replacement Bart the cat

My dear friend had a birthday way back on the 18th of July.
I had finished making but not firing her 2 cats in clay.
Then I mailed them in a rickety box, and Bart got broken.
I felt so bad...er badly...and made another cat for her.
But it again took several weeks.

So here is Bart number 2. Or maybe kitten #2-1/2.

I had just 2 pictures of his coloring...and putting it onto a clay figure obviously left a lot to be desired.

The cats did end up different sizes, since the second Bart is a bit larger, I'm pretty sure.

And I made a little tray for them to sit on...if Jinni wants to use it. That's mainly because Fisher, the remaining cat of the first litter, didn't have a bottom.

The tray may just be a Birthday Card. The new Bart does have a bottom. So Jinni will be sure to be able to tell which is which. The real cats have absolutely no problem knowing which one is which.

Love to my friend with whom I attended high school in St. Louis.

Jinni's kitties

These are the ceramic versions of Jinni's kitties. One is a Maine Coon cat, named Fisher. The other is a lovely tuxedo (perahps also Coon) named Bart.

These were Jinni's birthday present this year. She sent me photos of her darlings. I tried to replicate them, but of course I took some artistic license. So did glaze and clay.

There is actually a black and white tray that they are supposed to sit upon...like good little figurines. It is coming out of the kiln today...hopefully. With clay you have to always put that wish in there.

I enjoyed seeing the reactions of all the folks in the studio when I made these cats. I may have to try dogs...but there are so many different breeds. And if the cat were not a nice black and white, say a striped orange or grey...it would have been much harder to glaze. I guess the stripes might not have made it. And I did mix a grey glaze once, but they are hard to do. Not to mention considering my cat who's tricolor. Oh my, I don't think I'll go there!

But I'm also going to have a big Bast cat goddess pretty soon.

Yoga Goddess & new glazes

This red clay lady has some eggshell glaze lightly applied, leaving her mainly her natural color, of course. Appropriately.

Close up showing some of the glaze.

Close up of her earthy feet, which have something like roots and indeed, she is related to a tree in many ways.

Other foot and root detail.

Yoga Goddess was fired in an electric kiln to cone 6. She stands about 20 inches high.

When a picture was taken in a different environment, the red clay looks different in color. This yoga goddess belongs in Deb Vingle's collecion of art. Deb is my yoga teacher.

This bowl is Little Loafers clay with a sponged on glaze combo. The bowl was thrown, then split on the 4 sides, and then reattached where the splits were overlapped. Top diameter is about 10 inches.

I like this glaze especially. A thrown base, with carved foot area, then slab applied in little torn patches on the upper area.

The sponged on glaze combination is my favorite glaze at this time. This vase stands about 13 inches high.

Detail of the foot area.

Inside the patched pieces of slab have been smoothed together, creating a seamless interior.

Two new goddesses

Two new goddesses!
Whoopee for me. I'm almost satisfied with them. Well, I'm never completely satisfied, but let's say I can let these go and be pleased.

I'm calling this our Dervish goddess...thanks to Linda's reminding me of the hats and whirling shapes the Dervishes dance...though of course they aren't even women in reality. But since this one is pink, she speaks for herself.
She is lowfired white earthenware, and of course has the tree roots I so dearly love to put on my goddesses whenever I can.
Here's a close up of my Titmouse goddess...holding her nest as well as the tiny bird.
At the back of her skirt is the little bunny.
While to her side sits the white squirrel...like the ones in Brevard, NC.
She is also white earthenware, fired to cone 06 with Mayco Storke n Coat glazes.

Glaze test results

Yesterday's class was looking at 5 sets of glaze tests. And talking about them to learn what we were looking at. I learned a lot, not just about glazes too. Marty, Cathy, Wendy, Erin, and I listened to Annie Singletary's experiences with glazes.

But on a personal note, my glaze tests were fired in 2 kilns...at different temperatures. So that was the first basic difference that was noted. The glaze which was supposed to be a satin matt looked great as a matt at cone 06, as fired in the studio. And the cone 04 kiln had a different cooling and heating cycle, using some kind of Enviro-Vent, whatever that is. But that set of glaze tiles (same exact batch of glaze) came out with high sheen. The recipe was designed for 04, I'm pretty sure, by Val Cushing.

And did I get a grey? Nope. Lots of turquoise and green and blues. So Annie said she'd send me a Mason Stain number for grey...which is a source of premixed colors that are to be added to a glaze. But since I don't mix my own, I probably won't be able to use it...unless I add it to some of the glazes the studio has. That might work...if they'll let me. Maybe I'll test that sometime.

