Simplicity

The geraniums, bright and cheerful on white stoneware...a sweet way to have color around as well as handmade designs.  These little plates, cups and bowls are ideal for any snacks, or breaking a fast.

I have placed some of these on shelves in the office of Black Mountain Center for the Arts...where their sales will support the non-profit center's activities.

Happy cups/tea bowls

I finally finished and shipped an order for a couple of tea bowls, which some folks call cups.  There aren't handles, and they are really small for bowls, and pretty deep too.  They just are what they are.

I hope she likes them!

Tea Bowls

More of those little tea bowls, cups of about 4 inch diameter...but deep, so they hold a lot of liquid. Consider wine, whiskey, juice, soup, etc.

Today's quote:

“When you are able to silence all views and words, when you get free from views and words, reality reveals itself to you and that is Nirvana. Nirvana is cessation, is the extinction. First the extinction of views and then the extinction of the suffering that is born from these views.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

Geranium cups

Geraniums all the way around these cups...in a variety of shapes. 

Quote for today:

Keep inviolate an area of light and peace within you.

Corazon Aquino

 

Drink anyone?

Some kids, giving a drink to a lamb, wearing spring coats, outside in a field.



That's the Sepia Saturday prompt this week.  Sorry, I'll have to stretch the connection again.

Go see what the other Sepians have come up with over here, and go click on the names at the bottom of the page.

 Some of my designs for a drink or two...

And the critters I used to have in my life.  (Yes, I was definitely headed toward the Old Cat Woman title.)

And there are a few of them not in this photo!  This is a winter scene.  But notice I already was putting pottery around in the garden on my patio.

 Same patio in the summertime.  No clue what most of the plants were, but they loved getting outside for 6 months or so.

My connection for Sepia Saturday?  Animals.  Things to drink out of.  Outside...I know that's really stretching it.

Making things to order

Another vendor at the Tailgate market ordered these cups...and I think was pleased with them.

I like the way the glaze runs into the indented place on each side...a bit hard to see.

This ladybug mug sold last week to another artist.  May it bring her inspiration!

As a hobbiest potter, I make a few things a week...and yet I still make more than I sell each week.  So that means many tubs of pottery stacked in my studio.  As well as hammering away at those that just don't make the grade...little dings or not quite right glazes are becoming more noticeable for me.

So making things to order is a great idea for me, if you all can wait until the studio kiln can do the firing cycles that a community studio goes through.  Remember not to expect colors and sizes to be exactly as you imagine, and you'll probably be happy.

 However, for savvy shoppers who order well in advance, this might be just the right idea.  They'll get what they want, and I won't have that inventory storage problem.

So I've been offering a nice discount to those who order things from me.

I love win-win situations, don't you?

Great feeling glaze

An accidental glaze.  It's probably some amber, with eggshell sponged over it.  Or???
The shapes were also fun, kind of female with bulges in various appropriate places.

To sponge glazes, just have a little bowl of glaze, a very dry-damp sponge, and dip the sponge into glaze, then lightly onto the bisque-ware pot.  There should be some speckling, not a solid print.  Move around the pot to get fairly even covering of little spots. If the sponge gets too full of glaze, just squeeze it cleaner then keep working. Dry the first color, clean the sponge, and do the same with a second color of glaze...making sure all the interior is covered.  NOTE, you can even pour a solid coat into the interior with one glaze, then just sponge the other color over it.

I loved the feel of the glaze when I held it, or placed my lips to the rim.  Not slick, nor was it dry like many matt glazes feel.

But it was time to let this set of cups go. A good friend was obliging.  I asked her to throw out some of my earlier pieces that I'd given her.  I do hope she did, since they are embarrassing no end.  But she's used to them.  I'll check and see if she re-gifted these some day.

Tea bowls or cups?

When is it a tea bowl?
When is it a cup?

I have no training in making tea bowls...so of course I defer to masters with many years of that heritage...which I believe is sacred to certain potters.

So without any mistique, I've thrown some slightly imperfect, losely decorated white clay cups.  The decoration was just cobalt carbonate stain, painted onto the leather hard greenware.

And one of the goals was to make indents in the sides where fingers/thumbs could get a better grasp on the cup.

I made 10 of these, which will be mix or match at pretty reasonable prices.

And then there was the second tea jar with cork lid.

The orange glaze (over white clay) is imperfections in the bottom of a tub of glaze.  It's gone now, so you might say this is one of a kind.  (You also might say each of my works is!)