Tails, Brownies and Lace

Another view of the "Listen" sculpture

As suspected, the tail on "Listen" has produced problems. A few minutes before I finished cleaning up the very first rattie sculpt I nicked the tail and of course, the tip fell off. Because of this occurrence I have decided to rethink the design of her tail. Each rattie will get a rolled out "coil" tail. I will do all that by hand. It will save time and ALOT of frustration. Also, I'll be able to tuck the coil form closer to the body which will make production and shipping so much easier.

I have been keeping at least one piece from the runs that I produce and so this broken tail rattie will remain in my collection. I fired her up with the broken tail yesterday and will glue everything back in the end once she is all painted. I will add a bit of a cloth strip (like a band aid) to the broken area and I believe it will look very cute.

I pulled her out of the kiln late, late last night and I was pleased to find that everything fired beautiful. She is much smaller than I originally anticipated but that porcelain is magnificent! So gorgeous and so much detail. Now...time to order the wooden bases that will finish off each and every rattie.

Brownie slowly coming to finish

My gal "Pixie" also
getting china painted

The ratties and rodents have been overpowering the studio it's true, but in the process of all this production I have totally enjoyed the diversion both Brownie and Pixie have given me these past two weeks. Well, ok, Pixie has been here for a while now. I started her and then got really scared about putting her in the kiln to fire on the work I had done. Once I saw how Brownie fired I decided to pop Pixie in and I was so pleased to find that her color is even richer than Brownie's. Now, to remember how I did that on her. LOL

Ceramic creamer for sale

I also had some time to finally glaze a few pieces that were waiting on my bisque shelf. I have been having fun experimenting with lace and stamps. I have a ton of stuff for sale. If interested in seeing the entire selection please hop on over to my NEWS group and view the "photo" section. There is stuff there from $5 to $22. (Pssst...Mother's Day will be here before we know it!) Any questions or comments can be directed to me personally at: studiodanza@optonline.net

Have a great day everyone! It's gonna be near 50º here today! Wooo hooo!!!

Wall Hangers

Wall hanger with lace impressions

I tend to hoard things. If something rips or breaks I can not throw it away. I have a special area in my storage room for items like broken china, ripped jeans, and old pillows with lace coverings. You just never know when you'll need that special "something" to complete a project.

Recently I saw some hand built clay items online. A few of these pieces had every day objects like baskets and leaves pressed into the clay. A fascinating idea that I decided to take even further by pressing an old lace pillow into my clay. The lace left gorgeous marks that were the perfect addition to a few vessels that were less than spectacular.

Another wall hanger
Lace impressions

This afternoon I have two more of these wall hangers cookin' in the kiln with a few other items. I'm excited to bring them to finish fully with the new glazes I acquired. I'm really getting inspired by hand building and have set aside just a little bit of time after working on the visiting Mini Scarlett tomorrow for more hand building with clay.

Just a quick aside...."Listen" the rattie had her tail molded in plaster this morning. I'm very happy to say that it came out brilliantly with the use of those Legos! I'm so fired up! So very fired up about mold making right now. It's making me want to finish all the wax sculpts I started.

Behind

I'm totally behind on bloggin' here.