Thank you Hannah!!

This is what the mailman brought to me al the way from Hannah.

Not just one gift but three!! Thanks you so, so much Hannah! I love them!

They feel just perfect and the glaze is amazing.

As always with pictures I take, they don't do the pots justice. The glaze has beautiful little specs and the color is much nicer in 'real life'.

Thanks for some very nice 'Scenes from an Italian restaurant'. :-D

Oh, and thanks to Billy Joel to I guess, haha.

I have been absent from this blog for a while. There's so much happening in my life, some good, some not so good and some just plain rotten. I haven't had the energy to post on this blog, have been absorbed in everything that has been going on.

I feel like I'm in some sort of transition in my life, or maybe it's my midlife crisis, haha, who knows. :-)

Thank goodness for clay, I think it has kept me sane. 

And, finally I got to fire a woodfired salt kiln with Bert. The potter I wrote about in my last post, long, long ago... :-)

I still don't feel like writing much so here are some pictures of my very first woodfiring-adventure.

I can say that I loved it with all my heart and feel like this is a big steppingstone for me and my claywork.

As everything in my life is changing and seems to be different than I thought and felt it was this may be one of the good changes!

Enjoy the pics and please leave a comment, this is a big learning-curve for me, as my life itself is at the moment.

blessed be,

Monique

We 'practiced' the filling of the kiln in the studio. In the end the kiln was filled a bit different though...

At 300 C the fireboxes looked like this:

The spyhole at 300C

The kiln from the front. On the right you can see the glow from one of the fireboxes.

After 13,5 hours of stoking the kiln, (we reached 1300C and we salted at 1280C) the fireboxes were closed with bricks and slib.

Next morning the kiln was still hot, we unbricked the outside layer of the door for some more slow cooling.

The rings we drew from the kiln to check the saltglaze.

At noon we could have a sneakpeak. (finally!! the waiting is agony... haha, patience is not a friend of mine)

This is Bert unbricking the door.

Front row.

Back row.

Discussing the results.

Results, some successes and some failures but I have learned a lot! It was so much fun!

Now I'm going to pack my suitcase. I'll be of for a couple of days. 

My dancepartner and I will submerge ourself in the international world of ballroomdancing.

A needed break from real life, :-)

When I come back I will post some pictures of my pots out of this firing.

Happy potting!

I'm a newbie on woodfiring, does anyone have tips?

I am so excited! :-D
A few weeks ago came across a website of a Dutch potter who fires his work in a wood/soda kiln.
If you want to take a look at his work, here's the link: http://www.vrijetijdspottenbakker.nl/

I send him an email to tell him how much I like the 'natural' look of wood fired pots and to ask him if he would be willing to let me in on a firing as to learn more about this.
At first he was reluctant but we did make an appointment to meet.
So last weekend I went to see him, he showed me around and told me a lot about his work and firings and so on.
After an hour or 2 he said he would be willing to 'share' his next firing with me.
Yeah! :-D
He told me to make 15 (small) pieces, biscfire them, bring them over and then we would fire the kiln together!! Maybe even with soda.

If any of you have any tips, tricks or suggestions on making pieces for a wood/soda firing please feel free to comment.
Christie form Windy Ridge pottery has already given me some tips on slips, thanks Christie!
They make beautiful pieces, if you don't know them yet, look them up in my bloglist.

So now I'm cleaning my workspace, (getting rid of the low firing clay), thinking of what to make, making lists and having a go at throwing this high fire clay.

I remember posting not to long ago about my kiln not working anymore and hoping that if one door closes another would soon open.
Well, this is a huge opportunity for me! Who knows where it will lead to right?
Thank you Bert, for your time and your willingness to teach me!

This pic is not related at all! But a post without a picture just doesn't feel right. :-)
This is an urn I made a couple of years ago for my aunt. She loved cats......
My aunts ashes are not in there anymore but the urn sits in her brothers garden.
He had his birthday last week and told me that their grandchildren, when they are playing around in the garden, sometimes go over to the urn and say: Thats auntie Cor! Isn't that sweet?

Celtic Inspiration

When looking through a book about 'The Celts' and there culture I came across this picture.

It's a metal shield found in a river, probably made as an offer to the Watergods.
Can you imagine making a metal shield, in those days, working hard at decorating it and then throwing it into a river?!?!



I was inspired by the decoration so I made a design based on it.











I made the design on tracing paper.












I threw a tile form red-brown clay and slipped it with a black clay
(well, very dark brown after its fired). :-)

I let it firm up and the traced the design softly on the clay.

Then I made a slip, white clay and an ocher bodystain, and painted the design on the tile.

Let the slip dry a little and then carve. It doesn't show very well in the picture. I hope that after firing the tile is black with the yellow design on it with a red-brown outline.
This is not the finished piece, I just now found out I took a picture halfway but not when it was finished.... you'll have to wait for that one.....

These are the tools I use for carving. (don't know how that pencil got in there..... :-)

Another project was a little bigger vase that I wanted to carve with celtic borders.

