Those Lost In The Fray

"Lil Pumpkin" a sm sized pony
She is in progress and not finished

Sometimes pieces get lost in the fray here. Days, weeks, months and sometimes even years go by before I finish some of these projects. The two pieces I'm showing off today are two examples of things getting lost in the fray. For whatever reason they both got pushed to the back, back, BACK burners.

Cone 10 porcelain vase
with cone 6 glaze

The little epoxy pony has yet to find closure. I'd venture to guess that for about two years she has been "in progress". I have added to her. I have taken away from her. I have never yet been satisfied with her. This year, however I am determined to finish her. If not for my NAN 09 donation, I'll finish her for myself because it IS important to bring closure to projects. If no one wants her once she is cast and fired and looking pretty in porcelain, it will be ok. She is about to teach me even more about casting and mold making and she will teach me new lessons in working with porcelain than any classroom situation can.
My fear however is that May is just too close for a deadline for such lessons. We'll see.

Glazed and Confused

Glaze everywhere!

It's been a week of glazing here. I have so many vessels that need color that I promised myself I wouldn't throw any more clay till I had glazed a good portion of the finished pieces. So, I seriously sat down and dug my heels into the art of glazing.

Glazing is most definetly a very difficult aspect of making pottery for me. I'm not only a clutz when it comes to hand application, I'm so sloppy with my pouring and dipping methods that I'm now rather confused as to what I should try next in order to get better results. I believe I will just have to face the fact that practice is the only answer and in practicing quite a few really nice vessels will be ruined. Of course, the ones that get ruined are always the important ones.

My RESS Sponsor Award 2008

This vase came out fairly well. I'll be honest, I'm not 100% happy with it because the glazing portion just didn't turn out as I had anticipated. This was not the color I was aiming for in the least! But, I guess you can say it has a very "earthy" and "pure potter" feel which is appealing in its own way.

Carefully now....careful!

Between all the glazing and finishing up of last commissions my studio is now in "disaster" mode. I really hate when it gets this way. See? Isn't it a mess?

Messy studio

We have company coming tomorrow and I'll need to clean up down there tonight. People always want to come down into the studio and look around so I have to be ready for it. But first, my attention will be spent on Alboronzo. I was fortunate enough to obtain another copy and have a color selected for this bad boy already. He is prepped and primed and now I just need some quiet time alone to work my color on him. He is going to be amazing!

Quick shot of the soon to be CMed Alboronzo