Monday 31 October 2011

New Art Panel

Getting ready for the Christmas rush I decided to make a few new pieces to include in the shows I am going to be doing soon including this Display Panel. 
It comes with the acrylic stand ready to display and I like that you can place it on a surface rather than the traditional hanging on a wall so it's like a table top work of art that you can touch and run your finger across.



I was inspired to make this whilst walking over the South Downs nearby where I live.  The meadows were full of white clover seed heads bobbing up above the grass and bouncing in the wind.  While lazing in the grass I took a lovely picture on eye level with the grass so it looked like you were submerged within it like a mouse might feel.


 I am so proud of this one that I've put it on both my Etsy and Folksy shops. I'd better go make another one for the Christmas shows now!

Monday 24 October 2011

Fabulous Folksy........The Wild and Wonderful!

Hasn't it been a while? 

This week inspiration comes from a good old fashion fry up breakfast........oommm makes me hungry :)

Click on the image to go to their Folksy Shop


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  Fried Egg Soap- lemon scented - vegan & suitable for sensitive skin from Bits N Bobs


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Kitsch Baked Bean Tin Earrings from Silver Tongue Devil


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Tea Cosy from FELTastic Accessories


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Tin Can Tap Top Teapot from Rebecca Sims Ceramics


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Breakfast Time Handbag from weaveandstich.com


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Pink Pig - Fine Art Print by ialbert


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TEN 10 FAT SAUSAGE KNITTED & PAN PLAYSET EYFS CHILDMINDER TOY NUMBER NURSERY SEN from RocketDog


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Handthrown left handed mug in stoneware by Caractacus Pots


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Speckled egg in pink egg cup from Hearts of Dough



Thanks to those who create these beautiful wonders x









Wednesday 19 October 2011

Woop Woop!

Another reason to smile today -


 My coasters are on the front page of Folksy!  Yay!  
I don't mean to brag but it's these little things that make a huge different to my confidence with regard to selling my work.  It's that much appreciated boost.....happy days :)


I hope you too have had a little confidence boost recently x

Monday 17 October 2011

Don't Try This At Home....

Well do if you want but please don't blame me if things go drastically wrong and you end up with shattered pieces of clay covering the entire inside of your oven!

Let me explain. In a desperate attempt to speed up the drying process for a few last minute pieces I have made for a show I am doing at the end of the week, ( why to I always leave things to so last minute?! ) I had the genius idea ( actually the soon to be OH had this genius idea, I will remind him of this if it goes belly up ;) of bunging my work in the oven on a low heat for a while to help speed the drying time up.

I usually dry my pieces slowly and hence evenly by letting them lounge about on my drying shelves for as long as they very well need - as clay can be a bit temperamental sometimes and get huffy and crack if not treated with the due respect it deserves, but we'd recently watched that brilliant 'How It's Made' programme where it showed porcelain sinks being made, and once leather hard (for those that don't know leather hard is a term used for clay when it is still visibly damp but has dried out enough to be handled without deforming),  they put them in these essentially massive ovens and cooked them for a couple of days at 80 degrees centigrade.  Well I love a good experiment and though I usually leave the playing about with my clay work when I have the time and when it is not quite so paramount that I actually have some work to sell, I had to give it a go!  So today I have spend my time 'cooking' my recent works ready for a show on Friday! In the oven. In the kitchen... madness.......


Unfired 'leather hard' coasters and mini plaques


In the oven they go!                                                                                               

 
                     BEFORE                                                                                         AFTER

Now all that's needed is glazing and firing ( in an actual kiln this time ) and then hopefully all done!
The sticky thing is I wont really know if this has been successful until they come out of their kiln firing on Thursday evening!

Arhh......

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Recent Inpsiration



 

  





 

 





I have recently been coming up with new ideas for products and art works and so have been taking my camera every where with me and snapping all sorts of things I see in the hope of incorporating these ideas into my work.
It's funny what inspires us and by taking pictures I keep a record of sorts of what I was thinking and feeling at the time that I can later use when creating in my workshop.

Sometimes it can be the strangest thing that gets my creative juices flowing, like in the picture of that funny looking creature ( prizes for anyone who knows what that is!? ).  The perfect symmetry of his face and his huge staring eyes are just fascinating! He was making this defensive knocking noise as well which made it all seem so exotic and alien.
And those dandelion like puffy seed heads are so fragile and soft and ready to blow away any instant, I ponder and long to recreate that feeling into one of my pieces.  

Inspiration comes to us in so many ways.........what is your inspiration?  x x
I'd love to hear your comments



Monday 3 October 2011

New Gift Tags

   Ceramic gift tags impressed with wild flowers and letter stamps sayings with melted recycled glass.


I thought these little tags would be a lovely touch to special gifts, they are individually handmade and each one is unique.


Great for attaching to presents or slipping into cards for birthdays, Christmas, graduations or exams.  They can be used time over again and can be kept as sentimental keep sakes to remember the occasion there were received.


Soon to be on my Folksy and Etsy Stores.