Art Crawl

Art Crawl was good to me last night, and I sold some of my original day of the dead pieces that showed in the exhibit. So, it looks like I'll be back in the studio keeping busy!

Time flies when you're throwing on the wheel! I finished up a couple of pieces on Friday!

If you happened to have stumbled upon my blog from a business card, then please 'Like' my official page on Facebook, so you can keep up with updates, my blog postings, and any information on sales, or exhibits! I don't post ALL the time, so don't worry about me spamming up your front page with useless crap. :)

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I'm working on getting my photos back from my photographer to get my ETSY store posted soon. Keep an eye peeled for my store launch! I'll have plenty of pieces to sale!

I hope everyone is enjoying, or enjoyed their weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Blue period

Picasso had his blue period, so it should only be befitting that my pottery came out blue. However, my intentions were not to convey sadness, despair, or poverty behind my work. In fact, it was pure accident.

Hallelujah, the kiln I operate out of is fixed! After some test runs I decided to load it up with all of my porcelain casted greenware pieces that I painted an underglaze on, and give it a whirl. I had also forgotten that I had mixed some stain into a couple of the pieces when I was slip casting.

Well, to make a long story short, everything has a blue tint to it. I like it, because it mimics a rustic speckled look.

Since this was pure accident, then I'm certain I'll never be able to recreate it.

Ohio bowl.

I also have a suspicion that the kiln is firing a little bit hotter than expected, or it's ramping up too quickly, because I noticed on this load that a vase I had made for my Grandmother completely slumped over.

Also, I noticed that all my pieces were so smooth like they had a small hint of a gloss to them, but I had not added a clear coat to any of them. This to me is a sign that the kiln might to firing too hot, too quickly, so I'm going to venture out this evening, and by Cone 4 pyrometric cones to see if firing it to a lower heat will cure my problem.

I've been firing all of my pieces to Cone 6, which is considered high firing, which is more common for Stoneware, than porcelain, but I was assured that the porcelain slip I was using could go up to cone 6. Anyways, these pieces will all get a nice clear coat, and then be fired to a low temp, and then they should be good to go! HORRAY, finally some completed pieces!

Fur Sho'-

I have a lot of deadlines coming up soon. I have to get some pieces completed for the Member's Show at the Houston House Arts Center, and then I have a deadline at the beginning on September for an alternative craft show that will happen during the winter holiday season.

Pinup bowl-bisque fired.

Maybe it's a good thing I wasn't able to finish for the deadline for Crafting Outlaws, because I found out over 190 people applied to be a vendor, and they're only picking 50 people to represent. A lot of those people will most likely be vendors who were grandfathered in from previous years, and who have sponsored the event.

Birds on a wire.

OH YEAH---- I almost forgot! If you have a Facebook the you can 'LIKE' Little Black Dog Pottery now! Cool, right?

Click HERE for Facebook.

I have FINALLY, set up an Etsy store for purchases!

Click HERE for my Etsy Store!

PROGRESS!!!

Taking care of Biz-nazz

So it’s official. The juried show I have been anticipating to hear about has finally spoken and they’ll be accepting vendor applications in June, which I imagine they’ll close registration by July. So, I am like a mad woman. No more time for playing, and experimenting. It’s what they call, “Go time.”

I made one more stop over at Dave and Jim’s barn to pick up some needed molds I was missing for my collection. That was mostly a mission accomplished. I failed to find any mug, or decent cup molds in their collection. I picked one mold up that I thought was the one. It was a perfect sized mug, but I turned it around and to my disgust rather than surprise, an eagle. Oh, I didn’t escape unscathed from the hoakie eagle molds. I have some wall plaque thing that was in my shelf of products.

I did acquire a bunch of pitchers, and it looked like a group of multi sized kitchen canisters (IE: Flour, sugar, tea, etc). So, I guess what I have will suffice. I won’t be making anymore trips out to New Albany, but man, what a good deal that was. I was starting to think that ceramics was becoming an overly expensive hobby.

Oh yeah, we found this giant KOI fish mold. It’s pretty insane. Paul’s pretty excited about it, and I’m just excited about the fact that I’ll never have to buy dishes, or flower pots ever again.

Anyways, on to the fun stuff…

I had Paul pick up some porcelain slip this weekend, which I was expecting it to be much more different from the stoneware slip I have grown accustomed, too, but I actually like the porcelain more. It poured smoother, and was less gritty and clumpy. I also had Paul pick up some ceramic stain they had a sell on, although it wasn’t the shade of green pigment I wanted, it’ll do for the time being. I went ahead an added some of it to the porcelain slip.

