Mugs On A Monday Morning

Monday Mugs are kind of a thing among Clay Buddies on FB.  These four are currently in use for my morning tea.  Tea is all the more pleasurable when drunk from a beautiful mug!

What do you drink your morning beverage from?

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

(left to right)  Lori Watts,  Posey Bacopoulis,  Kate Missett,  Jeff Brown 

Mold Making

I bit the bullet and have been making a large platter form.  I've been making smaller ones, about fifteen inches across from bird baths, but I've been wanting a larger surface to work on.

I covered the plastic form with layers of tissue paper and then a sheet of plastic.  I then took the slop clay I keep for molds and experiments and extended the rim to a curve I liked. 

I rolled out a thick slab and  finished it with a rolling pin.  Whenever I work with a large slab, I always finish with my rolling pins.  I roll in all directions, much like pie crust.  I have no real proof, but I think it makes a stronger slab.

Here the slab is covered with the thin jersey that I use between slab and form.

One of the hardest steps in the entire procedure is flipping the slab onto the form.  I suppose I could ask Proge for help, but where's the fun in that?

Here I've added more clay to the rim to strengthen it.

And finally I have the form shaped to my satisfaction.  This is all done by eye, as I want to maintain a handbuilt feel to both the form and what I make.

 

 I wrapped the form in several layers of plastic and dried very slowly to soft leather hard.  I took  the plastic off for a few hours at a time and changed to a dry sheet.

I forgot to take a picture of the flipping process.  It's quite easy as the bird bath form is there for support.  I braced the sides with rolled plastic and newspaper before removing the bird bath.  I left the whole thing for a day before working on the rim.  I used a sur-form to smooth things out.  Sharp edges can lead to bumping and cracking. I also worked to interior curve with one of Mud Tool ribs.  Yellow has just the right amount of give and control.

Now it's just a question of drying slowly and evenly.  I drape thin plastic over and periodically flip it to keep the rim from drying too quickly.  If it does look like it's drying too fast I will cover the rim tightly with more plastic.

We'll see, Grasshopper.......we'll see....

We have finally had some rain more than four inches since Friday.  We are still down several inches, but we did set up rain barrels so there is water for plants if it gets dry again.  No matter how much I water, there is nothing like rain to perk the plants up.  It's cloudy today with more showers expected this afternoon.  The air feels very soft.

Enjoy the week ahead.  Here's hoping for cool, wet weather in all the areas that are dealing with fires.

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

Alien Invasion

This was going to be a posting about the pots I have been making, the flowers that are blooming and all the delights of late summer.

THEN!!!  About an hour ago we were out in the yard for our morning walk around when Proge yells, "Holy sh*t there's huge hornets' nest up there."  I looked and indeed it is a huge nest.  On second thought it's probably paper wasps!  We always get them around the pool trying to build nests under the rails; we never have considered the fish pond as a source, but of course it is.  This is right over the fishies so there is no way we are going to spray or use anything else to get rid of it.  They aren't bothering us so we will wait until cold weather to deal with it!  It would be another story if they were white face hornets, which are extremely territorial and will chase you down!  

We'll see, grasshopper.......we'll see..........  

On a happier note this little frog has been by the pond for most of the summer!  He likes to sit on the rock in the morning and relax in the pond the rest of the time.  We've had quite a few frogs this year.  Some summers we only have one or two.  We also have about a dozen baby fish!

I'll post about pots and plants next time.

 Meanwhile have an enjoyable Labor Day Week End!

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

Busy Days; Busy Potter

I have finally been putting my fish out around the pond.  I sort of forgot about them, but now they are here and happy.  This blue guy is the first large one I made.  He started as a demo for a class I was giving and grew.

I enjoy making these, so when I have more clay I will indulge myself and make more!

Which leads to an oh fer duh! moment.  I was all set to start making stuff when I discovered that no I did not have 100 lbs. of clay ready to go, but a lot of clay waiting to be recycled.