The grey was intended for use on my tree sculptures. So I will eventually have something that replicates tree bark. Isn't it funny that earth chemicals don't make grey glaze? Especially since dirt is usually that color. Not to mention every tree out there. Where do they get the chemicals that combine into that nice soft grey? Somehow not from any of the ones available to pottery studio glazes.

But wait, the paints and manufactured glazes have black, white, and shades of grey in between. So it isn't that there isn't a source of "greyness" pigments. It's just that it isn't available in the pallette of chemicals that are mixed for studio glazes. They can't do red either. Glass often has nice reds, but the only red that pottery can have, besides the rust colors from iron, is the copper red that's achieved in a reduction kiln. Reduction means the oxygen is reduced in the firing which allows copper to turn a bright ruby red...rather than the shades of green it usually has.

I thought of glass because it also goes into a kiln and is melted. But it's not the same as the glass of a glaze on a pot. I don't know why though.

I found black copper carbonate at 2% added to a base glaze forms a nice pale turquoise, so I may try that, if I ever want it. I also learned (thanks to Erin) that plumbers cement is a great glue for clay. I've been stuck with super glue all these years (pardon the pun)...but she says she can use it for lots of different places, and then paint on top of it so it doesn't show. That's great.

I'm happy that there are manufactured glazes that mostly will be the true colors they are designed for. I'm also happy there are potters like Annie who develop new chemical formulas for glazes that aren't manufactured, and test them and then use them on their wares. Annie's pottery is sensuous and lyrical...always a joy to see and handle. Bu we go in entirely different directions. I hope sometimes my sculptures are also sensuous and lyrical. Perhaps.

Glazing of goddess trees

I've joined a great glazing class taught by Annie Singletary. The second session will be this Sat. In the meantime, I've started glazing some of my goddess trees. Here's the Tufted Titmouse Tree goddess with the glaze unfired. There are 5 little critters hugged up against her, including Mrs. Titmouse and her nest with 2 eggs.


I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my mixture of glazes will be ok when she's fired, to cone 06, or low firing. The glaze is commercial glazes, mixed on a pallet actually. You never know how much black and white glazes will actually change the tones.

The dried glazes look pretty cool though, giving the grey matt coloration. I hope to develop a good grey that's not high gloss.
The clay is either porcelain (P-5) or low fire earthenware. Since I'm not sure, we're staying with low firing of the glaze.

This is Tree Goddess One, the first one I made of various symbols of the goddess on a tree.
Her face isn't particularly "pretty" as I feel that goddesses are just like people, and don't look like someone from Holywood. I'm really not interested in duplicating what Disney has done.
Her heart is on her back side, or maybe she's just twisted in the wind.
Roots and branches, holes and rough textures, all point to the inspiration of nature.

Wood has it's own patina, and shapes when growing. I tried to replicate this process, though I was using clay and glazes.

With spring coming to Black Mountain, I went out and enjoyed taking pictures of various blooms yesterday.


This is a low bush, just bursting with bee-attracting blossoms.


A white piece, which is incised and cut so that it can become a lantern with a votive candle inside, she is wearing a crown, so must be a queen. Here she was waiting to be fired.

Waiting to be bisque fired, a stoneware sculpture sits on the bottom shelf in the kiln room.

This triple tree goddess represents myself and my two friends who've known each other for about 35 years. Oooh, that seems so long, and makes me feel slightly old. Hey, I'm a crone and proud of it!


She's been bisqued and is waiting on the glaze shelf. She has stain and 2 glazes on her, so I'm not doing any more glazing till I see how she comes out. Maybe next week...

I'm a community member of the Black Mountain Center for the Arts' clay studio. Which means I'm entitled to 1/4 of a kiln fired a week...based on available space. So for 3 weeks I've waited. It's a good thing, to slow me down a bit. I've had 4 other tree-goddesses bisque fired, but am not going to choose glaze or stain until I see how this one comes out. I've got 2 more creations that are dry or drying. I do hope that the glazed one is chosen first.

This tree-goddess inspiration has taken me on new paths...I never know whether she will have a face, or just the suggestion of one. It's meant being diligent to the needs of the clay, being at the studio almost daily for the month of March. I took 3 months off and hibernated from December through the winter...and am so grateful to have springtime returning.

Now I've re-retired from working part time, and am excited about gardening and creating.

The class I'm in every week "Rise Up and Call Her Name" has been giving me more inspirations about goddesses.

Contact me at goddessinclay@yahoo.com.