This weeks been nice and busy. There has been lots to do around the shop. We still haven’t finished all the cleaning, but I’m leaving the cobweb and spider eviction to Steve.
We’ve also been unpacking and putting out lots of new stock, that has arrived from our lovely Cornish makers. So now we’ve got lots of stunning clocks, lamps, mice, badgers and moles.
I’ve also been back using my long neglected glass kiln. We had an online order the other day for bee and flower bunting and I realised I only had one set left. It was a little bit of a wake up call, to remind me I needed to get a bit of wiggle on. I’ve been getting used to a little bit of a break away from making glass. I still love it, but sometimes I do need to step back a bit and recharge my batteries a little. But I’m back on it again and fully committed . So much so I decided I would make some pictures and candle holders. Using some lovely white and blue streaky glass to make cloudy skies and dark waves. I made 8 candle holders and 4 pictures. I have added reactive French vanilla chips to the bottom. By adding a turquoise fine frit around them, the two glasses react and gives a lovely dark line around the chips, which looks just like pebbles on a Sandy beach. Steve added some lovely wood bases to the pictures and they headed into the shop today.
It doesn’t mean I’ve given up with the pottery. I’ve been working on some ideas. I bought some different types of clay.I’ve been using white throwing clay. I don’t throw, but I wanted a smooth clay. But it’s been a bit to sticky and plasticky, so I bought some clay with grog in. It’s ideal for hand building. I used it for the penguin and the whale. But I’m not sure I liked the rough texture when using it. So I bought some scandi clay and some toasted clay. Both will fire in a buff colour and I don’t know what the glazes will look like on them, as I’ve only got a limited amount of glazes. I’ve particularly enjoyed using the toasted clay. It’s easy to use straight from the bag and doesn’t need to much drying before I can build things. It’s also got grog in, it but it’s very fine, it gives it strength but without the rough texture. There are quite a few bits now waiting to dry. Including another whale as the first one wasn’t even in the shop for 2 days before it sold. I have enjoyed making a second and will have fun glazing it different than the first. The little circles are texture stamps. Once I’ve fired them, I can use them in future to put texture on the clay.
I added texture on this fish plaque that I’ve literally just finished making. I think I’m going to enjoy adding texture on things in the future as this was a lot of fun to make.
Can you spot the two holes one by the eye and one by the tail. I am hoping if this work, I can screw it to the wall. I may have a small problem though, I again forgot to measure before getting to far and it’s going to be a tight squeeze getting it into the kiln opps! I really must stop my imagination getting to carried away and forgetting the practicalities.
Well hopefully we are all now ready for the Easter rush.I hope the weather is good to us 🤞 maybe we will see you in the shop soon.
Janice x