Illustrated, local artist Annie Chrieztberg has a feature article on slab construction using texture plates that’s right up my alley too. She’s offering a workshop early next year that I just might have to sign up for.

It just seems like the possibilities are endless when working with clay if you ask me! Meanwhile, I’ve switched clay bodies. I purchased 300 lbs of Laguna’s B-mix ^5 from a potter who is moving - let’s just say the price was right and I wanted to try a new white stoneware. It seems like every time I go into Mile Hi Ceramics they’re out of stock of one of my favorite clays. I really like it. I’ve thrown with it, and now have done some handbuilding and it’s really a nice clay. The truth will be told when I fire and glaze my pieces.

Voilà! My slab texture imprinted bowl! Fini - c’est tout for aujourd’hui.

I’m subbing for 1/2 day kindergarten today, so I’m off.

Be well everyone,

~Cynthia

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