Under the Sea Bowls

This is the first bowl with the "Under the Sea" theme, I am making more now but I am a very slow person, plus I took a week off and went to the Smokey Mountains, TN and Asheville, NC. I live in Tampa Florida, so I usually don't see the the colors of the fall, so we decided to go before the red and yellow leaves on the trees fell down. We were lucky the colors were so pretty but it was sooo cold. I will post some photos of the trip later. Now I am back at the studio making more "Under the Sea" bowls, my friends keep telling me that this may sell well for Christmas since it is Florida theme.

I will be part of "Made by Hand" show on November 17th, which is next Saturday..... and I don't have things ready yet!!!

I will keep you posted.

Blue Birds Bowls

I am practicing again the majolica style and I have to say I like it a lot. I did my blue birds on the tree again, and I am thinking on many more new designs.

Tumblers

Like I said, I have been practicing new forms besides bowls. I was making tumblers and trying different glazes, but in the end I think I always do the same, draw something on them. Here are my two first carved tumblers. I carved them free hand when they were on leather hard, then I add some red oxide wash and cleaned them and finally I add celadon green glaze and fired cone 6.

Pitcher # 2

Here is the second pitcher, I used "Ohata" and "Mean green" glazes, fired cone 10

Pitchers

I am resting a little of making pitchers, like I said in the previous post, handles are really hard to make. I am now practicing with tumblers and I will post all the tumblers I have made in the next post (I need to take more photos). But I did some pitchers, actually I made four, here is one, I decorated it with the slip trailing tool, I used a purple glaze and fired cone 6.

This one is going to my mom's house, she said she like it :)

Under the Sea

I have been practicing vases, tumblers and pitchers lately. My teacher told me that I should practice more shapes besides bowls. Pitchers are hard to make; first of all, I have to  center on the potters' wheel 3 pounds of clay, more if possible. After that, make a cylinder, the walls should be thin because they will carry water and it should not be too heavy to manipulate.  Then, a shape should be formed and, depending on the shape, the spout should be molded.

After that, it should dry enough to trim the bottom and add the handle, and OMG! handles are so hard to do. Maybe that's why I am making tumblers now, no handles needed hahaha!!

Any way, the one here is a piece that refused to be a pitcher, so I made a vase :) and since I started to make the top in a scalloped shape, it kind of reminded me of waves, so I thought the best way to decorate it was to draw a marine theme with jelly fishes and marine plants.

I carved the design and also used some slip for the final touches. When in bisque I added some iron oxide wash before applying celadon green glaze. The piece was fired on cone 6.

The Hobbits

I am a fan of mostly everything that is related with fairies, elves, gnomes... so when a classmate didn't want his pot anymore and offered to me I say quickly yes!

Somehow from the moment I saw it I imagine a houses in a starry night and what better houses can be that Hobbits' houses.... maybe I am influenced by all the advertisement of the new movie, I just can't wait to see it. Below is my version of the Hobbits's ville, if I coul only reproduced it in my garden. . . maybe I should try!

Square plate!

A friend from the studio suggested me to try bigger bowls to have more space for  designs with the slip trailing  tool. Since, I still have a hard time making big bowls on the wheel, she said, why not try hand building instead. So I did, and I ended up making a square plate. Thank you Judy!

Moraditos/ Purple

I am tying new colors for my slip decorated bowls. I am also trying new designs to perhaps doing some sets. Here are four different designs in purple.
 

 

Starry Night

I have been thinking a lot about architecture lately and how the shape of the buildings model the character of a city. I am from Lima, a big and chaotic city, a city that if it weren't for it's countless treasures would be very hard to live in. To live in Lima you need to be strong and not only physically but mentally, it's a city that strengthen your character. I am not a good example of a Limena girl, I am to weak, and sensitive, even though I miss Lima. Maybe I am the person who likes to complain a lot when I'm there: I am always complaining about traffic and how rude people can be and, yet, I miss it.  I am living now in Tampa Bay, a city that  many expatriate friends of mine call "paradise". The calm and warm water of the Gulf of Mexico is our permanent swimming pool, trees are always green, flowers are always in bloom and nature walks next to you, sometimes way to close to me--I am not a fan of frogs, toads, snakes or alligators.

I watched an Argentinian movie lately, Medianeras/ Sidewalls, what a beautiful film! It's about how city architecture somehow impacts the modeling of the character of the population of the city; it's also what my boyfriend would call chick-flick, a romantic comedy film.

Anyway, with all these things in my head I sit and start drawing on my bowl, thinking that I have used chocolate brown a lot and I should start a new color, so I painted it with blue, and what goes with dark blue? well I think "night". I was just thinking of drawing buildings and trees and some stars on the sky but little by little my houses start looking a bit more magical. Who will live in these houses? Maybe I just have to make more and find out....!!!

Celadon Green

I think I had finally accomplished the first step on my route to becoming a fine potter. I have thrown, decorated and glazed four bowls that are almost the same size, yehhhhh!! or should I say yay!!!

I like them so much, even though I shouldn't feel so very proud of myself :) Here they are:

Tick, tick, tick, tick..

Tick, tick, tick, tick was the noise I heard when I went to throw away the garbage. But from where did that noise come? Tick, tick, tick, tick and silence, and then again, tick, tick, tick, tick. There are so many unidentified noises outside in the garden, I just had figure it out a few others, like the quirk, quirk, quirk, quirk . . . , I recently discovered are from some frogs, or are they toads? living in the little mailbox and close to the plant pots. I always thought the frogs said, "cucu," like the children's song: "Cucu, cantaba la rana, cucu, debajo del agua . . ." or maybe, the frogs/toads really speak English here in Tampa Bay, Florida.

But I am digressing from my story, back to the tick, tick, tick, tick. I just had to open my eyes and lift my head to find out the one making that noise was a Red-bellied Woodpecker. It was not exactly as the only woodpecker I have known, Woody Woodpecker from the Warner Brothers, but it is really beautiful.

Blue birds

Birds, birds birds...

Plates

Lately I have been playing a lot with the silp trailing tool, here is one of the latest plates. Making an OK photo took me more time than creating the plate (!)

This plate was throw on the wheel, and decorated with the slip trailing tool, then glazed with Celadon Blue and fired in cone 10.