Majolica Monday

Linda Applebee on Facebook Mud Buddies posted about the trouble she was having making her whistles whistle.  I'm happy to say that she has now made a very nice ocarina indeed.

This got me to thinking about my own whistles.  A few years ago it was the middle of winter,I was going through non-creative blahs; my studio was more like a refrigerator than a place for working.  To get myself going I set up a little goal.  I moved upstairs and decided I could make whistles as they are small and can be made on a table top. The idea was to make a gang of at least three whistles every week.  I ended up only going through June but a simple project that was not too time intensive was just what I needed.

I did manage on one warmish day to throw a lot of the little closed cone shapes I use for my thrown whistles.  I stored them in Rubbermaid shoe boxes with a layer of damp paper towels in the bottom.  They make little portable damp boxes.

The four examples below are just a few of the people and animals I came up with, ducks, pigs, frogs, turtles, mice were some of the others.  The blow holes are at the bottom front.  If you enlarge the photos you can see what look like spots are really little holes.

The bottoms show the actual whistle hole.  I drill them when the clay is leather hard and trim the hole to a sharp edge.  I then drill the hole, either using a very small drill bit or a pin tool.  It take a little practice to make the air stream hit the edge.  Sometimes I change the angle of the blow hole a bit; sometimes I smooth the clay where the hole comes through.  The idea is to have a clean area that will produce a clear note.  Not for nothing do we say Clean As A Whistle!

Below are a few of the many handbuilt whistles I have made.  It's a thing with me to put the whistle where it becomes part of the animal, or at least does not announce itself as a whistle.  The bear, rabbit and hippo all have their blow holes in their mouths or noses.  The seahorse is the little spot at the base.

 Turn them over and the holes become evident!

And finally a few shoes.  These may be what I enjoy doing most.  The possibilities for shoes is endless.  The Baby Cakes shoe has it's whistle on the heel.  Can you see the blow holes on the other two?

Look at the soles and there they are.  I had a good reason for making the baby shoes have their whistles on the heels.  Of course I have no memory of that reasoning, but I'm assuming it was a good one.

Most of these are done in terra cotta; some are in white; it depended on how I was glazing and decorating them.  Majolica is the perfect medium for lots of color and design.  I think I have posted many of these before, but it has been fun to gather some of them together and look at the various groups.

It's one of our warmest days yet with sunny skies.  This afternoon is definitely pool time!

Enjoy the coming week, and as always, thanks for stopping by...........*s*

I Almost FORGOT!

But then I remembered.......

I said I would post photos of the whistles as I finished them; the rest are in the kiln waiting to be fired.  

As I mentioned in my previous post They can assume many forms.  The mouse and the penguin are easy to see how I make them.  The pig gets turned on its side and trimmed and paddles into a rounded end.  There's a tail back there too.  I make the snout by carefully pushing the tip onto a flat surface.  The mouse and penguin have their whistles at the base; pig has its at the snout and becomes part of the mouth.

Because they are whistles I use commercial glazes on them and once fire them.  I don't once fire functional stuff a.) I think the clay is stronger if it goes through separate bisque and glaze firings, b.) I generally use my own glazes.  This is from my observation.  Some of the clay gurus out there may be able to tell me the more scientific reasons.  It might all be a figment of my imagination.

These are obviously still in progress.  If I keep my wits about me I may even post more photos before and after firing.

Aloysious has managed to pull one of his charge out the door acts.  That cat is fast!  It's a beautiful sunny day out so he's out having fun and we're searching!

This is late for Mud Colony, but I am going to email Adriana and see if she can put it up for me. At any rate go take a look at all the cool stuff that goes on in the world of clay.

Enjoy the day, and, as always, thanks for stopping by............*s*

Transformations

These little bulb shapes can be made into many little animal whistles.  When I was first learning to make whistles my mentor/teacher/dear friend, Nancy, hand built all of hers.  I wanted my whistles to be informed by, but not indistinguishable from hers.  Thus I came up with the idea of a thrown form I could use in a variety of ways.

I turn the cones on their side for the fish and pig.  The penguin and mouse are trimmed and have wings, ears, noses, beaks added.

I'm trying an elephant, a hippo, a rhino next.  We'll see, Grasshopper.......we'll see......

There seemed to be some confusions about the house on Wordless Wednesday.  I showed all four sides of one building.  I'm contemplating more.

We covered the pond with the leaf net last week end.  Just in time too!  The first year we just put it on the water surface....BIG MISTAKE!  We spent the winter watching it slowly sink under the weight of wet leaves.  A mess to get out in the spring.  Now we use s few saplings to make a frame to put the net over.

The fish are still swimming.  It's easy to mistake them for leaves on top of the net if we just glance at them.

The frogs like to sit on top of the net.  Sometimes they sit on on the frame and sometimes on the net itself.  Different strokes for different frogs.  They don't seem to have any trouble getting out from under the net or getting back in.

HEY GARY!  GODZILLA IS IN THE GARDEN!

I stuck the Godzilla head is a flower pot to keep it from underfoot.  Last week these violas, which must have reseeded from the spring, started blooming.  There's no reason a monster shouldn't enjoy the flowers!

The sun is coming out after a night of heavy rain.....hope your week end is sunny or rainy depending on what you need.

This post can also be found over on Mud Colony.  Take a look and see who is there this week.

As always thanks for stopping by............*s*

Little Nemo

Has everyone  GOOGLED  today?  If you haven't; you should, for the fun of the doodle.

Below is a group of whistles from the last firing......gossipers all!

Clouds with rain coming, but warm.  It's a good day for mostly inside stuff.

Stay out of trouble....or if you can't at least let it be fun trouble.

As always, thanks for stopping by............*s*

Pigs and Whistles

Many years ago I made lots of piggy banks, then stopped for some reason lost in the mists of time.  I think I  grew tired of fussing with them.  These two little guys will have stoppers on the bottom.  I loved the funny little noses, but it took me a while to figure out how to get a coin opening into them.

  When I was little I had a bank that didn't have any coin opening.  I used to lie on the bed with a dinner knife and tip coins out of the slot.  It made the savings that much sweeter!

two piggy banks

Last spring when I felt like I had no new ideas left in me I came up with a year long project to get me going again.  The idea is to make a different animal whistle each week.  By the end of the year I will, hopefully, have fifty-two different animals in various sizes and shapes.

It has not always worked out as I had wanted it to, but I have kept going.  At last count I was about six weeks behind.  I'll probably keep going until I am at the magic fifty-two.  There have been a few deviations from the original plan.  I made strawberries at the height of strawberry season and little peppers when I was putting up pepper lights on the deck.  I am easily influenced after all!  

All these little guys are, or will be decorated on their bottoms.  I have good luck firing on stilts.

unfired bird whistles

unfired bunny whistles

seahorse whistles