Clay /6

I've gotten back into clay the past month or so, I've got a bunch of things in different stages but I thought it would be fun to do a in-progress blog post on them :)

This guy has gone through his first firing (bisque stage) and I just finished painting him. If he survives the next firing, he's going to have a white outside and a pink inside. The pink underglaze, I picked up today was called "pink icing"!!!! The bowl itself is my most fragile piece yet *gulp*. I really wanted to test myself and try and make some super thin pieces, which I know (especially with ceramics) is just asking for trouble :p

I've made our cats their own food bowls, using a flipped over-lip design to discourage ants. I thought this bowl would be super easy to make but since we don't have a pottery wheel, hand sculpting it to look like it was wheel thrown was a challenge. Above is the bowl after being bisque fired and below is after I've just painted it (awaiting its second firing)

You can see the 'pink icing' on the inner rim and the cat drawing on the inside which I did with an underglaze pencil.  I also rubbed some black underglaze paint into the stamped "peachy girl" :)

Some little tiny fragile bowls, I've painted them in black and white *fingers crossed* they survive 

This is Gremlin's bowl which has yet to be fired - I've learned to burnish the clay with a spoon to make it extra smooth. I decided to up the design of Peachy's bowl and instead have two seperate compartments so the dry food can stay dry away from the wet food. If it's a success, I'll look at making Peachy her own model too :)

Have you seen this amazing booby pots by Isaac Nichols (from Group Partner)? mine is obviously a far inferior product which has currently gone through its first firing.  Above is how it looks after it's been painted with a glaze, awaiting firing number two. I've already got a plant in mind for this guy :)

Remember how I blogged about the kids pottery wheel which I picked up from the op shop? I mentioned Ben had managed to throw an amazing little vase and this is it! It's super tiny and super cute :)

I also made a swan planter, not sure what sort of plant will look good in him, if he survives - any suggestions?

And lucky last a monkey planter which I'm super confused as to what colours to paint him, I'll also happily take any suggestions :)