I’m so excited, my Day of the Dead mugs have been bisque fired!
Now that they have been fired you can tell I used white clay (last week they were grey). I now have to add clear glaze to give them a nice shiny finish. I also added a different color glaze to each of the mugs interiors. Had to up the fun-factor!
I have to say though, The top photo of the mugs where they look white, sort of makes me want to create more of these mugs but leave them unpainted. I like the matte white look. What makes them appear white is the clear glaze I applied. It’s white now but turns clear when fired in the kiln.
My skull mugs are on their way to being completed!
Next,
Onto my slab-rolled-notch-cut bowls from last week. They made it through the air drying process which means there’s a good chance they’ll make it through the bisque firing process too.
I gently smoothed out any rough surfaces today and then began painting them with under-glazes.
I painted two of the five bowls today, so I have three more to paint next week.
The rest of my pottery session was devoted to starting a new project.
I made QTY. 8 three-inch bowls.
My idea is to connect all of these little bowls to each other to create a jewelry tray. Currently all of my costume jewelry is sitting in a small tray on my dresser. It constantly gets tangled because there is nothing separating the pieces.
I plan on adding marbles into the bottom of each bowl. Here is a sample of the technique by artist PrinceDesignUK
. Glass melts to the lowest area in a piece of pottery and generally has a beautiful crackle to it. I have had quite a few failed attempts at adding glass to the bottom of my ceramics in the past, so I was deliberately looking for a project where I could try again. You see, if you add too much glass to the bottom of a pottery piece, you run the risk of the glass turning white and opaque. I’ve done that three times now. So a marble or a glass pebble is a safe way to go. It’s a consistently small uniform piece of glass and hopefully they will be a beautiful focal point to my piece.
Over this week, I have to think about whether I want to connect my bowls to a flat clay slab rectangle underneath (like a hand-built tray) or whether I want to keep them all separate and put them in wooden clementine boxes. The latter would allow me to switch them up, but connecting them all would make the piece quite unique. Hmm… what to do? I have until next Tuesday to make my decision.
If you had seen my clothes today, then you’d know I had a fun day. I was good and dirty!
But just like we say to kids, if by the end of the day you’re a total mess, it’s a sign you played hard!
I loved every minute of it!
Be Creative Mary 