Fresh From The Kiln

Just a quick update to let you all know what I've been up to. It's less than 5 months until the annual Wild Rose Renaissance Faire!! I know that sounds like a lot of time, but when you don't have much time, and you want to build up a lot of inventory, 5 months is almost nothing! I spent the fall creating inventory for my Etsy shop, and that turned out so well that now I am behind on creating new items to replace the ones I've sold.However, it's now time to focus on this medieval event, and so I have begun by brainstorming ideas and narrowing them down, and then mostly making molds for the pieces I want to create.

Here are a few pics, and just a hint at what you'll be seeing from me soon!

Here's some molds and some whistles (unpainted), and some pendant designs...

These are molds, or else molds for molds...in other words, the positive image I'll be creating a mold from. Lots of hard work, to be sure...

Some pellets for ??? You'll just have to wait and see!

These little guys need some pupils and some glaze, but they've already stolen my heart!

Christmas Gifts & New Year's Items

I had a really great Christmas and New Year's this year. The kids were a little bit older, understood a little bit more, and no one got sick. So overall you can't ask for more!

I also enjoyed making a few items for relatives. One of which was a set of cute elephant m

ugs. The first mug I ever made when I got my first bag of clay along with the kiln from ebay, was an elephant mug. But I like it so much better when the clay was blank and grey than after I painted it in a safari look. So I decided to try again with a grey look, and this time go a little whimsical with a face. I made a girl and a boy elephant, which I liked quite a bit, though the girl was much taller than the lad!

I also decided to play around with my colored porcelain. I have been wanting to make some bowls with it, as well as play around with some slip. So I did both. The only thing I didn't like was that the bowls were FAR from round, as I couldn't slump them as round as I'd wa

nted. But otherwise I think they're quite charming. I will say, however, that I have to get used to how much the porcelain shrinks. The bowls were MUCH larger before drying and firing!

Last were some family trees for the grandparents. The coloring was a tad too dark, so I got some glass enamel paint to use to try to bring out the type more. They both loved them, but I will make the rest with the lighter brown color...

And for the new year, I decided to make some Arkan Sonneys.