I am into stripes now..... of every color! Pouring glaze across a tray is an application method where I don't have a whole lot of control. I can choose the glazes and which will be next to and on top of each other, but the lines spill vertically or at a slant depending on the angle I am holding the tray at. It is all very serindipity-ish. Which I love about it! I hope you do too.
 I have started to experiment creating seascapes and landscapes on my large shallow bowls. Using methods of surface decoration learned from Jean Taylor at the La Canada Flintridge Community Center ceramics studio, this involves dipping and pouring glazes in a certain sequence to achieve the desired effect. This was my first attempt at this new method and I think it worked out nicely, though I see many areas needing improvement and tweaking. The experiments will continue!
 My second Earth Globe was a success! It is bigger than Earth #1, and is about 7" round. I will be entering it in upcoming gallery shows. If you are interested in it, please contact me.
 I'm excited to be progressing with my 2nd Earth Globe project. This one is larger than the first I attempted. That allows for more detail with the carving out of continents. All land masses have been carved out and removed. What is left are the oceans which support the entire globe, in more than one way!
I am in the process of brushing wax on the entire inside of the globe so that glaze will not attach to it. You can see what I'm talking about if you look back in my blog archives for 'My Blue Marble", the first globe. And since I still think of Sept as the beginning of a new period of the year, I have a new studio apron to welcome in the fall. Sewn by yours truly!  During one of our recent hot spells, I decided to experiment with nerikomi designs on my structural style of vases.
I love how the various brown, red and white clays contribute to the floral and grassy design. This is very labor intensive. But I got into the zen of it, working in my cool house and ignoring the frying pan heat outside.  For the summer, I've decided to switch to a lighter color palette with my glazes.
 I love glazing and trying out new techniques. In the pictures above, I start out by aerating the contrast glaze and letting the bubbles flow over the cup onto the tray. I did this two times with different glazes on top of each other.
I LOVE the randomness of this method!  In my hands... I made a sphere and then carved the continents thru it. This was quite tricky because the more continents, the less clay there is holding everything together! It has made it thru the first firing and I just glazed it. Keeping my fingers crossed that it makes it thru that firing. If it is successful, more photos to come!
 Voila! If you read my previous blog, I showed a photo of a slab of clay with stripes running through it. It decided to become a sake set with 4 adorably small cups. |
AuthorMims Ellis, Miriam Ellis, handbuilding potter Archives
May 2019
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