Some Holly Jolly potters & sculptures

Tonya's wonderful "space ship". I don't know if that's what she ended up calling it, but that's what I called it.

Marcia and James' discussion...about what?

The teachers, A.J. and Geoff, showing off their new Tee's.

The majority of the potters at the Clay Studio of Black Mountain Center for the Arts. From left, Maureen, Bette, Elise, Sharon, Jane, Margaret, Barb (me), A.J., Wendy and Marcia. Back row, Geoff and Brad.

Margaret's oceanic scuplture and my goddess lamp.

Most of my pottery that was in the market.

Bette, Wendy and Geoff, having a bit of fun together!

My pitcher in the gallery. I think this is the functional pot I feel best about. Porcelain, with various glazes on it.

My bird (which used to be a hummingbird, but I gave up that idea after looking at it a few times). Raku glazed earthenware with beads and feathers.

Margaret's oceanic sculpture on the left, my Amazon Goddess center, and Tonya's sculpture on the right.

Fun glazes

I'm so happy that this pitcher is finally finished glazing...I think of it as a fun sangria pitcher...or tea, whatever. It's P-5 porcelain, with various glazes...the red is Mayco, and there's Sumo clear, and HR Satin as well.

I actually love the polka dots. But hey, I like kitch things.

This is another pot that I'm pleased as punch with a second glazing. Cause the greens have just been burning away, so I added blue Mayco on top of them...and now it has fun water-color effects.

The Sumo clear has some HR Satin and then stumped on blue, which on second glazing came out all full of fun swirley things. Right now it's still cooling and pinging away behind me.

Amazon goddess & others

This porcelain vase is not going to the Holly Jolly show next Friday. I like it too much to sell at this point.

I am hoping the hummingbird mask will be displayed on the wall in the gallery.

It is raku fired, with beads and feathers added.

another detail of the glaze colors

This tall pot has been on the top shelf in the studio for months, but I'm not displaying it at the Holly Jolly show either. Just have become too attached to it, I guess.

Detail of Amazon Goddess, which I hope will be in the gallery exhibit.

She's done in porcelain, with a mahogany stand.

This raku style piece has no glaze on inside, but just it's lovely grey smoked clay finish.

A porcelain sangria pitcher, or perhaps for iced tea.

There is a sister pitcher, a bit taller, which is being reglazed, and has red on it.

nothing new under the sun

But I'm considering some old pots differently.
Now I've been asked to submit a picture that represents my work for the Gallery show next month. And some of these are kind of old, so probably won't be considered...but they may be better than the newer ones.

This is a newer one, porcelain with torn pieces applied at the top of a thrown pot. Glazes are both Mayco Stroke N Coat and the studio "Matt Bronze Green with Nutmeg and clear as well for the green area...sponged on.

I like this pretty big caldron, but it's all Mayco glazes, so isn't representative of the fun things I'm doing with glazes. But it's still in the running, even though the base is cracked.

This is at the top of the raku glazed pots I just finished in a class.

And this is also...
beginning to see my problem? Not many are in the same style!

A raku fired earthenware mask.

Raku small figure

Older moon dancer, wich was from last year actually!

The second moon dancer, and there aren't any more yet. I'm working on a larger porcelain one now, with a more natural woman's figure.

Speaking of porcelain...

There are several of these lantern shaped figures, this one is Bridgett.

And the largest porcelain of this series, so far. There are a couple of pitchers yet to be fired.

More Raku work

This hummingbird mask has been sitting around for about a year, waiting for me to get in the mood/ and get the right colors to glaze her. She is unfinished, because the piece will have feathers above the face when I've gone to the store and found what she needs. I do like the Mayco glazes as well as Raku glazes...a combination of colors that are true and colors that are metalic.
I was amazed that the white earthenware worked so well also, in raku work, with the sudden temperature changes.

This is the same hooded figure that I posted last time. Now I re-fired her with some more raku glazes...so the bare matt-black clay is no longer so dominant. Of course other folks now say they liked her better before...but I like her better now. You can see the movement of the clay skirt and so forth with the glazes that kind of blend in and out in the light.

And I think the white cowl for her front helps also...tying her white face to the arms and the greenery necklace.

This is one of my masks...which I made last year and never got the right glazes to do the final work.

The Mayco Stroke N Coat glazes are the white, black and oranges, with Raku clear over them.

The eyes were yellow, and it burned down to white. I'm ok with that.

Raku class

First you've got to figure out how to get it into the kiln...which Geoff is showing Bette how he thinks it might work. The pieces on the far side of the table are mine...before being raku-ed.

It's definitely a blur of activity, as Geoff puts a hot pot with tongs in the can for Pat (center) while Marcia in the background is working on her closed can that already had a hot pot placed inside, and she is about to fling a wet towel over it as it smokes and reduces the pot from getting oxygen, thus the black places on the bare clay.

The kiln is to the left (large canister) where Geoff is again removing a hot pot. Bette on the right is about to smother her can which has a hot pot inside with newspapers that are flaming up.

Wendy shows how she glazed some of her raku pots. We had a "critique" before the kiln got up to temperature, where we shared how we got some of our results, and asked each other questions.

Now just what does that gesture mean, Bette?

Maureen and Marcia discuss how a certain color was achieved.

Pat shows her pot which we all gave appreciation.

I made the rest of these pots.- a slab built piece that came out with a rainbow in the glaze...nice surprise.

Another slab built piece, this time with torn slabs reconstructed. The same blue glaze is on the outside. Inside was a clear crackle, which turned silver in places.

This is a small piece, all extruded pieces assembled. I tested some Mayco Stroke and Coat under clear crackle raku glaze.

This little goddess is only glazed as highlights, the red sleeve linings, and greenery done with Mayco under clear crackle. I kind of like the bare black clay. I've been seeing some really lovely pieces in books.