Clay /11

We've had a steady stream of making and firing and painting and firing clay of late so I have photos to show! Also I wanted to update you on my wheel adventures - I have thrown things! The pieces lack perfection but I'm proud to have picked up some skills via watching YouTube, listening to Ben and just putting in the time (couple with many non successes!). My wheel thrown pieces have only just been bisque fired so I'll wait until I paint them and we have enough things to run the second fire before I share those :) Today is a hodge-podge of other things just finished :)

This little guy was thrown by Ben I think a leftover from his ceramic study days. We wanted to fill a kiln load so he gave me a few things to try different paint styles with :)

Ceramic pendant :)

That little dinosaur I made years ago and he's just been sitting in our ceramic no mans land awaiting further action. Gold was an easy choice to finish him in - it's pretty fool proof!

Another little pot Ben had made and which got the paint treatment from myself :)

Some cats, fuji, the opera house, coral, sushi and clouds :)

I'm so happy with this spoon, I think I ended up making three or four, each one ending up with a fault but I was determined to see my vision come to life :) Talking about faults, I've collected a bunch of clay fails to share with you too in another post.

Some inter glaze test tiles, these turned out pretty awful but I was literally just going through all the various combos - in our next glaze firing I have a bunch more tiles to put through which I'm excited to see how they'll come out :)

I'd already made a flower holder but it ended up leaking so I worked a little bit harder on this guy to make it foolproof

Another Ben bottle (he loves making bottles) that I painted by laying some painters tape down first to mask out the designs.

Apart from the spoon, this lady is my favourite thing from this firing. Has anyone seen the OA?

And lucky last a little pinch pot I made :)

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Clay /10

I'm really proud to show you my clay results today!

This may sound odd but above are two of my favourite things I've made! On the left is a butterfly, pretty simple but I experimented with some glazes and was super stoked with how that glaze came out - shall try it on some more pieces in the future! On the right, is an incense holder which I really really love! I can't put my finger on why but I suspect it's to do with its simple form, pretty red dotted line and it's an object we use regularly with a nice function.

I'm so so proud of my sugar glider! It's maybe the most conceptual piece I've created. Do you remember back to when I found this guy and I took photos to remember him, I actually started sculpting him as well and the ideas kept unraveling until I thought about some flowers emerging from him to signify his death. He's been a work in progress but the other day I finally glued the wire onto the flowers and put him together.

I'm glad I kept pushing with that piece :)

This is a bowl I made for Ben's cousin Carmen, who stayed with us recently for her birthday :)

I made a bunch of flowers for my sugar glider piece with the intention of seeing what would work best. I love that gold flower but I shall use it for another project!

When in doubt, paint things in that gold colour! I've used one of the moons for another project which I'm really exciting to show you guys too!

Love this little guy, he went in for a third firing because I wasn't happy with his collar colour but now I'm thrilled!

Some more test tiles to making selecting glazes an easier process!

And finally a little pinch pot I currently have a tiny succulent in! 

In other news, Ben bought a pottery wheel. I've been pretty excited and dreaming up ideas ever since he expressed interest in buying one. Well, I think it's good to share how much of a struggle it's been for me. I'm only up to day two of trying but I feel like my progress is very very slow. I normally pick up crafts and creative things quite quickly but the wheel has made me feel like the biggest failure. I want to give up or cry or do something dramatic like throw the clay into the air but I realise this is a challenge I need to ovecome. I know I need to put in the time even if I keep failing. Anyway, something to keep you updated on and hopefully at some point this year I can say "look, I made this on the wheel!" :p :p

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