Two Cool (Ice) teapots

This week I've made two teapots using Cool Ice, the porcelain which fires at Cone 6 (approx 1200).
Throwing it is fine, its the putting together without distorting anything that is tricky!  I guess I'm leaving them a little thick but then again they will shrink.....
Then of course there is the decorating ....

the one nearest the camera has a molded flower bud as the knob for the lid and a little chattering around the base.  The other one is plain for now.  I'll have my thinking cap on for a few days before starting on them.

Remember to hop over to Mud Colony and check out what others have been up to in their studios this week...

Boabs and Bottle Trees

I learnt something this week from the 'taster' of a drawing class that is part of the course I'm doing at TAFE.

I learnt that trees I had thought of as Bottle Trees are in fact the Australian Boab tree and the Bottle Tree is something different again.

How did this come about?  Well our teacher has travelled the Australian Outback extensively and for our drawing exercise produced a bag of fruit from the Boab Tree that she had collected.

Wonderful items to draw and very tactile as they have a furry coating.
Here is my sketch:

Pencil Sketch - Boab Fruit (May 2012)

The Aboriginal people used them as a food and even carved them with designs of emus and kangaroos.

You might like to see some clay work over at the studio blog at Mud Colony this week.

Back to the future and a little more jewellery

The TAFE course I am doing is actually an introductory course so in addition to the jewellery we are doing some hand building and preparing for a primitive firing day.
We have been asked to make some pots with an influence from those made traditionally in Papua New Guinea.

we are using a red raku clay and some slip

We are still putting some of our jewellery together:
Now that I have a better idea of how to use the pliers I'm happier with the results.

textured Cool Ice Porcelain, sky blue underglaze and glass beads

A little Steam Punk influence here. Cool Ice again but with iron oxide instead of underglaze.

You can also find me on Facebook: Anna's Ceramics  or check out some other clay workers over at Mud Colony.

Pouring more mud

I had hoped to have these fired for a market stall this coming Sunday but it hasn't happened yet.

slip cast and decorated with underglazes and tissue prints

tricky to slip cast these beads

not a very good photo but you can get an idea of how it looks

I'm also putting together some of my jewellery and I've made two key ring or bag danglers which I hope to sell at the Stanwell Park Markets this Sunday 6th May 2012 - they have a Facebook pagehttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Stanwell-Park-Village-MarketMake-ItBake-ItCreate-It/151790061509854?sk=wall

I'll be sharing this post to my own Facebook page: Anna's Ceramics and my Fb Group: Annas Aussie Ceramics not to mention Mud Colony...  see you around :^)