I finally finished the rabbit... er... meerkat!

How does something start out as a rabbit and end up looking like a cross between Yoda and ET? I don't know, but here it is.




He looks like he's meditating doesn't he? Honestly, his head isn't really that big in the flesh, the camara lies.

Less than two weeks before my first show now. So am I finished making all of my pieces yet? Umm... no.

Busy doing nothing

Wow, I have been really struggling to get clay time recently, which put me in an incredibly bad mood today. I can only go so long without clay before I seriously start losing the plot and feel like doing violent paintings again! I don't even know what's been getting in the way, just rubbish things, like gas men, and feeling too tired and things like that. I even followed my counsellors advice and scheduled it into my diary, and it still didn't happen! The end result is that by the time I actually managed to get my clay out today, I had lost my confidence again...

I started on a piece weeks ago that was supposed to be a rabbit, except it looks nothing like one! So I started altering it a bit to try to make it into a meerkat - something that a couple of people have asked me to make - but today I seemed to be struggling with that as well! And I have less than 3 short weeks before my shows begin!

At least I know I will be able to fire my pieces now... oh yes, we've had lots of fun and games in the kiln department! Someone came to change our electric meter (I would say "upgrade" but I hate that word!) and he noticed that the kiln was completely bypassing the meter! So he had to make an "emergency call" to "abort" (yes, he really said that). I was expecting the CIA, to come crashing through the window from an overhead hellicopter...

Needless to say, it is all sorted out now, otherwise I wouldn't be joking about it. But it was extremely stressful and it cost us an extra £153 to have it put right (which we are trying to get back from the electrician who wired it in), but at least they didn't disconnect my kiln, or our whole house supply, or have us sent to prison, despite treating us like criminals even though we had absolutely no knowledge of what the electrician had done.

Rage - from ... umm... a long time ago

So, I have actually made some pendants, because I can just about manage cookie cutters...


... and I made some log things with birds before I lost my confidence somewhere...


... I'm thinking I really need to find my confidence again because I've just spent about a million pounds on glazes... and of course I have those shows coming up, so the timing isn't great. If you see it anywhere, please send it home :)

Busy busy busy!

Hello people! It's been a busy week here! Specifically, it's been a busy week with clay, I'm glad to say!

My week kicked off with clay class on Monday evening! I don't really need the classes now that I have my own kiln, but I go to accompany my lovely niece Sophie. Sophie is 16 now, so she qualifies for the adult learning course, but she has Autism and so she needs a carer to be with her. And I get to catch up with some of the other students who have re-enrolled!

Sophie is a wonderful artist. She can sketch an outline for a drawing in minutes! She particularly likes to draw Pokemon, but she draws other things too, mainly in that Anime style. What amazes me most is that she draws everything on a graphics tablet! I tried using one of those things recently and I couldn't even sign my own name without considerable practice! There are so many of her pieces that I love, (and I don't have all of them) but here is one that she drew for her Mum recently:


Anyway, she seemed to enjoy the clay class and is looking forward to this Monday coming. I shall have to remember to photograph some of her clay work!

Back to my own studio, I tried to get as many pieces finished in my white clay as possible before getting out my brown/black clay, because it stains everything! I could still do with making lots of little pieces for the Arts and Crafts fair coming up in December, but I wanted to get my main pieces for my two main shows out of the way first. After a very busy week I am nearly finished! Phew!

Some of the last white pieces I made were some Jane Austen coasters. You wouldn't believe how much I struggled to make a few simple tiles! Although I manage to keep them flat during drying, they keep shrinking out of shape! If you look carefully in this photo you can see:


In the end I scrapped the ones I made at first and made some more, but this time I let the clay shrink a little before cutting them out! It seeems to have worked.

Here is one of the black/brown pieces I have made this week:


I only noticed after taking the photo that the news paper that is wrapped around the tube has a picture of someone in an army uniform! Kind of ironic! Anyway, the areas I plan to glaze are painted in white slip. I have made quite a few pieces similar to this bird one...


... but they are all standing on end while they dry! So they're not really in the best position for photographing! (If I lay them down while they are soft they will collapse under their weight)

And that's this week! I have a couple of pieces to finish today, and then I need to make one more animal (maybe a Meerkat, since someone asked me about that recently) and then I should have enough for my two main shows! Yippee! After these three shows I have a whole six months until my next show! So I predict lots of animal sculptures! :D

Paper Clay

As promised, here is my review of paper clay - so called because a percentage of it is paper or some other combustible material, so that after firing the piece made with it should be lighter in weight. I've also heard that it is supposed to add strength to the piece while building, and can be repaired or added to even in it's dry state.

