Playing with Clay

I had great fun one evening playing with clay, this is the first time since leaving school (too many years ago to count!) that I had done this. 

Glazed Creations in Royston occasionally have clay evenings when you can do whatever you want with a lump of grey clay. I decided to make a wall hanging of a wonky teapot.

This is the result when fired, I absolutely love the bright colours, I added twisted wire on which to hang it with, hope you like the finished result.

Feathertastic!

During a technique evening at Glazed Creations we had a play with feathers.

We splodged various colours of glaze onto a bisque bowl and placed the feathers on top randomly.

 We then covered the feathers with white glaze.

 After a couple of coats we removed the feathers.

 This is the result after firing, feathertastic!

I used the same technique on this tile, this is an 8 x 8 tile and these cover my craft desk.

This is such a simple technique but incredibly effective.

Be in LOVE

Glazed Creations

I used a stencil designed by Rebekahulie Meier for The Crafter's Workshop

to decorate this 8" x 8" tile at Glazed Creations in Royston. I am really pleased with the result, the image has turned out very crisp and strong.

I'm a Grumpy Pumpkin!

I had lots of fun at a Halloween party at Glazed Creations in Royston with two little pumpkins named Issy and Nick!

Below is the Grumpy Pumpkin I painted.

Semicolon Project

MISSION STATEMENT

Project Semicolon is a global non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and love for those who are struggling with mental illness, suicide, addiction and self injury. Project Semicolon exists to Encourage, Love & Inspire.

STAY STRONG; LOVE ENDLESSLY; CHANGE LIVES.

A semicolon is not just the mark of a grammar pedant, it is in fact much more meaningful. 

The Project Semicolon says that: 'A semicolon represents a sentence the author could have ended, but chose not to. That author is you and the sentence is your life'

This is something very close to my heart, I had my semicolon tattoo put on my foot and loved the design so much I used it on a tile for my new craft room.

Before firing.

After firing.

So if you see somebody with a semicolon tattoo try not to stand in judgement as they will have had a hard enough life already.

Nellie...

Glazed Creations

A couple of weeks ago I attended a techniques workshop at Glazed Creations in Royston. We looked at and used Designer Liner which is clay based and heavily pigmented. It is perfect for using to create fine detail with lines, dots & writing.

My choice of design was an elephant and naturally one thing sprang to mind "Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk" so it made sense to me to add the name Nellie to my plate. I also thought for this post it would be fun to put up the lyrics, however, they were not what I expected!

The lyrics I knew were those in red, the rest I have no recollection of but now the song makes more sense!

To Bombay 

A travelling circus came 

They brought an intelligent elephant
And Nellie was her name
One dark night
She slipped her iron chain
And off she ran to Hindustan
And was never seen again

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump
Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And trundled back to the jungle
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump

Night by night
She danced to the circus band
When Nellie was leading the big parade
She looked so proud and grand
No more tricks
For Nellie to perform
They taught her how to take a bow
And she took the crowd by storm

Chorus

The head of the herd was calling
Far, far away
They met one night in the silver light
On the road to Mandalay
Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump
Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And trundled back to the jungle
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump

Chorus

Anyway I am really pleased with the way the design worked out, it is food safe and ready to use.

Cobblers!

Glazed Creations

I recently attended a techniques evening at Glazed Creation where we tackled a 'cobblestone technique'. The results were really disappointing as very little cobblestoning took place! It transpired there were two issues, firstly we hadn't put enough of the cobblestone fluid on and secondly we had added to much colour over the top stopping the cracking from happening. 

So last week I had another go and it worked! This tile will go around my glass mat with all my others (my aim is to cover my desk completely with tiles using different styles and techniques) I am now thinking about other things I can use this technique on as it is definitely one of my favourites. 

Ceramic Watercolours

Glazed Creations

Last week I attended a techniques evening on creating a watercolour effect on a bisque plate.

 I really wasn't sure if this technique was for me as it is so delicate! It is difficult to get the glaze watered down but not too watered down. 

 I was pleased with the finished result except for me the beak stood out too much, however once fired it looked perfect.

I think this is going to make the perfect plate to serve sandwiches on, it certainly will not be buried in the cupboard!

Ceramic Photo Frame

Glazed Creations

I made this photo frame taking my inspiration from the stamp below designed by Darcy of PaperArtsy. 

The card below has a background of embossed card which I painted and then added a light rubbing of gilding wax on the high points. The flowers are coloured using Big Brush pens.

Horsey Horsey on your way!

I took Miss Phoebe too Glazed Creations for her 4th birthday.

She used peel offs and lots of glaze!

What a stunning result!

Pen Pot

The Octopode Factory

I had my eye on this pen pot for sometime but didn't know what design I wanted to do on it. I decided to go rummaging through my stamps and came upon my Octopode stamps which were the perfect size for the pot.

To give you an idea of how I created this fab pot have a look at the pics below.

I started by stamping each image onto the bisque using black Stroke and Coat glaze.

I filled in any gaps with a brush (as the pot is curved sometimes stamps won't print out in full which is not a stamp error but a user error!) Digi images can be used by transferring with clay carbon paper.

With Stroke and Coat three layers of glaze are required to get a good solid coverage.

 I love Alice

I didn't want to use red all over the dress here so used pink and red, at this stage you never know exactly what the final colours will look like together.

I spent close to six hours on this pot, I had a fabulous chilled day painting and I cannot wait until I can do another!