These earthenware pots are from last week's glaze firing. The square one started out as a thrown disc. I tried some crystals on the lid of the box. The pattern on the bowl in fron is made with a peach pit.

This glaze always looks like paint to me. I think it has too much opacifier in it.

Some pots from my latest firing: This is a hanging lamp I was asked to make to replace a broken one. Theirs was terra cotta, but I am temporarily out of earthenware clay, so made it of Death Valley high fire clay. It's about 12" tall.
This one is the same size, but I tried a symmetrical arrangement of holes.

I played around with the idea and made a few others before throwing the "replica". About 9 inches high.

The bottom of this one warped out of round, so I will keep it or give it away.

The vase is 9" tall. I may reglaze & refire this one- it doesn't look like much to me this way. In earlier posts I have some cups & saucers and other things, where I have put Death Valley slip on white clay, then used this same translucent white glaze over it, and the slip turns navy to black, depending on how thick the glaze is. So when I used the glaze over Death Valley clay itself, I expected a totally different result than what I got here. The answer must be that there is something else in my "Death Valley Slip". Must do some tests.

Here I threw white stoneware with bars of Death Valley inserted. More contrast would have been nice. Maybe I'll ask Laguna if they are using less RIO in their Death Valley clay lately.

This is our cabin on a hilltop in central California. You need a 4wheel drive vehicle to get to it. We spent a few days there last week. A slightly tilted picture, it was snapped after we were in the car, ready to leave. We call it "The Palace" (because NOT) At sunrise, looking out over the San Joaquin valley. On a really clear day you can see the Sierras. A few times we spotted Half Dome with binoculars.

We harvested our little crop of pomegranates after taking this photo.

This is on the way up to our place, going west out of Patterson, into the Diablo Range. The hill in the middle is my favorite- a dragon? a camel?

These two necklaces feature scales from a redfish! (red drum) Our friend in Houston sent them to me a while ago, and I just recently finally figured out a design that works well, I think. I'll make more if he sends more scales. They are not brittle, but tough like a fingernail- I noticed this when drilling the holes.


The series of pictures following are of works by the Lompoc Sculptors Guild. We have a show at the Grossman Gallery in Lompoc, during September.

A work in metal, by Ron Barrows

Noreen LaPointe made this ceramic piece.

These two are also by Noreen LaPointe

Small tiles by Noreen LaPointe, other one by Dee Frasher

Noreen did the tiles & sculpture on the left, Carol S. Moore created the shrunken wool fantasy pieces in the middle, and the ceramic basket with weaving is by Dee Frasher.

Noreen LaPointe's clay dragon and dog, Dee Frasher's four pieces

A bas-relief by Peggy Kizziah.

From top left, clockwise: an aluminum sculpture by Eric Morlan, a welded metal piece by Ron Barrows, a bisque sculpture by Peggy Kizziah, and a stoneware bowl-mine.

Our show is named "Art in the Making", and the idea was to show process as well as finished product. Here Eric Morlan shows the maquette he made in planning this aluminum sculpture.

Two pieces by Dee Frasher, and another knitted creature by Carol S. Moore.

A ceramic grouping by Dee Frasher, and a work in progress by Eric Morlan, with maquette.

This is Dee Frashers explanatory panel showing the process of her work with gourds.

Dee Frasher, Carol S. Moore, and Noreen LaPointe

a styrofoam (mostly) piece by Carol S. Moore, and a 13" tile with purple shapes, by me. (it looked better raw, before glazing and firing, haha!)

My large platter, pictured in an earlier post.

This altered disc is alson on a 12" tile.

I unloaded these pieces today. This bowl is about 15 inches across. Notice the labor intensive pick-pick carving on the rim! The impressed places were done with a peach pit, or stone, whichever you call it. Finished diameter is 15.5 "

The decoration is Death Valley Clay (from Laguna) used as slip. I also used it on the platter above, when leather hard. It turns black under my creme glaze.

These are each about 8" in diameter.

The yellow bottle is 6" tall. The black pot without a neck HAD a neck, until my elbow hit it while glazing other stuff, and it fell on the floor and broke raggedly. I took a pair of pliers and broke the bisque until almost to the body of it, then took it over to my husband's bench grinder and shaped the top...good save, eh?

Below are the pots from a ^7 ox. stoneware firing- the last firing before Flower Festival this weekend. Fog ALL DAY is forecasted for Friday- hope the other two days will be warmer. Plus I like sunlight on my pots. This is an 8" little plate. This is a 14" platter. It is so muted in color because of refired several times to get rid of little faults. It's finally ok.

This is a 12" platter.

about 8 "

...a 10" plate

I played around with colored inlay for these two trays.

...a nine" bowl

about 9"

This one is 10" in diameter

...trying different shapes of mugs

The pots below are from my earthenware firing last weekend. The Arts/Crafts show at the local annual Flower Festival is coming up June 24, so I talked myself into doing overglaze brushing of flowers on this load of pots. I did spark up my blue glaze by adding cobalt, and am happy with it. I added some superpax to this glaze that had only a small amount of copper for colorant, and got a light blue that looks like paint. It will sell.