It's hard to believe I last posted in October. Well, I had a big hiatus in the clay part of my life. I was one of the hosts of an Artists Studio Tour on October 3, and had put a lot of energy into that, firing 3 times in September and working on my studio, so when that was over, other things took precedence for a while. I finally got enough things made to do a bisque firing the end of November and a glaze firing in mid-December, in time to mail off some Christmas presents. These two plates went to some friends in Texas- they had some breakage of a set I had made them last year. I was anxious about getting the iron red to turn out, but followed a successful firing schedule exactly, and they are ok. I've had redder, but it was from when I had a different batch of RIO. I plan to test more iron oxides this year, and find a good one.

Two views of a goofy cow cup.

There is quite a bit of repetitive carving on this cachepot.

A nice serving bowl, ya think? Well, too bad, there is a blue smudge on the part of the border that's hidden.

This berry bowl set (about 10" in diameter) went to my sister in law- her other one had a mishap.

...5 little teacups. The second dip is a deep green when used alone- I was surprised it was so pale over the white.

The first cup shows the deep green I mentioned . The second from left cup had tiny copper crescents embedded around the top. My son gave them to me-they were a by-product of some copper nibbling he was doing. So I gave him the cup for Christmas- he likes it. These are actually all bigger than normal mugs- that's why I did a beer-mug style handle on them.

These small serving plates all have applied strips of clay.

The pitcher on the left pours really well-the one on the right -not quite. It's perfect outside of that, haha.

I made a few things for a meeting of the Iris Society. Doing detailed flowers doesn't come easily to me so I had to get out a book about floral illustrations, and actually practice on paper first. I only made one mug, but set up this arrangement in order to make some notecards.

Here are some things from 2 recent glaze firings. This piece below is in a local show having a basket theme. I thought they should have some ceramic baskets as well as woven ones. I had the manzanita branch, and made a base for it. I called it "Basket Tree". The baskets are to be sold separately.
...a low dish, otherwse called a pie plate...

This is my other entry in the Basket Show. A while ago I punched a lot of holes in some pot I was making, and not being able to throw away anything I might be able to use, I saved them, and bisqued them . They worked out all right, braided into the six strands of copper wire, for the handle.

This is about 7 inches wide.

I showed the potatoes earlier in the blog, but here they are in the dish I made for them.

This low bowl is 13 and a half inches in diameter.

A ten inch tall vase. I may reglaze and refire this. ..too pale, too boring.

An iron red glaze that didn't go red. And the designs are a blue glaze- I've used this combo before, but for some reason the blue is just under the surface.

This one is abut 9 inches in diameter

Over 13 inches across.

This is made from a slab press molded onto a bisqued mold made from our jacaranda tree trunk.

Here is my solution to the problem I created for myself by attaching handles to my baskets before trimming the bottoms....the thin slabs of clay on the bricks protect the rim of the pot, and keep it from sliding. Later I added small dabs of clay at the bottom edge.

The following 8 pictures are of pots from my latest glaze firing, on Sunday August 2, 2009. These little bottles are a commission; they will hold about 4 oz. of fruit-enhanced rum....a nice little Christmas present, eh? I made a few extra ones.



This platter is almost 14" in diameter. It was singlefired, everything brushed on, and it worked better than the other times I've tried it.

I made these potatoes because I have a glaze that I knew would work. They are wheel-thrown, and have a jingle inside.

Next time I won't have them on the bottom of the kiln where it's a bit hotter, to avoid that slight sheen. Well, my mother in law used to rub her baking potatoes with oil before baking, so we'll say that's what happened here!

A seven inch wide celedon bowl.

...a 12 inch plate, and bowl with the same glaze.

These were an order too-they are 8" wide individual chip 'n dips.

Here are 3 views of my space at the Lompoc Flower Festival Arts & Crafts show, held in Ryon Park. I have had this space, just inside the main gate, for many years.

There are a lot more vendors, along several walkways; this picture shows just a few. There is a bandstand (thankfully, not too close to me!) and people gather on the lawn to hear music and eat goodies from all the food booths. There is also a beer tent. The town puts together a pretty good parade, and people come streaming into the park after that. In another building in town, there is a judged flower show-it also attracts folks . Tour buses take people out to the countryside to see the flower fields, then drop them off at the park.

I just realized I never posted pictures of the earthenware pieces I got from the last low-firing before the Flower Festival Arts/Crafts show. This platter is about 14" in diameter. It sold quickly (flowers, ya know!)

I didn't pull standard handles for these mugs- instead I threw a small cylinder and cut rings, which I then cut away a piece of and attached. I don't think it's something I'll do often. I did like the blue porcelain slip on the dark earthenware, with clear glaze over it.

Trying to fill the kiln, I single-fired these two. No dipping, all brushed on slip and clear glaze.

The one on the left is another single fired piece.

The left one is also single fired. The color is applied over the white slip, then clear glaze next, just a thin coating.

The three photos below are of things that were in the last stoneware firing too, but didn't get photographed right away. The earrings take more time to put together than one would think .

The bottle is 8" high. I made this before the urns I showed earlier, to practice doing the leaves.

These are from my latest stoneware firing, cone 7/8 oxidation. The three pots below are a series of covered jars- a customer ordered, and helped design an urn. She ended up taking the two smaller ones, the 2nd & 3rd pictured. The top one is almost 11 inches in height. These pots were all thrown upside down, then I inverted them and finished throwing the top parts.

This ten inch tall vase was started upside down on the wheel, inverted the next day and then the top was finished off.

These guys are about 9" long. I made them on the wheel, sort of coke-bottle shape to start, and shaped the bodies while quite wet, added legs later...fun!

Our daughter Karen made the coil cup.

This bowl is 8" in diameter. I wanted the exterior bare, but fluxed a little and have done this before with soda ash. This time I brushed on some liquid dishwasher soap-seems to work about the same. ...The iron oxide became fixed to the surface, slightly satiny.

These are 5 inch tall jars. Will go looking through my cork collection to see if any of them fit.