Wishing

Part of this day I've spent wishing about several things.

And for now, one of my latest and recurring wishes is that I had a studio in my home. Hopefully someday. It's been a goal for awhile now. Somedays it seems like a dream, yet this dream is alive! For now, Clayworks is closed until next week which is not fun at all.

Somehow I'll pass the time between now and then. This reminds me of how much I love to play with clay and the gift it is to me. The countdown till when the studio reopens continues!

Raku!

Here are a few pics from the raku firing on Wednesday. Took these with my blackberry--- so they're not the best. Glaze on this bird house is white crackle and superstition. Found out afterwards that those two glazes don't give the best results when used together. The white crackle worked- and well, the superstition didn't give the variation in color.

I'm thinking of making some more raku bird houses although they won't keep the water from seeping in--- well, if bird houses are out in the world on a branch for example, water will come in too. Hmmm

The raku kiln was hot!

Here's the same bird house in the trashcan with burnt newspaper around it.... the top can be barely seen in the middle of the pic.

The pics are out of order-- this is the very hot bird house going into the trash can. Right before it went in, Dorothy sprayed some water on the white crackle--- this helped it to crackle.

The bird house amidst others (in the middle) in the raku kiln.

The raku kiln once opened. Have missed spending alot of time at clayworks recently. Have been working lots. Gotta change that--- at least I have work.

More Bird Houses

Well, I have a new blackberry and am still trying to figure out how to use it. Managed to take these pics and email them to my own email address, but for some reason they're small! Above is a bird house made by Adrienne Dellinger as I went to her home sale this past weekend. Amazing pottery! I've learned so much from her as an instructor. She was the one who first encouraged me to try making bird houses. Didn't get many pics of her and Greg's home. Both are potters; more of their pottery can be found at www.potswithpurpose.com

And their daughter is an artist too! She drew on these tiles and they had them for sale. :) Here is a bigger bird house that I made tonight. When it dries a bit I'll let the air out from the inside. This IS the kind of form that is my favorite for bird houses! Will make two small holes at the top of it so I can put some wire in it to hang it. I will try and write more frequently here... life is quite busy with work, etc... My short term plan is to make more bird houses.

Birds

Finally! Pics of the finished bird houses and birdfeeder. This one above has the words of the Prayer Attributed to St. Francis on it. I REALLY like how the glazes turned out. Used black mason stain to bring out the words... wish I had written down all those glaze colors down. I think this one has combos of mystery green, and for sure has catherine's oribe, and alfred's blue- oh and all with a few glass stones placed at the top which ended up running a bit too much.

Bird things and a flower pot. I think these glazes are catherine's oribe with alfred's blue at the rim and a piece of glass. The colors are rich! Some flower will be happy soon in its new home here.

The purple on this bird feeder is from a clear glaze stone placed at the rim. I had both pieces fired separately. What a fun bird feeder!

The bird feeder from the other side. Hopefully, the birds will be happy getting food out of this!
I will definitely make more bird feeders in time.

This one has spotted shino for a base glaze. Then I poured alfred's blue and mystery green over it. I'm pleased---
I will make more bird feeders and bird houses--- as these firsts gave me some more ideas!

I must admit that sometimes it's hard to decide just what to make. My home is full of pottery and sometimes it is hard to decide just what to make. All I can say now is that some type of bird houses and bird feeders are in order in the days to come!