West Coast Inspired

I now have a series of 3 west coast inspired sculptural pieces... Following are some progress pics...

Formed from red and paper clay

The pot is slip covered in clay harvested locally; the body of the octopus and barnacles are in slipped in porcelain

After the bisque fire; I love the contrast at this point!

I waxed the barnacles and bottom of the pot; glaze layers were poured on the pot and wiped off of the creature. Glaze was brushed onto the octopus. I love that the barnacles stayed rough and organic feeling.

The next in the series is Jellyfish...

and Cuttlefish... same clay's and process. This is post-bisque.

This is how it looks in the kiln covered in dry glaze.

All done! Aside from a few small cracks, she came out pretty well! I love how he looks like he's floating.

Another angle of the Cuttle fish...

And the Jellies!

Next up is this eel, still in the drying stages!

Octopot Lives!

I was recently gifted some paper clay. I read raving reports about how useful it was in sculpting larger pieces... I created Octopot over the course of a week or so, without worrying about cracking, or drying. Pretty incredible!

After slow drying for a number of weeks under a massive black garbage bag, she was ready for the kiln. I had to program a custom slow-fire for all the paper fibers to burn off. 22 hours later...  ...I pulled her out. I had brushed the octopus with a porcilain slip and the pot with a slip I harvested and processed locally. The pot will develop black brush strokes with the next firing if all goes as planned.

Next step, is strategizing the glazing process... it will likely involve some wax on the barnacles, and some purposeful use of blue and clear glazes. Stay tuned!

Quick update...

 

It's been a while so just a quick update, mostly in picture form... As always feel free to email or look us up on Fb. Thanks for stopping by :)

~megz

Ventured into some hand building after watching some very inspirational women

A good friend shared some pictures of travel mugs and I had to try...

This is the year I began making all my own glazes, very satisfying...

And everything got a little Owl-ie...

Another hand built bowl with home made glaze <3 LOVE to you all xo ~ Megz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Inspired

I finally remembered to take some pictures at various stages of the process...

 ~ this batch is drying ~

















       ~ and here, all glazed up ~











  

 ~ I've re-discovered underglazing, that is, painting with color on raw un-bisqued pieces ~

~ feeling thankful to have discovered a really great clear glaze... makes the blue really vibrant ~

 

~ Underglazed some stripes on these stacking bowls, I might choose different colors next time... but at least they pop ~

~ still enjoying creating flower bowls that are unique everytime ~

 ~ these juicers have become surprisingly popular, these ones are the perfect size for limes ~

~ Serenity Bowls ~

~~~ <3 ~ Love Love Love ~ <3 ~~~

Thanks for stopping by....

Enjoying the Saturday Market in Tofino

Loving Tofino! Love the beaches, love the people, love the market! Just wanted to post pics of some of my summer creations...

Love this new shape...

I imagine the tide coming in a washing over the prints people, and dogs have left behind...

This is another new shape for me. I digg it.

I'm gonna be creating some more sets like this... really happy with how these turned out. (and they found lovely new homes too ;)

Bowls, bowls, and more bowls....

Sold out of my Surf mugs... I better get to work ;)

TILES!!!

This is the welcome I got when I started making tiles. Tile after tile was coming out of the kiln cracked and in pieces....

I was using reclaimed, high fire clay. I was wedging it, and slabbing it, and working with it much as I would have for any other table-work project. Where was I going wrong?.... The lady at the supply store was kind enough to inform me that tiles are the hardest thing I will ever make; (which surprised me a little) she was also kind enough to help me out with some tips. A little reading on Google never hurts either! I changed my process, and started having success! I bought some low-fire clay with more grog (sand); no wedging, just slabbing, and the final roll out onto dry wall. I did all of my carving, and then cut it out.

The owl and the snail, I sandwiched between drywall and didn't touch again for weeks. The heat was turned off. After a few weeks, I uncovered them, but laid plastic on top. The idea is that slow, even drying will prevent warping, and cracking. Once they were all dry, they went into the kiln for 24hours! Usually, I bisque for only 11 hours. They were preheated at 200 degrees for 7 hours, to make sure they were completely dry, then slow bisque fired to cone 03, 1987 degrees! The shelves had a fresh coat of kiln wash on them and the larger tiles were propped up with smaller tiles, so that air could flow underneath them.

These are alphabet tiles I made with the scraps. I'll probably glue some magnets to the backs.

I brushed a low fire glaze on, and waxed the bottoms. I fast glaze fired them to Cone 04, or 1945 degrees; with a 1 hour preheat at 200 degrees.

These tiles are made with high fire, reclaimed clay. It was wedged, slabbed and rolled out pretty thin. It was slow bisque fired to cone 06, with a 5 hour preheat. I brushed on low fire glaze and waxed the bottoms. They were fast glaze fired to cone 04, with a 1 hour preheat.

This is my new drying rack for tiles. It's just a cheap wire shoe rack. These are the first 2 tiles of the 9 tile mural I'm working on. These dried for 2-3 days on the dry wall boards, and are finishing drying on the racks. If you're new to tile making hopefully this will help you along.