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
Bisque Texture Plate
Gingko Bisque Texture Plate about 12 inches x 18 inches
Last fall, I made a bisque texture plate by impressing leaves from a ginkgo tree that I planted in my front yard about 2 years ago. As you can see from the photo, it cracked right smack down the middle (a crack developed along one of the stems while drying and then during bisque firing, the heat did the rest). It doesn’t mean that I can’t use it anymore, but the crack limits the size of work that I can make with it. Each side is still large enough for me to make the base for a hand-built mug (see below) and when I had an hour to spend in my garagio the other day which wasn’t enough time to really get into any kind of production mode, but just long enough to test out some of this plate’s other possibilities.
Hand Built Ginkgo Printed Mug
Ginkgo Texture Close-up
The texture is pretty to look at, but also very delicate and fine which proved a little problematic for printing purposes. After my first try, the impression was spotty at best, so I had to smooth out the clay and try again. Since my bisque plate is fairly delicate, I placed a towel underneath the plate and then put my clay slab on top and used a rubber mallet to make sure that the entire surface would be left with an even impression. After tapping the slab with the mallet, I used a rolling pin and my favorite Sherrill rubber rib to smooth out the clay on the non-printed side.
Ginkgo Plate Trio – still green
Since I knew I didn’t have enough time to make a mug, I decided to make a few small tea bag/soy sauce dipping sized dishes with the amount of clay that I had impressed and ready to go. I’ve been lacking motivation after taking such a long break from my studio, but know that doing something even if it’s small, is a step in the right direction in regards to getting back into some kind of a routine.
Small Ginkgo Plate
As with any type of printing – whether on paper or clay, the reverse is always true and what shows up. If you take another look at the ginkgo mug (above), you’ll notice that the ginkgo leaves are not raised as compared with these little plates. That’s because I impressed actual leaves into the slab I used for the mug, and I used the bisque plate for this one which left a raised impression. I’m not sure which one I like better – I’ll have to decide after I glaze it. If I prefer the former, I’ll have to make another impression of the bisque texture plate and then bisque this one – or wait till spring when my tree leafs out again.
Pink Glazed Flower Pendant
I’m still making jewelry – this one is available in my Etsy Shop for $20.00.
Porcelain pendant with slip inlay – still green
To make the jewelry just a bit more interesting, I tried my hand at doing a bit of mishima or slip inlay on a porcelain pendant. After it’s glazed and fired, I’m going to add a ceramic laser toner decal for a third layer. It might be just a bit too busy with the slip inlay, glaze and decal, but it will be a good experiment. I was a bit too hasty when I removed the excess slip and then I sanded fairly vigorously on top of that. Note to self – don’t rush…. Once it’s fired, I’ll add a silver plated Aanraku bail (used by dichroic glass artists) to the back with epoxy glue.
Meanwhile, ever put the wrong cone in a kiln sitter and not realize your mistake until it was too late? I’ve over fired a kiln once before and you think I would learn, but luckily, this time I put a cooler cone in the sitter rather than a hotter one. Yesterday, I fired the kid’s work for my Tuesday clay class and this morning when I went to pop the lid open, everything looked just plain drab ugly. I grabbed the box of cones that I left laying out near the kiln and luckily I put a cone 018 in the cone 06 glaze fire. Thank goodness I noticed my mistake early enough and since class isn’t until tomorrow afternoon I replaced the cone with the correct one and am refiring the kiln as I write this post. It should be cool by tomorrow morning in time for me to unload and pack the work for class.
Bonus – it’s freezing in Denver today and we’re expecting a high of only 18ºF so my garagio will be nice and toasty when I head out in about an hour to work since one of my kilns is firing.
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