The first thing I noticed is it's strange texture. It feels spongey, and it does actually feel lighter than clay even when wet. It's very clean and easy to use, and it doesn't even smell like clay, which I missed. I think it probably was a little stronger while building and held it's own weight quite well, but I still had to leave it to set a little every now and then. The only two negative things were the smell and the fact that it dried my hands out much more than ordinary clay. It didn't smell bad, it just didn't smell like clay.

And here is the finished piece. I'll have a better idea about weight once it is fired and glazed.


And no, I'm not tired of making swans yet! This one is a bit bigger than my first swan, and measures at about 17 inches long, 9 1/2 inches high, and 7 inches wide.

In other news:
I have sent off my applications for my upcoming shows and have had a postcard printed to advertise them! Unfortunately I forgot to put the date of one of the shows on the postcard!!


Apart from that it's just go go go, getting ready for the shows!

Kathy asked me, did I ever dream of this? Well no, I didn't, and I don't suppose the man who interviewed me at the college did either! Hahahaha! Oh how I wish I knew what his name was and how to contact him!

Some updates

Hello blogging friends! Oh dear, what a naughty blogger I've been! I haven't updated for ages! To be honest it's just so easy to write a quick (one sentence) update on FaceBook and upload a photo and forget about the blog. But for those of you who have more sense than to use that (addictive) service, here is an update!

It was so wet during August! You may recall I had 4 vases in the process of being made all at the same time, and I was struggling to get them to set. For those of you who have been wondering, the hair dryer worked very well!

It took quite a while, but I finally got the vases finished!


The one on the right is for my sister inlaw and will be glazed red. The one on the left I have carved an ivy design and I intend to do an iron oxide wash on it once it has been fired. I will try to remember to take photos of the process!

The other two vases took longer to finish as my Mum took very ill and I didn't get any clay time for a while. I'm glad to say she is much better now and is giving up smoking!! These ones have the Marianne design slip inlayed on them, and since this photo was taken I have also added some fancy little handles either side of the neck.


These two came out much smoother because before I had finished them I invested in a whirler! (A whirler is a round stand that spins round, although it's not powered like a potters wheel is) So I was able to spin the vase round and use the steel kidney/scraper on the side to get a more even finish.

I also bought some other essential items - some 12" shelf props, and an angle grinder to try to clean these shelves up! I shall need to do that soon because I'm loading the kiln as I go (which is why I have no photgraph of the vases with their handles on!) I'm running out of surface space, and I don't want anything to get damaged, so I put the vases straight in the kiln when they were finished.

This week I have started a project using paper clay! More about that next post!

Ok, another question!

I started another couple of vases yesterday, but before too long they were too floppy for me to work on, so I started another couple of vases while I was waiting for them to set a little.

So now I have four vases on the go and one big problem - the weather. I'm leaving the vases unwrapped, but the air is so cold and damp that they just don't want to stiffen up!

I'm thinking about actually using my hair dryer on them! But I know that usually quick drying results in cracking. Do you think it will be ok since I'm not completely drying the pot?

I saw a video on youtube once of a man using a blowtorch on his pot! I really thought it would make the pot crack, but apparently not. So, surely a hair dryer will be ok?

Inspiration struck!

Well, as I said, my original plan for those vases was to slip inlay a Jane Austen character on each one, but I just wasn't feeling excited about that and I didn't know what to do with them. Then... inspiration struck!...

I looked at my little sketches of Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. How could I bring their characters to life? What was there about the sketches that said "Mr Darcy" or "Elizabeth Bennet"? Nothing really.

I thought about the story. Neither character really has anything about them individually that makes them easily recognisable, like Emma and her snobbish match making, and Marianne and her love for hill walking and her pining for Willoughby. Except...

...their love and hate for each other! Of course! The two need to be together to bring the story to life! And so on one vase I have them turned away from each other, and on the other vase I have them turned towards each other! I was so excited about this idea that I had to do it straight away! So I was up until about 6am!


My slip inlaying never seems to photograph very well, so I have no photo of the other vase and this one might not be very clear, but I hope they will come out well after firing.

I must say a big thank you to Scott and Kim for their advice on my last post. Although I won't be using low fire glazes on these pieces after all, the advice won't be wasted as I plan to try the idea on another piece. Thank you!