The photo below is a small portion of what I have been doing.  I like to get all my clay for the year ready during the summer so I can do it outside, thus avoiding at least one potential studio mess.  I beat it to a slurry with my glaze mixer and put it out to dry on screens.  This came inside as a rescue when it started raining.  Good thing I did too as we had over two inches of heavy rain.

More recycle today!

I did find a bit of my low fire white so started a couple of three-legged mugs.  I want them to look a little more tilted and funkier than they do.  A paddle will beat them into submission!

We were cutting down a lot of sassafras sprouts that have been invading since last year.  In the process I found my old garden rattles That I made in a workshop with Elsbeth Woody in Port Chester,  NY around 1987.

They are some of the last thing I did in high fire clay.  It was Elsbeth's clay body fired to about ^8 with a red iron oxide wash.  They have beads of clay in them so they rattle quite nicely when pushed around.

I never followed through but I always had an image of some sort of lawn game with undertones of croquet and bocce.

And last, two little frogs that are out by the pond.  We have quite a few of them this year.  I'm not sure why; some years we only have one or two.  There are at least two bullfrogs among them who enjoy announcing they are present in the middle of the night.

The person who extolled the silence of nature obviously never lived there!

Enjoy what is fast becoming a late summer!  Where did it go?

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

Summer

Are these the dog days of summer?  I must admit that  this is my favorite time of year.  Everything is growing and blooming.

My lilies have been spectacular this year.  I guess our long, snowy winter was good for the perennials.  Actually I think it's more likely due to the fact that fertilized like crazy last summer.

I love it when I get masses of flowers like the lilies.  These go from a pale pink to white and are so fragrant that they scent the whole yard. 

 

 
This alba is very special because it grew from bulblets that I did not know existed.  They were in another part of the garden where the original plant was.  The original died last year, so I was delighted with the new shoots.  I dug and potted them and will plant them when they finish blooming.

The day lily is a special one that I bought from Larry the pond guy the last summer he was open.  It bloomed beautifully in its pot, but last year had no flowers at all.  I am so pleased to see it blooming and in great shape.
 

I haven't put flowers on my work for quite a while.  I'll start out by drawing these from life, but use the photos for reference.  Digital cameras are so great for getting immediate results.

I woke this morning to rain, thunder, and a lot of wind.  It was one of those downpours that feels like buckets of water are being dumped from the sky.  We got about an inch which is always welcome.  Wind gusts of 80 mph were recorded in our town.  Much of the state lost electricity.  For once we didn't.  That is extraordinary in itself.  At this time of year we keep the car well gassed so if we do lose power we can switch to the power inverter.

We are working on restoring the pool.  Removing the liner was not the hassle we thought it might be.

We'll see, grasshopper.....we'll see..........

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

Spoons

I've been handbuilding spoons since last fall.  Mostly I have sat staring at them and wondering how to decorate them.  I did the long handled one and then stared some more!  Finally I decided that they are the first of what may turn out to be many so I just went ahead and painted. 

This is never going to be anything I can sell as a regular item as they would have to be prohibitively expensive.  They might work as special occasion or commemorative items.

All this is early days as I need to work on the designs and, also, finish them!

We'll see, grasshopper.....we'll see..........

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

Monday Mug Abuse

Monday Mugs is a group I post to on FB.  This is by no means a new mug, but I am putting it through it's paces to see what it will stand up to.

I did not like the original glaze so I gave it a couple of brushed on coats of Spectrum #799.  It had been sitting under my heat lamp so I don't think I did anything else to get the glaze to stick.  You can see some of the original design bleeding through.

Normally, I do not put any of my mugs in the microwave.  However I have  put this one through numerous two minute tea heat ups with no adverse effects, even when it's heated repeatedly.

We'll see, grasshopper.....we'll see....... 

It's raining hard enough right now to make good sized splashes in the pond.  I think it's going to keep up for most of the day, which is kind of a good thing!

Aloysius and KikiLaSois have decided that best way to spend the day is sleeping!  Way to go, kitties!

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