Friday, January 27, 2012

Heather's Tiki Jar

My sister has a lanai and a pool and a tiki bar.  And this just seemed appropriate.






Saturday, January 21, 2012

Thrown with Shaner White

And Plant City strawberries.  Man.  Only in Florida.  And yes, I ate some.  Nom.




 

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Stop at the Store

The home improvement store.  I can be made so happy with PVC pipe cut into lengths.  I intend to make some rollers for clay with hot glue while I wait for sterling findings and handmade beads to show up in the mail.  Oh, Julie!  I so love your Raku skulls and your ceramic bones.

A whole bunch of things will be emerging from my mind, heart and fingers in the next days and weeks and the anticipation gives me such a lift!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Mom's Roses






I made the stamp in North Carolina (thanks doctor Tim!) and the vase in Florida.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Coil Crazy

It does seem appropriate that a curly-headed woman loves to make this particular type of  bowl.  I do love the melted stained glass in the bottom of these.  I have been doing that a lot lately.













This series of pics features one of my favorite tools.  The Dremel gets any rough spots from the firing, and possibly dirty kiln shelves, off the bottom so the bowl doesn't scratch the furniture. 



This bowl is probably the twelfth in the series started when my first handbuilding teacher asked us to show up the next week with a terracotta pot to make our first coil piece in and I showed up with a 13" planter.  She told me while it was good to think big, I had probably bitten off more than I could chew.  The first three had a few rim issues because I was more interested in decorative scalloped edges than having the rims food safe (fractures in coils can crawl and bacteria can grow... not good) and the interiors lacked the fine smooth finish that can take me a good hour to achieve with fingers and rubber rib. 


Almost everyone I love will eventually have one of these.  Maybe I will even sell one or two eventually.  Every one is like a snowflake.  
My first three forms - just terracotta planters from Lowes and Home Depot - were sold before the great migration. I now have two identical planters.  I want to find a round one like Mom's light blue cloud bowl.  I do like a round shape!


I do love the way the glazes and glass worked so well together on this one.  Opening a kiln is like Christmas.

XO.
Sybil