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How to Underglaze Imprinted Clay
This is a simple method to underglaze an imprint in your clay piece, which is a great method for decorating ornaments with vintage letterpress, lace or other one of a kind textures and making the patterns pop. You need an imprinted and bisque-fired piece of pottery, a paintbrush, underglaze, water, and a sponge or rag. While this does waste some underglaze, the underglaze is watered down, so it spreads well. Imprinted clay, bisque fired Watered down underglaze (this is Sea Blue by Speedball) Paint on the underglaze making sure it gets into the imprint. If you are underglazing the imprint in a large bowl, it will save…
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Spring Gardening
I’ve been in a major rut when it comes to writing about our latest endeavors, but in my defense, the kids were on spring break this week, and one of the boys had a stomach bug and then strep throat. This was all after I had been sick with fever and chills for three days. Early in the week, I finally fired a load of bisque, so whenever I get back to Pullen to glaze, I should have a fun post full of mugs and pie plates. I haven’t applied to any spring craft shows, but I am considering hosting an open house ahead of Mother’s Day. I’ve loved the…
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It is a Hobby or a Business?
As I move into my eleventh year of making pottery, I want to reflect on the things I do well and the things I do poorly and ask myself if I’m where I want to be – commitment level, skill level, etc. But before I can fairly assess my own performance, I have to know what my goals and intent were. I actually teach a class on stream restoration structure risk and failure assessment, and the underlying message is essentially the same – “What was the design purpose?” A structure shouldn’t be marked as a failure at protecting stream banks if it was only designed to create habitat. As it…
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First attempt at pour bowls
I love being asked, “Do you make…”, because chances are good that I don’t, but am about to have fun trying something new. I also appreciate being able to post a question like “Do pour bowls need handles?” on Facebook and get an answer with in a few minutes. This was my first(ish) attempt at pour bowls, and I like the way they turned out. I made one many years ago that was completely ugly and now holds odd bits in the garage. The layered look of the green bowl was created with a black glaze and Millicent’s Curtains. These weren’t intended to be stacking, but the small foot on…
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How to glaze the whole ceramic spoon
There’s one question I keep getting via Etsy, on this blog and through email. “How do you glaze your ceramic spoons and keep them from sticking to the kiln shelf?” Clearly, there is a lot of interest in handmade spoons! So how do you glaze the entire ceramic spoon? I use kiln stilts! Kiln stilts consist of metal rods that prop up a piece off the shelf, and a durable one may be used multiple times. I purchased Roselli stilts from Big Ceramic Store. According to Big Ceramic Store, beyond cone 6, metal rods may begin to deform, and may deform at lower temperatures under…
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Pulling Spoons
A while back I shared how I made spoons from a mold. I still have the plaster molds, but after awhile, I found them to be clumsy and frustrating. I’m not patient enough to wait for the mold to release the wet clay. So over the past few days being cooped up inside do to nasty weather, I’ve started back at spoon making without the molds. Instead of pressing clay into a mold, I roll a wedge-shaped coil, press the thicker end around the bowl of an existing spoon and pull the handle. My process is changing and evolving, but these are my basic steps for pulling ceramic spoons. …
