Learning and growing!

The last two years have been a whirlwind of change.  I started my first pottery lesson 2 years ago in the fall 2014, opened my store/studio, the spring of 2015.  Yesterday I had to apply for a GST # because my sales were very close to the limit, crazy!!!
So I have been using the square for taking credit card payments for the past year and I just found out that you can build a square store for free, that's right free, how did I not know this! Another great bonus is it will keep track of my inventory, woohoo, that will save me lots of hours.
here is a link to my store

Here are some more glaze tests:

I love love these mugs, 2x of Oatmeal, 2x of Seaweed 3/4 down and 2x of Ancient Jasper on rim.

This, no clue, I thought I would remember but nope!

I need to write down everything.  I do know there was 2 base coats of Oatmeal, I think Textured Amber brown on the bottom, then chun plum, Arctic blue, seaweed, Textured turquoise and I think Ancient jasper on the rim.  

More glaze results

this bowl was glazed with the metallic silver.

First coat white opal, then Bermuda green with mazerine blue on the rim.

Love this bowl, however I would glaze it slightly different next time.  I glazed the middle with white opal and rootbeer along the rim, where there was no white opal the rootbeer had some pitting.  Next time I will glaze the entire piece white opal with rootbeer on the rim.

I think this is my favorite combination! 2 coats Oatmeal base, 2 coats seaweed 3/4 down rim, 2 coats Ancient Jasper along the rim.

For this bowl I used ravenscriag White and Floating blue with cool magic along rim.

Playing with different glaze combinations part 2

This blog post is really more for me but you are welcome to gleam whatever you want from it.  I need a way to document and keep track of the different glazes and the results.

For this bowl I used Textured Amber brown (TAB) 2 base coats.  Then Overlapping stripes of Seaweed (S) and Ancient Jasper (AJ) 2 coats.

Inside view

This bowl has 3 coats of Deep Firebrick Red (DFR) and 1 coat of AJ and S dripped on rim.

 For this bowl I did x 2 base TAB and stripes not overlapping of Oatmeal x 2, dark green x 2, Smokey Merlo x 2, Red x 2 and Iron Lustre x 2.  You really can't tell that I used different colors, so I won't be doing this combination again.

 The glazes on this bowl are my glazes Robin's egg blue with Bermuda blue gaze around the rim

 I used my own dipping glaze for the base coat of this bowl, Floating blue.  Then (IL) x 2 and 0 on the rim.  I also used Mayco's product Cascade on the rim.  The cascade gave really nice effects with blending.

I believe this is TAB x 2 base and  AJ x 2. 

 I love love this big fruit bowl, it is 11 1/2" in diameter which is fairly big for a slab bowl.  It is hard to see in this picture but there are some spots that look metallic gold.

This bowl is the same combination that I used previously. x2 TAB base coat, overlapping stripes of AJ x 2 and Seaweed x2.

 I also love the simplicity of this bowl 3 coats of FBR.

 I didn't really like how this one turned out.  The base coat is my dipping glaze, black.  The stripes are Seaweed x2 and my floating blue glaze that I carefully poured on.  Then in between the two colors I used some Cascade.  The cascade did not react well with my Floating blue glaze and I had some crawling but I was able to add some glaze to the bare spots and refire.

 I used my black glaze as the base coat, I poured it on.  I also used Floating blue on the rim, poured on.  1 coat of Oatmeal on the rim with some cascade randomly painted around the rim.

 I am really not sure what this is because it looks nothing like what I would expect but my book says it is 2 x TAB base and 2 x Oatmeal.  Why there is purple I don't know, the mystery of glaze combining.

 This bowl is 2 x Dark Green base 2 x AJ

I really like this combination.  2 x TAB base, 2 x IL from rim to 3/4 down and 2 x Oatmeal from rim 1/2 down.  Hope that makes sense!

This is again my Sea Mist glaze.  Robin's egg blue poured on base and Bermuda blue poured along the rim.

Please take some time and give me some feedback, I love getting comments!

Playing with Amaco glazes

The last time I was at Plainsman Clay, I picked up some Amaco glazes.  For the most part  I mix my own glazes but I have been doing some new forms that work better with brush on glazes, plus I wanted to experiment with blend colors.  Here are a couple of pieces that came out of the kiln yesterday.

This one is my favorite!  I used Textured Amber brown 2 base coats and Ancient Jasper over 2 coats.

I wasn't very fond of this piece but it is my husbands favorite so I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder.  For this piece I used 2 x Oatmeal base and 2 x Iron Luster over all.

I would love to hear your feed back, leave me a comment!!

Going to market!

Deciding whether to take my pottery to the market each week was a huge decision for me.  I knew it would require a lot of time and strength, neither of which I felt I had.  I like the easy life of having my studio in my home!  However the market has been the best experience I have had with pottery thus far.  Yes it is A LOT of work, packing, unpacking, packing and unpacking, I am definitely stronger at the end of the market season.

  In this picture I have 8 crates, each week I figured out how to fit more crates in my little Ford Focus, now I am up to 11 crates.  You have to bring your own tent, tables and chair, so that's a lot of packing.  Also when you live in Saskatchewan you never know what the weather will bring and there were a few scary Saturdays for sure, one day I had complete strangers come and grab the legs of my tent because they could see it lifting off the ground even with the weights on each leg.
I have absolutely loved getting to know different people, my life feels so much richer!!  Speaking of richer, the market was also very good to me that way as well, which was awesome.  Kept me very busy each week trying to replenish my stock though.
Two more weeks left and I will actually treasure each moment it has really been a gift to me to be part of this wonderful community event.  The atmosphere is beautiful, with live music each week, food, special events and great people!!

When functional meets beauty

I love bringing texture into my pottery!  For the last year I have been doing slab work and the possibilities never end!

My latest obsession is my Vintage collection, I just love the lace!  After the pieces come out of the bisque load, I paint oxides or underglaze on them and then rub off the extra with a wet sponge. 

The bowls took me awhile to figure out as they kept cracking at the seems.  I have realized that you need to be very careful with the bowls, let them dry slowly and pick them up very carefully until they have been fired.

At the moment I am working on dinnerware for this collection, so excited!!

New essential oil jewelry

At the beginning of the year I decided I would post regularly to my blog but as you can see 6 months later that didn't happen.  I really work hard keeping my facebook page up to date and I don't seem to have anything left for the blog or Instagram.  I will continue where I left off and update you on my jewelry.
A couple of months ago I started mixing up low fire glazes; I wanted my jewelry to have some color but in order for the clay to remain porous, so the pendants could be used for essential oils, the glaze needed to be a low fire formula  The formula is very simple, 95% Frit 3134 and 5% EPK, then add the mason stain of your choice.  This formula will cause crackles which for jewelry is awesome!

 I also started stamping on metal, a fun way to add a little extra to each piece.  The white pendant is glazed with a low fire glaze that I bought.  The dragonfly is glazed with my glaze, with the addition of 7% Robins egg blue mason stain.

 The heart is glazed with my glaze, with the addition of Bermuda green at 7%

 This pendant is a combination of the two stains.

These little car fresheners are a new idea, put a little essential oil on the back and car will smell wonderful.

I will be experimenting with more colors this  coming up week, there are endless possibilities!