Glazing mandala number two.

This is the three part mandala. I finally painted it with some glazes last Sunday evening.

Painting a wash made from Stroke & Coat thinned with water...must keep stirring it up to keep the pigments in suspension.

After it's dry, just stroke with dry sponge in one direction to remove glaze from raised parts of sculpture.

To get a tan/sepia tone for the glaze, I coat the whole thing with Matte Clear.

And now it's waiting to be fired to cone 5-6.  Sometimes I don't apply the clear glaze, which leaves a more antique finish, rougher texture, and the color is shades of grey.

She turned into an angel

I started with a female form, holding her hands in prayerful position, also as in "Namaste" greeting from yoga class.  But then some wings just transpired.

So then the head was added, and some ho-hum hair.  Let's see, I thought, how about swirls of curls? Well, I didn't exactly do that. But there are some spirals, which reminded one person of roses.  OK, maybe her head is covered with them.

And when I took these photos, I thought the eyes didn't match. So I did a bit more work on them.  I'm afraid they still don't match, but I didn't want to start reworking her face at this stage, so she's been set in the kiln room to dry.

And on Monday I threw 4 sandwich size plates.  I'm going to try to decorate them to go with some mugs and bowls which I did about a year ago. I've told everyone that I can no longer paint the glazes in the poppy motif that I borrowed from O'Keefe.  So maybe just the same colors.  We shall see...

No excuses!

We've been given the first taste of fall...so I dragged the bags of dirt out, and the spade, and the new pots, and the plants that wanted to be repotted.

Cool, not raining, but cloudy, great gardening weather!

 I carefully removed a complete stem growing off the taller of these 3 succulents, and planted it. I can't find a photo of it, but I remember putting it somewhere!

 The original jade plant is having lots of babies, so I left it in it's pot.

 Oh, here's the stem off the first one, planted with some jade leaves, some of whom have already begun to sprout.

 This tiny lady has lots of babies, but I only took 2 off, gently pulling a few roots along with them.  I'm leaving the rest there while she gets used to the new pot.

 I proved myself a messy gardener, but wanted to record the plants more than show off the pots. There are a couple of jade leaves also at one end in this planter.

 This may not be a planter, since it doesn't have any drainage...but it looked just right for the branches of jade that I removed from the parent. It will need moisture for a bit since the branches didn't have any roots yet. They are leaning against the other pot. But some other leaves had already started to sprout, so they're in there to encourage the big ones!

And here are the 2 babies as well that I took from the spikey mom, which fortunately aren't prickery spikes.

I also did some mint, as well as the orchid.  Don't know why I forgot to take their pictures.

More ceramic art

 A strange matt greyish purple glaze on a fluid twisted vase makes this beautiful piece more subtle than others displayed at the Red House Gallery.  But just think about how the twists in this pot were made. And the elegant curved little handles.  I found this more pleasing to look at the more I studied it.

Finished planters

For the little succulents...

 These are small! But it was easy to make them and glazing gave me some test results.

 First dipped into Satin White, then just the rim dipped into Raspberry Red.

 Really!

 White with rim dipped into Plum

Celadon with rim dipped into plum. I love drippy glazes on the rim, so they never get into running onto the kiln shelf!

I actually bought "cactus" dirt for them...so will be getting some under my fingernails soon...and can show off the results! It's all a process.

The tile mandala

First of my mandalas has come out of the glaze kiln...
I will be getting backing for it, but I want you to see how it looks at this point. You've patiently gone through all the processes with me by now!

I am considering mounting it on fabric, either a neutral tone or perhaps black.

Another ceramic artist at the Red House Gallery

I really like how Katherine combines sgraffito and glazes. But honestly I don't like the plastic plants combined with everything else.

Hello grandmother moon

 Grandmother moon said hi to me in the night, so I went for the phone's camera.

Fuzzy one with the buildings showing.

Amazing how I could see the leaves on trees as well as bright moon, July 2, 2019.  I know the moon was also full last night, because she woke me up again. This time I said hi, and went back to sleep.

Perhaps another orchid would prefer...

The turquoise with runny blue edges?  This one has more random holes along the sides, where plates of clay aren't overlapping, thus more organic looking separations. I know, where's the photo? I don't find one.

Raspberry red for the orchids...or...

Now I just need to go purchase some wood chips/filling stuff that they live in!

Sculptures at the Asheville Arboretum

It was fun chiming on this huge bell.

second mandala in the process

It's actually finished being built. But is slowly drying.

 I keep it pressed gently between newspapers and batts, with a light layer of plastic over the whole thing.  It's drying slowly and staying pretty flat.
Details below.