The Mermaid and the Sea Turtle

I've been working on my painting techniques on slabs. I've been using thin coats of acrylic paint to get some of the effects here. I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out.

Here's what it looked like before the paint.


And here's the Phoenix that was carved before. I applied acrylic paint to this one too.

Why the acrylic paint instead of underglaze? Well, with these two, I fired both slabs to cone 10 because they are made of Southern Ice. Yellows and pinks tend to burn out at that temperature, so I wasn't sure how to finish the slabs. After experimenting with watered down underglaze, I decided to try it out with acrylic paint. (Originally, I tried a dry brushing technique on the phoenix, but it just did not turn out right. So, I refired the phoenix to 1800 degrees or so to get the paint off. Surprisingly, the yellow stayed (all that lovely cadmium). Then, I was able to add the color the way I like.

Tonight, I probably will do more work on my Gandalf sculpture. AND I get to unload a kiln to see how my other slabs turned out!

Busy busy busy

Well, the September sale at Blossom Hill Crafts is done. Next year, we will have the sale a bit later in the month which will hopefully mean we get more customers. Having a sale on the 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11 may not have been the best timing for us. At any rate, I am busily getting ready for the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, October 1-2.

I have a few more plates to paint and I'm finishing up some carved and underglazed work. I'm trying a more water color look instead of solid blocks of color AND I'm going to fire the porcelain to cone 5 instead of 10. I think I need to switch to cone 5 porcelain. I don't know if it will be any cheaper, but it might take the glaze better and well, it's meant to be finished at that temperature.

At any rate, here are my latest carved pieces:

The Spiderwoman. Yes, this is the same pattern as was on an underglazed plate. I wanted to try carving it and seeing how it would turn out. There is some issue with the face and the height levels of what I'm carving. Thank goodness for the learning process, right? At any rate, I need to do some fine tuning on her, but she is almost done. Talk about cutting this to the wire! I have to get this all painted up by Sunday.


And here's my Asian Dragon. After discussing some of my underglazed work with a fellow potter and noticing the brush strokes and how not all the blocks of color were solid, my friend said that she was using some very thin coats of underglaze on her pendants. So, I decided to try this on a larger scale and see what happens.

It looks pretty cool now. We'll see how it turns out once it has been fired.

Happy Tree Woman

Last night, I finished sculpting my Happy Tree Woman. I should probably come up with a new name for her.

I really like this latest version.

Here is a close up on her face. I think I need to work harder on making these faces better. I do like this face, but there is always room for improvement.

This weekend, I've got the annual Blossom Hill Crafts sale. And then I've got the Alternative Press Expo in October. Busy busy busy!

Oh! And if you haven't noticed, I have actually created a website to see my current work. Some of it is for sale, some is not. That information is found in the 'info' tab. Enjoy!