Sorbet Cups & Caramel Plates
I am not officially back to work full-time, but I am going to ease back into my work as I can. I had said I was not going to do work the month of June, however, I have kiln firings to keep up with. Yesterday, my husband and my dad came over to the studio with me to help move my greenware pieces out to the garage so I could load them into the kiln to bisque. It took about an hour to get everything sanded for the firing, moved to the garage and loaded into the kiln. I was starting to feel a bit stressed about the work I needed to get done within my tight timeframe. It feels good to have that firing going.
Anyways, this little set came out of the kiln before Noah was born. It was originally a commissioned set. When they came out of the kiln, there were hardly any crystals that had formed and four out of the six bowls had broken. It was pretty upsetting to open the kiln and see that, but these pieces that survived have really grown on me. I love their caramel color and subtle turquoise crystals that sprouted occasionally. I am thinking of posting them for sale on Etsy because they are in great shape. The crystal formations were the only thing that didn’t come out as hoped. My favorite pieces are the little bowls. They are the perfect size for sorbet! (In fact, I made homemade lemon-berry sorbet which is in those little bowls. Very yummy!)
See, aren’t they a great size for sorbet? They also make a great rice bowl. I have since, remade this order and delivered it. They look a lot different, but they are the right glaze and what was originally desired. Maybe you will see these pieces on my Etsy shop soon. Poke around on there if you would like! I hope your weeks are off to a good start!
Ovals for Greg & Sheri
Oh my, it has been a while since I have been writing on here! Last week I took a break from work and blogging while I did some traveling and celebrating with my husband. First we went to Lake Champion, (an awesome Young Life camp in NY) where Andrew had staff training for his work this summer. After being there for a couple of days, we continued on to the Buffalo area to be with my in-laws for our first baby shower! It was a blast and we got a lot of cute baby things. I can’t wait to use them. It was an extra special visit since my mom was able to fly in from MD for the weekend and share in the baby fun with us. We also got to celebrate my husband’s 25th birthday with lots of family and great food. We spent the day driving back home to NH where we hit the ground running: we had Young Life club that night, so we were pretty tired when we were finally home to settle. Yesterday was spent unpacking, cleaning, organizing and making room for baby! We rearranged our room to create a nook for the baby in the corner of our room. It feels good to be able to nest and have a space to call our nursery. Now, it is time to jump back into work before I really take a break when the baby comes!
I mailed off another commission yesterday for friends back in Maryland. Greg and Sheri are a great couple and they wanted to order something special that would fit their tastes. They wanted oval dinner platter/plates with a personalized inscription along with mugs. I had never made an oval platter before, but I think these turned out really well. These were glazed in copper crystalline (with some pretty awesome and huge crystals, I might add) and are ready to be used! Greg and Sheri, I hope you enjoy your special pieces and get a lot of use out of them for a really long time!
A Big Cup of Tea
You may remember the “V” mugs I made for my friend, Meoghan, a few posts ago. I shared them on my blog a few posts back while they were being made. You can check them out here. They are now glazed and completed! I gave them to Meoghan yesterday on our way to the gym. (Meoghan has been my work-out partner through out my whole pregnancy! She definitely keeps me going and I am so glad to have someone to work out with and hear her own parenting stories!) She wanted big mugs for big cups of tea. She also knew she wanted something personal added to her mug, so that is when we decided to add the “V” button stamp to her mug. (The initial of her last name). I pulled out my order book and made a sketch of what shape she wanted her mug to be, taking note of the size she wanted, and jotted down the glaze. Her mugs feature copper green, navy, and cobalt crystalline glazes. The inside is glazed in a non-crystalline satin white glaze. They fired really well and she was super excited to receive them yesterday. Later that afternoon, Meoghan sent me a picture of her mug filled with steeping tea. Glad they are already getting put to good use!
What’s for Dessert?
