Tattoo Bowl

FINALLY!!! Do you ever have a project that just sits around - it's something you really want to do, but...well, this Tattoo Bowl has been a 'want to do' project of mine for literally years - probably 3 or 4. My friend had given me the bowl in ceramic greenware which means it's very soft and hasn't been fired yet. So, I meticulously carved the tattoo design into it and then had it fired. Well, it cracked when I fired it, so there it sat again for ages not knowing quite what to do with it. I finally filled the crack and decided to use the bowl as a decorative piece instead of adding ceramic glazes and making it waterproof. I painted it with acrylics and am VERY pleased at how it came out. It now adorns my coffee table. Love it!

Upward and onward on my next project!!! What shall it be?

Ceramic Shoe Plate

Shoes and more shoes...ceramics that is!

What a delightful class tonight - fun ladies, a great teacher (way to go Debi!) AND a beautiful project!!!

It was nice to relax and have fun painting this shoe on a ceramic plate - I especially liked adding dots of glaze as accents around the flowers. It's being fired later this week, so it'll be great to see my finished project.








Teri Lyn is busy painting her shoe. She works with Fred, a ceramics teacher who showed me the ceramics ropes almost 3 years ago.












Debi (our teacher) you're the best! Your patience and kind words are wonderful!













Here's my shoe just waiting to be fired - and there's my drink of choice, Starbucks Venti Black Iced Tea with two pumps of Classic - even my friend at work knows my drink order by heart.

Happy, happy day!

Joan

What a fantastic day!

Yesterday, I had the great PLEASURE of spending the day learning about ceramics from a world famous instructor - David Hoff. It was a day away from the office with just David and a co-worker, Lindy. The day was bright and beautiful and David's home was incredible with an amazing yard and great studio.

I am now writing/editing the ceramic instructions in addition to craft instructions so it was time to learn from the master. We went through the Creativity Guide (catalog) and talked about glazes and how they were different and what to apply them to. Then, it was time to make projects! We made a Wine and Dine plate and Saucer Vase.

David made us a wonderful lunch (he even bbq'd the chicken -yum) for our tasty salad. The day was warm, so we enjoyed chatting about ceramics in his backyard and watched squirrels running across the fence.

Our pieces went in the kiln yesterday and David will bring them by today - I can't wait to share with you.

It was a very informative day - thanks for sharing David! Lindy and I are already making plans for spending our lunch time making holiday gifts.

Joan

Ceramics by Justin's 5th Grade Class

I had the pleasure of working with my nephew's class to create these awesome ceramic projects.

On my vacation, I took a painting class where there were no rules and thought it would be interesting to see what 5th grader's did with no rules. Here are the awesome results.

Each got a ball of clay to create whatever they wanted. I fired them and then it was time for them to glaze the pieces. Back to the kiln one more time and here they are. I'm taking them to the class on Friday and I think they will be pleasantly surprised.

What a wonderful experience. Their teacher was totally behind the project - her mom has a ceramic project she made 50 years ago!