Rainbow Project Finished!

I got the rainbow project out of the kiln tonight. Turned out well and a few have a surprise.

These are before the final firing. They are sandblasted and in the kiln.


Here are some of the rainbow ones. I really like the long one on the far left.

here's the surprise! I used a couple pieces of steel blue without know it. And in a lower firing kiln (fire polish) it goes silver! Crazy, eh? If it goes hotter it is blue.

Some of the stacked pieces.

A rainbow donut! :0)

And here's another one. They are time consuming to drill but look really cool when they are finished.

And I saved my favorite for last. Turned out super retro-hip groovy. That color theory class I took last year paid off. :0)

So, I'll start another project soon. And I hope to buy my very own kiln in April.

Pottery

Fresh out of the kiln! :0)

Here's a few pieces I've been working on. I also have a few top secret projects that aren't shown here. Sadly one of them cracked so I have to start over on that. Oh well. "No PPS," my instructor always says. (precious pot syndrome)

a tray. About 12" square. I've decided I don't like two colors on a piece with texture. I'll stick to one color next time.


An organic shaped pot. Was originally going to be a planter for succulents. It still might be but I glazed the inside and plants aren't crazy about that. And it "handles" well so it MAY be a serving piece of some type.

A little bird platter. It's about 14" long. The green is matte and the blue is shiny. It works but maybe considered odd by some. Its a really pretty green in person though.

So. this piece has the SAME green as the above piece but must have been put in a different spot in the kiln. So it went pink! Ha. I like this piece but its a little weird. AND for some reason I THOUGHT I was glazing it blue and khaki. oppsy.

So THESE are blue and khaki. Not sure why they call it khaki as it is sortof a terra cotta orange or sometimes brown but I like it.

A couple fun little bowls. made for someone special. (hopefully they won't see the blog, and if they do they will have to act surprised later)
A little green dish for Lily. Its a little too cute!
And here's a dish with some rattle rocks. They turned out groovy. I have a bowl of them on my bookcase that are fun to rattle. Sometimes I call them pottery pebbles and add them to potted plants for added visual interest. :0) I have another 4-5 that I'll glaze in the next week or so.

Well, there is the collection for today. I think its now time for some chic-fil-a up at Lakecreek ofcourse. And then a little glass fusing this afternoon!

Rainbow Project

I've been working on a bunch of stuff lately. Pottery, Glass, Baking... Not all at the same time ofcourse. So glass. Been working on a series of stripes and stacks. I've been calling it the rainbow project for lack of a better name. They aren't quite done but making good progress. They have one or two more firings to go. Here's a few photos:

Some circles cut and the jewelry blank ready for cutting.
Some fun on the wet saw. It's kind of a big blade for cutting jewelry but it works. I am still not so totally sure how it doesn't cut my fingers off.

Closeups of a few pieces. I really like how the top one turned out. It's kindof retrohip.
All cut up and edges shaped and ground. Now ready to be fired again. They will be fired next week I think. So stay tuned.

And tomorrow some pottery will be coming out of the glaze kiln so my NEXT post COULD be on pottery. Ya never know. Although if the pieces look like poop then I am not posting them. :0)
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A Soap Failure (sortof)

I've been using natural colorants in my soap making lately. Cocoa powder, red clays, spices, etc. And I've noticed that some of them seem to be making the soap gritty feeling. Exfoliating is ok but that wasn't my plan. I wanted a nice smooth feeling soap. So I tried another batch using no colorants to see how that turns out. I poured about half the batch into plastic soap molds as I've done a few times before. But the soap must have too much goodness (shea, cocoa, jojoba) in it making it too soft to use in molds. I let it cure four days (normally I'd do 2) and even put it in the freezer for an hour and the soap refused to come out of the molds. I had to spoon it out and then try to reshape it. Ofcourse I did all of this reshaping with no gloves so now I have raw soap burns on my hands. Crazy thing about raw soap is it doesn't usually burn right away but later. Lovely. So I have chemically burned hands and semi-ugly but good smelling soap. So there you have my adventure in soap making. Don't worry my hands will be normal in a day or two. They just sting.

I haven't cut the large block yet but will in a few days once it sets up some more. And then I'll cure the bars for another 6 weeks.