My top three favorite desserts are Molten Lava Cake, Creme Brûlée, and my dad’s homemade Key Lime Pie. Those are the ones that really make my mouth water. On friday, March 9th, I celebrated my 25th birthday and got to indulge in one of these sweet treats. My husband and I went out to dinner with some good friends at the Cheesecake Factory. It was delicious and I ended the meal with their amazing key lime cheesecake! Since I couldn’t have my dad’s homemade key lime pie, I figured this would be the closest thing I could get. It was so yummy! I have a rather large sweet tooth, so I very rarely will turn down dessert. I even have several sets of dessert plates stacked away in my cupboards waiting to be brought out for a yummy treat with a friend or after a special meal. I have never made a set for myself, however. My mother-in-law recently commissioned me to make a set of six dessert plates for her own mother’s birthday. I am happy to say they are complete and will be traveling to her tomorrow. Hopefully she will get to enjoy a wonderful piece of birthday cake on one of these plates.
These plates were glazed in cobalt and navy crystalline glazes. I love the bold crystals that formed on these!
Dinner for Twelve
Twelve dinner plates and twelve lunch plates all to be glazed in Black Crystalline: that was the commission I received from my Aunt and Uncle. I told them I didn’t have a black crystalline glaze and I had read it can be a tricky one to figure out. They said, “we can wait, I am sure you can figure it out”. I appreciate the confidence and the patience! I am actually excited to experiment creating this new glaze. Nothing like a little chemistry, right? I have yet to actually test fire anything for this glaze, but I have come up with a few different recipes and variations of them to give it a go. Once I fire those tests, I will be able to make any adjustments needed and try for other tests before coming up with one that will work well. I am aiming to achieve silvery gray crystals against a deep black background. It will look awesome if it comes out that way. I have seen just a couple of potters who specialize in crystalline glazing achieve this glaze. It is so stunning. I am hoping to mix and test this glaze by next week. I will definitely be sure to share my results with you. As far as the plates go, all twelve lunch plates have been thrown, trimmed and bisque fired. The dinner plates are all thrown and waiting to be trimmed and then bisque fired. They are coming along nicely. I would like to have them completely glazed and finished by the end of the month. That of course depends on my glaze!
Dinner plates drying out on the racks
Lunch Plates right out of the kiln
Pitchers
These are two pitchers that were commissioned for this past Christmas. The one to the right was glazed in copper crystalline and the one to the left was glazed in cobalt and navy crystalline. I love the blue one, mainly because of how dramatic the colors and crystals turned out! That navy glaze really is wonderful. I have only just started to use it more commonly (now that I have established it as a new and consistent glaze) and I love it! These did make it in time for Christmas, so I hope they are already getting put to good use. I wish I could see how all of my pieces are being used once they are bought or ordered…that would be fun to see and hear about. Some of you have actually sent me pictures of your pieces being used in your homes. Thank you! I love getting to share in that. Anyways, I hope you are all off to a great week and enjoy these pitchers.
Multi-Crystalline Utensil Crock
I made a utensil crock this last year as a Christmas gift for Andrew’s Aunt Lisa. It was actually commissioned for her and given by Andrew’s Gramma. When Aunt Lisa first mentioned to me that she wanted a utensil crock, she gave me the desired dimensions and the colors she wanted. I was able to create the rest. I really enjoy creating a piece that will allow for my own creative license to play into the work. I also find that often the customer is more satisfied when there are less requests on the work. With the dimensions in hand, I wanted to create a more interesting shape than just a basic straight silhouette for this utensil crock. I also added a couple of embellishments, like little buttons at the ends of the handles. I really enjoyed making this piece and I definitely want to create some more work using this glaze combination as well. I think she was pleased with the final product on Christmas day. Enjoy, Aunt Lisa!
This utensil crock was glazed in copper green, cobalt and navy crystalline. The navy crystalline is one of my newly developed glazes. It definitely added a richness to the colors on this pot as well as some drama! I love that parts of this pot look like it was consumed by a deep blue waterfall, then directly next to it are the splashes of sea-foam green with copper crystals. The inside of the pot had some really nice effects as well.