The disaster struck as to be expected. After casting one of the coffee pot molds, which I thought was banded tightly, the mold separated and green slip oozed out onto the table, then on the floor. (Sorry Karen!!!) However, we cleaned it up, I saved some of the slip, and was able to at least cast this smaller two handled dish, the matching lid for it, and a smaller dish, which Paul fudged up after trimming some excess off the leather hard piece.


So there was one piece to rule them all, which got stenciled with a pinup.

By the way, I have created a logo stencil. Isn’t it cute!? It looks like Abby!

Earlier this week, I attempted using the wheel again in which, I made this piece, attempted another, failed, and threw a tantrum and quit. The wheel is not my forte... obviously.

On Sunday, we cast a few more pieces in plain porcelain, which I’ll check on today, and hopefully, I’ll have a large enough load to kiln before the week is up. I still have a few more stencils I have been dying to try.

This week will be filled with me make a lot of slab built stoneware mugs, since I didn’t find my hand-dandy mold, but all is good. I can boast, that I make a mean stoneware slab built mug, and after all of this excitement of casting, stenciling, and kilning is over, then comes the glazing, and I am SOOO dreading that. *tear*

Glazes and the Craigslist mold adventure.

Well, the guessing game is over. My pieces have been fired in the kiln, and I was surprised by some results, and of course mostly disappointed with the rest, which is why I have decided to move onto working with under glazes, and stains for a while. I only have a couple of pieces that I took pictures of the finished product. The rest have been packed up in a box for future refirings, or whenever I get around to them again.

I ran into a bit of a surprise this past week. I was reading up on a tutorial on Ceramic Daily Art’s site about using slip casting molds as push and peel molds with stained clay. I was intrigued, so I went about on Craigslist to see if anyone was getting rid of their surplus of ceramic molds, and boy was it my lucky day. I’m used to seeing ceramic molds on Craigslist, but they usually are around 10-15 molds, and the seller usually wants over $100 for the whole bulk lot, which I usually shake my head and say, “Oh well", and pass on and wait for something better.

I got lucky last week. I found a guy in New Albany whos Dad used to run a ceramic slip manufacturing company and he was posting on Craigslist trying to get rid of the vast amount they had accumulated. In fact, the pictures he posted did no justice. The guy had literally a small hardware store sized barn full of racks and racks and RACKS of ceramic molds and was only asking for a mere $20 per four shelf rack. So, I was running away with these $17-$100 a piece molds for a damage of $40 at the end of the evening. I managed to make out with around 35-40 molds.

(RIGHT PICTURE: Our newly found treasures. )

I felt like I was on American Pickers, rummaging through this old man's collection of molds. He must have had around a couple thousand of molds. I was like a kid in a candy store as my husband pulled me away from the racks and racks of molds. The guy’s son told me about when business was booming, and the processes they went through to make the ceramic slip. They were extremely friendly and helpful, which is something that's hard to come by on Craigslist with the "Buyer beware" mentality.

The trip was successful as I got what I was wanting. I was able to find a teapot mold AND a separate mold for tea pot spouts and tea pot lids. <-- (My absolute worst enemy) Also, I was able to locate a lot of plain molds for plates, vases.. etc.

So there was much shuffling around, cleaning, fighting off black widows and organizing in the basement at the Houston House, and I used some empty shelves in the basement to house my small collection, because I know I’m not going to use all of them, so I figured they’d work out good for maybe a future class, or if someone else enthusiastic such as myself drops by the art league.
(RIGHT PICTURE: A 1960's lamp Crest mold we snagged.)

Speaking of the Houston House, I must be doing something right, because I have been asked by some of the ladies to teach a ceramics class, and don’t let my timid outward appearance and emotions fool you, I am E-X-C-I-T-E-D!

This will also give me an excuse to order some Speed Ball ceramic underglazes for me to test and for the class, as they are easier to paint with and not as much of a hassle as my experience with Stoneware glazes. I've used SpeedBall Stoneware, and underglazes. I wasn't impressed with the Stoneware Glazes they produce as they look very opaque, and look much like you tried to color your piece with a permanant marker. However, I was told the underglazes they produce with a stoneware top glaze usually turn out flawless.

Happy Trails until next time!