Bird's Mobile

Movil de pajaritos

More Birds

Plant Stakes Birds

Sgraffito again :)

My teacher was so nice as to give me 2 more vases; i don't understand why she doesn't like them, they were in greenware so i was able to play with sgraffito again. It was so nice of her especially since i still cannot make vases like that on the wheel myself . . . thank you, Kathy!!!

The vases still need to be fired and glazed to be finished.  

I am doing many birds lately....  and some circles too..

Birds, birds, birds....

Pajaritos de colores que vuelan hacia mi, larala, larala, lala...

Playing with Glass... again

Squares, squares, little squares, tiny little squares..... :)

Clay Basket #5

I made a new clay basket.... it seems like one a week is not happening just yet, but i shall persist... I took some photos of it just after i finished modeling. I should take some photos of the painting process, it is a messy, messy process. I am still practicing on handles...  there are so many out there :)

Clay Basket

This is basket number four... I am trying to make it the most similar i could to a real straw basket. Every time i see one, I try to focus more on how the straw is been woven and try to think the easiest way to reproduced them in clay. As every one know the best way to be better in something is practicing, starting tomorrow (always tomorrow), I will try to make one basket every week. Let see if I succeed in this goal.

Esta es la cuarta canasta de arcilla que hago... estoy tratando de que sean cada vez lo mas parecidas a las canastas de paja. Cada vez que veo una canasta de paja, trato de enfocarme en como la paja ha sido tejida y pienso cual sera la forma mas sencilla de reproducirla en arcilla. Como todo mundo sabe la manera mas efectiva de ser bueno o buena en algo es practicando... asi que, a partir de manana (siempre manana) voy a tratar de hacer una canasta a la semana. Veremos si logro mi cometido.

Jewelry

Inca's designs...

 

Tray

hkjhjkhjkh

Tocapus

I think I spend more time thinking of my next project than actually doing it . . . what can I do, I asked myself, that will not require much material but will let me play with different colors of glass?  What can it be?  It will have to be something that will work in  bigger proportions . . .  I ended up making coasters using Tocapus designs.

Tocapus may sound like a funny and strange word if you are not Peruvian or if you are not familiar with Incan culture. Tocapus are designs in the Incas' clothing—sometimes they are embroidered and some other times they are part of a complex design of woven textiles. During Inca's time, cloth with this kind of design was considered luxurious.  Therefore, just the Inca himself, the nobles, priest, and the top echelons of  Inca society could use them. 

Nobody knows for certain the exact meaning of the Tocapus, but we Peruvians believe (and there are some theses validating this) that Tocapus are a pictographic language, just like the Kanjis for Chinese and Japanese culture. In other words, one Tocapu (just like one Kanji) means one idea or one word. There is the believe that the Tocapus in the Inca's cloak tell the story of his lineage, wealth and achievements under his reign.

So back to my story, I made coasters having some Tocapus designs on my mind.   The last one has been transformed into a tiny plate.

You can read a little more about Tocapus here:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909586,00.html

Sgraffito

Cuando mi profesora me ofrecio darme el jarron en crudo que ya no le gustaba, dije que lo aceptaba mas rapido que volando. Tenia ganas desde hace tiempo de jugar con el esgrafiado, tambien queria llenar de huequitos un jarron, pero siempre me daba pena destruir los pocos bowls que me salen bien en el torno, pero con uno que no hice yo misma, no hay pena, asi que lo pinte de marron y empece a pensar que diseno ponerle, finalmente me decidi por unos adornos que vi en el catalogo de la Unicef, no eran exactamente como el que acabe haciendo pero me dio la idea de los circulos y las espirales, y asi quedo. Ahora que ya empece otra vez el esgrafiado, quiero hacer mas y masssss....

Hallmark

This is my stamp, my signature, my hallmark, the way I mark all my ceramic pieces. The idea was to create something meaningful to me and something with my name in it. I ended up recreating an old drawing, not very unique, but deeply rooted in me... this is the typical drawing that all children (at least most of the Peruvian ones) make when the teacher asks them to do a free hand painting, "un dibujo libre," as they said in Peru. It is of the sun coming out behind the "cerros", the Andes . . . funny how it also works to represent my name's abbreviation, MG.

I am still thinking of a way to mark my glass pieces with it.