Bodies – Clay That Is…
A small sampling of clay stacked in the damp room of the Colorado Potters Guild
Last Monday, I had a decision to make and let’s just say that decisions are not made lightly by me and I had to call in back up. I had no clay – well, actually I have a lot of clay, but most of it needs to be reconstituted/reconditioned/recycled/whatever after over wintering in my garagio. What’s a girl to to do? I called in a life line…only she wasn’t in when I made the desperate call. So I marched back to the damp room of the Colorado Potters Guild, pulled up my big girl panties and confidently pulled out a 25# bag of P60 (^10 porcelain) determined that I was going to throw me some porcelain just like old times.
Handbuilt Platter by Kathleen Laurie
Luckily while I was dinking around the guild, looking for my shelves and gathering tools, my girlfriend, Kathleen called me back and talked me off the ledge. I hadn’t yet opened the P60 and calmly returned the bag to the damp room and replaced it with a bag of Dover (^10 white stoneware) after Kathleen kindly relayed how forgiving Dover clay is in contrast to the P60 – clearly she was trying to spare me from failure & a hurt ego after tenderly reaching out to the medium again. BTW, both the P60 and Dover clays are manufactured by Mile Hi Ceramics in Denver and Dover’s price tag is a bit friendlier too which is always a happy thing.
I should back track and explain my clay conundrum by telling you that I have mostly worked with ^6 clays and historically have fired my work in my own studio in previous years. So, choosing a new clay body with a different firing temperature is a bit daunting. I have to say that I really like Dover – it’s smooth, but not quite like porcelain. There’s still a bit of grog, but barely noticeable and the clay seems to hold up against abuse very well. I’m still practicing throwing and when I head into the guild tomorrow I’m going to try hand building again – my favorite pastime.
If choosing a clay body is difficult, wait till I get around to glazing…the choices at the guild are fantastic and I’ll be like a kid in a candy shop, paralyzed by the endless combinations of available delicacies.
This and That
Throwing porcelain – teacher appreciation gifts
I’ve been a little quiet on the blogging front this holiday weekend. I think it’s because my hubby is off work and we’ve been trying to fit some gardening in between thunder storms, playing games, and just hanging out with friends. I did manage to get a little throwing in on Thursday – I realized that only a week remained until the last day of school and decided to throw some mugs for teacher appreciation good bye gifts. I need to attach the handles this morning and then bisque fire tomorrow evening. Nothing like last minute planning…. I suppose worst case scenario, these don’t get fired and I purchase something. I tried, I really did.
Colored porcelain clay
I have also decided to work with some colored porcelain a là Jane Peiser style and dried some slip that I had previously colored with Mason Stains.
Meanwhile, we’ve been making plans for our big trip to Europe this June and spent the early morning looking at apartments for short term rent in Paris. Hubby and I decided to take a short side trip to Paris during the latter half of our trip to Germany – maybe 4-5 nights max. Round trip plane tickets from Frankfurt to Paris on Air France are only $113- per person and by getting an apartment for the 3 of us, we’ll save on dining out expenses. I’ve found some really cool, centrally located pedestrian friendly ones that aren’t terribly expensive – anywhere from 95 – 120 € which I don’t think is terribly bad for Paris. (The exchange rate is currently $1.39 to 1€.)
Gotta go make some handles,
Cynthia
P.S. We’re going to see the new Star Trek movie today – I’ve heard some positive reviews from friends who’ve seen it.
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
Covered Porcelain Box with Decals
Seashore themed porcelain box with decals
This covered porcelain box is long overdue! Make that past due…. I made this on my Mom’s request as a gift for my niece for Christmas. Yep – I said Christmas. I’m only, what? 3 months overdue. Ouch. The box was constructed, bisque and glaze fired in time – however it didn’t survive the glaze fire entirely. The lid was glazed shut and 2 of the feet stuck to the kiln shelf leaving some rather large divots because my new Skutt 1027 is firing really hot.
Back side of porcelain box with decals
I managed to pry the lid off with minimal damage and also filled in the feet with paper clay. I sanded problem areas down and refired. When I added decals to my kid’s cups last week, I decided to decal this porcelain box too – based on my Mom’s original request which was a “sea shore theme” because my niece, brother and sister in law spend time at the shore nearly every year. It’s one of my niece’s favorite pastimes. 
So, here it is, finally finished and looking mighty good, I might add! Mom, I hope to have this in the mail to you this week sometime – sorry for the delay.
Back of porcelain covered box
Meanwhile, I really like using Ubuntu – in fact I’m writing this post on my Ubuntu sign on. For the most part it’s fairly intuitive, but I have had to familiarize myself with the OS and have been customizing my space. I do have a dual boot – so I have the option of booting into Windows or Ubuntu when I fire up my computer. I’d like to cut the cord, but haven’t had the nerve yet. I like all the FREE (free as in libre) open source software that is available – there isn’t one software package that I can’t find to replace what I have on my Windows sign on. The only bummer about writing this post is that all my photographs are saved in Windows and I can’t access them from Ubuntu. I’ll have to switch over to Windows to finish this post. Firefox, my favorite browser, also behaves much better under Linux – yesterday Firefox crashed at least 5 times when I was in my Windows login.
There is even a little decal on the lid of the box
There are many different distributions of Linux – Ubuntu happens to be friendly for beginning Linux users. There are other beginner friendly Linux distributions out there too, but I decided on this one thanks to the very helpful Ubuntu Community. I know I sound like a newly converted evangelist – but seriously, I’m not sure more people don’t know about alternative operating systems. I can’t compare a MAC OS because I have such limited experience with it – but I know it’s not free.
| Operating System | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu (Linux distribution) |
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| Windows XP |
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Okay, there are more pros and cons out there, but this is what I’ve noticed so far.
Happy Sunday,
~Cynthia