Commission Work for Christmas
I have been working on the last of my commissioned work to be done in time for Christmas. Everything is thrown, trimmed and finished. They are just drying out on the shelves and waiting to go in the kiln for a bisque. My work load is winding down a bit and it feels really great to be getting closer to a break. I am looking forward to Christmas so much this year. Now that I am in business for myself fully, the new year has a different feeling to me. I am truly ending/finishing all work from 2011 and starting with a clean slate for 2012. I am so excited to be going home to Maryland for Christmas this year and spending a lot of quality time with my family. Here are some of the commissions I am finishing up and getting ready to fire:
Coffee Table Show Piece
My cousin Bob and his wife Debi placed an order with me a while ago for a center piece bowl for their coffee table. Something large enough to make a nice bowl to display but within the right dimensions to fit the table well. I adore them as family and was naturally so excited to start on their commission. I did start on it right away, but I was delayed a few times. The first bowl formed beautiful crystals but pressure cracks developed all around the rim of the bowl. Sadly, I began to make a second one. This bowl survived well up until the glaze firing. This bowl was in the kiln that misfired, signaling the start of my kiln troubles. It came out of the kiln all discolored with a crack in the rim. Well third time is the charm right? Here is the final piece. I am so glad it turned out well!
Bob and Debi wanted the copper crystalline glaze for their bowl. I am so thrilled with how the crystals came out! They are amazing! It is good to see after toiling with this piece for so long. The outside of the bowl is glazed in a non-crystalline satin white with soft drips of the copper green forming and mixing into the white. I think it creates a nice effect for the outside of the bowl. I love that it draws you in to look more closely at the bowl and as you get closer your eyes just stare at the crystals. I hope you love it Bob and Debi and that it travels to you safely!
Your completed bowl can be found on my Etsy shop.
Tea For One
In the midst of my kiln struggles, a woman from the south found me on Etsy and really like my work. She was particularly excited about my teapots and was quite familiar with crystalline glazing. The teapots I tend to make are a little bit larger, holding six to eight cups of tea. My squatty copper teapot caught her eye. She was drawn to both the shape and color when she sent me a message asking if I had any that were for one to two cups of tea: a personal-sized teapot. I didn’t at the time but offered to make it an order and create one for her. I went ahead and took on the commission since I was lead to believe that my kiln would be fixed in a week. Well that week turned into three months, as many of you know just from keep up with my blog! Needless to say, Joyce has been more than patient and her teapot is complete!
Like the two mugs I made that were featured in my last post, this teapot was made twice! When the first one was fired it looked great. I was really happy with how it came out. Of course, I had to remove the pedestal and collecting dish from the pot (this is where the breakage rate comes into play). So far so good, that is until I heard a loud pop. I froze! NO, no, no! Please no! Unfortunately I know that sound all too well; sure enough it had cracked!
One of the worst things when that happens is having to tell the customer who ordered it. I hope they will be understanding, since they will have to wait a bit longer for the second one. Luckily I thought ahead and had made two of them from the start. The second one was already bisque fired and ready to be glazed. Joyce was wonderfully patient and understanding.
It is going out in the mail today! Joyce, I hope you enjoy your teapot for a very long time! Thank you so much for your patience and encouragement too! I will have it posted on Etsy in an hour to complete the order.
A Rice Bowl
Yesterday I finished the trimming for a commissioned order: 4 lunch plates, 2 mugs, 6 bowls. I had fun creating this order. I think I enjoyed it because the bowl is not your everyday bowl. It is more of a petite rice bowl. I just love its silhouette and the little foot it sits on.
When I was trimming these bowls, I used calipers to measure the diameter of the foot of the bowl so that each bowl will look close to identical from one to the next.
When I head to the studio in a few minutes, I will be opening up my fourth test glaze fire. I am really praying for lots of crystals and a sign that the kiln is finally good to go with the glitches all worked out! I could really use a break here!
Hand-Crafted Pottery by Arryn 