Rejuvenate 3 of 3

An older wheel thrown piece fired with Mayco Cobblestone. REALLY neat stuff.

I was able to attend a workshop hosted by Lisa Bare Culp at her studio for glazing and it was AMAZING and so beneficial. Lisa is the head ceramic artist for Mayco glazes right here in the heart state, so she spends most of her day testing glazes and testing glazes, and testing some more glazes and different combos, and the results are amazing.

One of Lisa's gorgeous pieces.

I was at this past years Winterfair helping a friend out and she introduced me to a good potter friend who asked who I was taking classes from. I said Lisa’s name, and he said, “You’re in wonderful hands.” It’s true—I can’t complain and last night confirmed it. I can’t wait to see the finished tiles we created and I REALLY can’t wait to start stocking up my Mayco inventory. I have a few of their glazes and they’re great commercial glazes.

Anyways—I am back in the studio after a winter hiatus and in between the craziness, but it feels great.

Some test tiles of some really old toxic glazes. No wonder they're so pretty.

Part of a painting I've been working on for a southwestern painting set. Made me think of the test tiles from all the different colors.

UPDATES--UPDATES---UPDATES

Whee! Updates! First off, as I am typing this the kiln is getting all wired up and ready to fire, which is GREAT, because I bought some red low fire clay after checking our CAD's story about potter Daniel Ricardo Teran who uses such a simple technique, but BOY what talent does he have!? I am absolutely inspired from his studio to the techniques and meanings behind his work. A lot of Daniel's work displayed on his site depict the works of a man caught in between a tin foil hat, and an environmentalist... but it's all in good flavor.

Another cool thing I discovered was this Siphon Blower, which makes penny pinching potters like myself drool. With this product there is no need for an expensive air compressor, and then the expensive gravity fed spray guns. All you need is this helpful gadget and a good set of lungs. Genius!

WELL, look at that purdy pot sitting on my work desk! Yep, this is one of my smaller Mayco pieces I didn't take home. While I'm not 100% thrilled with the outcome of it due to some glaze not reacting like how I envisioned, it still makes a nice little pencil holder, and I got plenty of comments about it at work, too!

POTTERY CLASSES ARE COMING TO THE HOUSTON HOUSE!!

You should be very excited, because I am SUPER excited and can't wait to get started!!!!

A tale of inspiration

I started my first Mayco ceramics class, and I am ecstatic, because I learned so much within the 2-ish hours I was there. I felt so awful, because I felt like the annoying kid in class, "Teacher, teacher, help me! Help me!!!" Meanwhile so many other people there were just so lost, and clueless as to what to do with it being their first time ever touching clay.

Every single piece of information I have learned about wheel throwing has came from hours of scanning through videos, Youtube, and online articles, but you REALLY need the hands on, so you have someone telling you what you're doing wrong. This helped me IMMENSELY, and by the end of the night I had a gorgeous, thin walled, small bowl, which was better than the thick, ugly past pieces I've attempted. I am so excited to go back next week, but I fear the three week time span might hinder all that I want to learn. The hubby might not go for another $100 payment per session, but we'll see.

Bless his little heart, because this weekend, he let his little ol' wife buy an amazing $80 dress for a mere fee of home cooking for the week.... and this brings me to my next point...

Schedule wise, this is a crazy week for me, and I have a lot of events on top of my 9-5 job this week. Apart from starting my ceramics class, I still have a crazy schedule of Assistant Directing for a community theater production, AND on Wednesday, I have a rooftop masquerade in downtown Columbus.

This is where the 'inspiration' part of this entry comes in. I have to attempt a mask tonight with some fabrics, and crafty things I have stuffed in a closet somewhere. I had an idea at first, but my dress color is not so accommodating now to my original idea. So, this is where ETSY comes in to play.

Etsy, I love you! If there ever was a place for creativity lacking individuals like myself, it would be you. It HAD to be you! Wonderful-wonderful YOU!

I found some of these masks, while milling about, and I am in awe. I just wanted to share them.