Starting and finishing

I like to start a new phase of work by trying out new combinations of techniques. Here I have made clay stamps from some favourite bits and pieces. When they have been fired I will use them to make ceramic sprigs for decoration.

And here are some finished mugs - they have been glazed, fired and finished off with just a touch of gold lustre. I've been drinking spiced tea out of them. The flavour matches the mug.

A strange meeting

I was waiting for my pots to be fired, and whilst  looking through 

some treasure and wondering what I could do with it,

   a small gentleman walked across my table.

 He stopped and looked at me,

 turned away, and

disappeared amongst all the bits and pieces. 

How very strange.

A decorated pot & visiting friends

Here it is - the little pot that I decorated in the last post - glazed and fired. Looking good & I'm thinking of adding more decoration to it, perhaps some gold lustre or enamel . I'll wait until I have my mugs glazed so I can try a few different ideas together. 

This weekend is  Bradford Open for Art  , I've spent a lovely afternoon with  Claire Wellesley-Smith and Hannah Lamb  and have come away full of inspiration.

An exciting day

My Steam punk Space Scouts are about to go off on another adventure - I took some photographs of them to  Hand Made in Bradford  .... and the splendid people there have said that they are welcome to join all the other lovely things there. I'm taking them over next Wednesday. 

 

Then I spent the rest of the day adding more decoration to a slipped and biscuit fired pot. I've tried something new; bright underglaze colours instead of the oxides I usually use; then spattering a coloured glaze on top of my favourite tinted transparent glaze.

A relaxed day

A relaxed day with some mugs. Painted, printed,

sponged and spotted with coloured slips. I'm aiming to create a richly decorated surface. When they have been biscuit fired I'll add underglaze colours and tinted transparent glazes. These are some frog mugs made last year, I'm trying to get this depth of decoration - and even exceed it.