Here are the before and after of that one (sorry for the picture on it's side..)

If you have any suggestions on carving, slips please do comment!

I wish you al a very good week and hope to be back soon with some wood firing news........

just a little teaser to get your attention. :-)

Be good, be happy and go make some pots! Or do anything that makes your heart sing ok?

Blessed be,

Monique

I just can't stop!

Here are some more tiles that I've carved.
I am loving this so much! And to think that these are al 'practice-pieces', who knows were it will take me.
I'm still experimenting with when to carve and trying out different tools and slips and sizes.....

I threw some small pots to have a go at carving on a rounded surface instead flat.
Aaah, wet slip, can't help but love the look of that.....

I also have a 'need' to go bigger! I think the fact that TK is out of order has taken away size limits.
When one door closes.........

I threw a (for me) big pot, aprox 25 cm tall, it's now drying and waiting for slip and carving. Looking forward to that!
Next week I'll get some some UG pencils, can't wait to try that too!
I'll be doing lots of exploring, experimenting and enjoying the ride.

Suggestions and comments are welcome!

Wishing you well and a fabulous weekend,
Blessed be,
Monique

Follow-up

Some fun things I did:

Linda from Blue Starr Gallery inspired me with her pedestal bowl, thanks Linda!
Here's my interpretation, to me they look like offering bowls ore something like that.
There a bit goofy and make me smile!

Then there's my fascination with Celtic art and knot-work.....

A couple of years ago I was completely 'into' drawing Mandala's and celtic knots.

I made pencil drawing after pencil drawing and loved it!

I don't have to many pics of them but here are some:

Pencil drawing (base chakra)

This is a detail of the acrylic painting from my last post.

Another pencil-drawing

Heart chakra

It's fun for me to look at them again and remember how I enjoyed spending hours and hours on the drawing and coloring of them, very meditative!

pencil, top chakra

pencil

Now I'm having fun with them again with clay.

Here are my experiments on tiles:

red clay with black slip and painted with blue slip and then carved

red clay with white slip and colored slips and carved

red clay with colored slips and carved

red clay with black slip and colored slips painted on, then carved

intertwined hearts

Celtic fish

Carved key-patterns

The next ideas rolling around in my brain are celtic knots drawn with glaze-pencils.

But then I'd have to have fired tiles right?

Has anyone ever tried glaze-pencils on leather hard clay?

I guess I'm going to try..... haha

Bye for now, have a good week and smile as often as you can! :-)

Blessed be,

Monique

Work or play?

Sometimes things happen that make me 'shift my thoughts and feelings'.
Some of you know about TK (Tiny Kiln).

TK, tiny kiln, 30x30x33 cm inside

She was gifted to me and I was very happy with her.
However, she gave me a lot of trouble in the beginning of our relationship but finally 2 weeks ago I excepted her for who she is and what she can and cannot do. A sweet little kiln that can reach temp up to 1160C.
I decided to take up the challenge of creating glazes for that temp so I was trying, and reading, and trying and testing and testing and so on.

In the mean time I was reading al your great blogs and on several occasions I commented and blabbered on about how I think life is supposed to be fun and that there is so much beauty in the world if you just look for it and that is all doesn't have to be 'hard work', just enjoy yourself and live will lead you. See, I'm blabbering again. :-)

Then TK decided to give me some more trouble, fuses popped, coils melted again..... so no more firing for now....
Then the strangest thing happened to me, some kind of ease came over me. I didn't swear, I didn't kick, throw or punched anything.... none of that, just a happy thought that made me smile came to mind: ' Ah, good, something to want! No I have a good reason to want a new kiln and with that has to come a new place to live because a new kiln will be one that is bigger and better and there is just no room for a kiln like that in my apartment'.
I was at total ease with the circumstances and in that same moment I realized that I had been 'working to hard'. I was trying very hard to get better at making pots and seeking for some-kind of approval from other potters out there who's work I admire.

An oil-painting I did in 2001, it represents the feeling of ease and flow for me

Then it hit me; all the things I wrote on our blogs, I was just talking to myself! :-D
I have been wanting so bad to be a good clay artist and dreaming of how I was going to make a living out of it in the future that I forgot to have fun. It's is al about the journey, not the destination and I was only thinking of how to get to that destination!

an acrylic painting, I just love Celtic knotwork!

So..... I am going to have fun!
I have been playing around with ideas and materials and looking back at some things I did in the past that made me feel good and joyful.

13 months ago I had my first try ever on a wheel, these are my first pots! Boy did I have fun!

(except for the cleaning up afterwards because there was clay everywhere and the 10 (!) little holes in my hands because I was using the wrong clay, I really didn't know anything about throwing! :-)

Now new ideas start rolling around in my mind and I'm going with them for the fun of it.
I have no clue as to where my journey with clay will go from here but there is one happy pair of hands playing around with the clay! :-)

a sculpture of the goddess Nu Kua (chinese mythology), a blurry pic but who cares... :-)

Ow, and here's me, just a happy girl playing around with life.

Somebody please remind me when I'm being to serious!