Ceramic plant pots

I've got another craft class to tell you about today.  I've been so busy with life that I've done very little crafting outside of my classes, so you'll get a few craft class posts for the next few weeks I'm afraid!  I'm missing sewing and crocheting and embroidering so much that I need to carve out some time for it.

Back in January I took a class with Nat of Upsydaisy Craft at The Malt Cross, Nottingham which is a lovely old music-hall turned pub which runs cultural events and craft classes in their basement.

The class was to make a couple of plant pots from scratch.  Form them from clay, embellish and decorate and glaze.  Nat was a great teacher, she showed us the basics and then let us run wild.  You didn't hear any "you can't do that" from her, which I love in a teacher.  Above is a first attempt that I wedged and started again.  I formed it round a cardboard tube covered in brown paper, but didn't like the frilly edge I made.

I liked this attempt better.  A simple rolled pot with some cut out bunnies on it.  They were made with punches, they're not hand cut!

I made two and both featured a  deliberate join.  Some of Nat's examples had this feature and I really liked it.

I used letter punches and cut out the letters to make a cheesy pun on this one.  My parents always thought Aloe Vera was funny and pronounced it "'Ello Vera", so I thought I'd run with it!  I intend to get an Aloe Vera plant (which is turning out to be a lot harder than I imagined) and put this in my bathroom.

For some reason I've included a random photo of a piece of clay rolled out and cut to shape!

This shows the back join on the bunny pot.  I love that thick edge.  When I took this photo I was cleaning up the pot using a paint brush and a small amount of water.

Then we glazed.  There were loads of gorgeous colours, but I stuck to bluey-greens to match my bathroom.

I left the words blank.  I didn't really have time to do the detailed work that painting them would have required, but I'm not keen on the finished look so I may end up filling them in with ceramic paints (I think I have some blue) or with a sharpie... not sure if that'll work.

Seems like I went mad taking photos!

And here are my finished, fired pots!  The 'Ello Vera one is very patchy.  Despite it being a full-day class, there was so much to do that I didn't get a chance to do a second coat of glaze on it.

My painting skills are definitely very lacking!

The inside of this one was painted with a confetti glaze.  A clear glaze with little pieces of glass in it, just like the frit I used in the lampwork class!

I have no idea what colour I painted this one!  It looks like white but I really don't remember doing that.  The clay dries white, but unglazed it is porous, so I'm sure I glazed it (I thought in blue!), maybe not!

Stay tuned for more craft class reports!

coiled bowl which isn't coiled

In the summer, mum and I went to a workshop with Katherine Fortnum.  I still wasn't very well but managed to do OK that day.  We were the only people in the class!  We were to learn a coiling technique to make a decorative bowl.  I couldn't roll the required sausages.  I tried and I tried but then I realised if I carried on, I would start to get upset and frustrated so asked if I could do mine by rolling the clay flat and cutting out shapes.  Katherine, very kindly, said yes and helped me to build a bowl in that way.  

I'm not sure that clay is for me, but if it is, I'd rather use the porcelain clay that we use with Katie Almond as I find it so much easier to work.

We used moulds to build our bowls in.  I cut some hearts and began to build it up.  I've just realised that I didn't take a photo of mum's bowl - I would have been able to show you what a coiled bowl looks like (it's not just one long "sausage" that coils round, it's small coils stuck together). 

As each part was built in, It was important to ensure the inside joins were all nicely blended in, to give the bowl some strength.

I added in some smaller hearts, I think I'd cut them out of the middles of the bigger ones, but I don't quite remember.

Turning the bowl out of the mould was nerve wracking!  It could have easily have collapsed...

A bit of painting - we couldn't do much as we weren't able to dry it out between coats, it would have cracked.  This is what I find off-putting about this kind of clay.  It's actually really fragile.

I painted my heart bowl in the same bluey-green I used for my heart windchimes - very predictable!

And here it is all fired!  It's about 6" in diameter, and maybe 3" high.

I can't really think of much more to say about it, but I have some more photos, so you'll just have to look at them!

Are you still looking?

Silencing the windchimes

I seem to have been writing about clay rather a lot recently, it just happens sometimes that classes come in waves, and over the summer we did several clay workshops.  Back in July wonderful mum and I went to a workshop at Katherine Fortnum ceramics to make windchimes.  You can see this post to see the unfinished item.

I made a flat style of windchime to hang against a wall.  I wouldn't dare leave something like this outside as it would be likely to get smashed by some of the less desirable people that live in the area.  (I know that sounds really snobby, but we have been burgled and someone set fire to our garden gate, right next to our rabbits, one night, also you should see the amount of rubbish in the streets and young or drunk people hanging around)

This is the hanging bar.  I had to carve out the back so that the clay was all roughly the same thickness otherwise there'd be problems with it drying and in the kiln.  I painted the whole thing in the same blue/minty green shade.

I varied the patterns on the hearts so that the outside ones were the same, but the middle one was different.  All the hearts get smaller as they get towards the bottom.

The middle string has one extra heart on it, just for a bit of interest.  It's all strung together with Fireline, a jewellery making material that's similar to fishing line.

The hearts are only painted and engraved on the front, so the backs are a boring brown colour, but that's up against the wall and doesn't really matter.

I hung it on the first floor landing.  It's all alone on that wall, but maybe one day I'll fill it with quilts and embroideries and other made pieces.  The rate I'm going I'll fill the whole house!  I don't think Mr CA has noticed it yet...

Hmmm.... maybe I should have measured that Fireline so they were hanging symmetrically! 

ceramic birds and wind chimes

Last month I told you about  a workshop we did at Katherine Fortnum Ceramics.  We went to another workshop a few weeks ago and so were able to collect the birds we'd made.

He is intact, if not quite as attractive as he could have been.  I only put one layer of underglaze on him so he's a slightly pinkish/brownish off-white!

Katherine did say that the inside would need a light sand as it was so hard to get it smooth during the making process, I was surprised how bumpy and knobbly it turned out.

He's on the kitchen window sill (indoors) at the moment until I decide where he can live and what he can hold.

At the last workshop we were making windchimes, or a hanging mobile of some sort.  I don't have many photos but I have a few.

I cut out a series of hearts getting progressively smaller.  I then textured some of them in different ways.

I used one of these fancy rulers to imprint some of the hearts.  The small round thing is a stamp, I used that on other hearts.

Next it was glazed, three coats, and I scratched some designs into the glaze to reveal the clay underneath.

They're going to be fired, then we'll collect them.  I think we've got another workshop later this month, I'm taking the Mother-in-law as well as mum so that should be good fun.

Ceramic bird feeder

A few weeks ago, wonderful mum and I went to a ceramic workshop at Katherine Fortnum Ceramics in Market Harborough, Leicestershire.  Her workspace was lovely, the other 3 participants were lovely, Katherine is lovely and a very good teacher, but I was ill.  I was having a really bad time of it and perhaps I shouldn't have gone, but I thought it might cheer me up.  Hmm.  When will I ever learn than depression can't be cheered up.

We were making a ceramic bird feeder in the shape of a bird.  Now, I only get pigeons in my garden and I don't want to feed them, so I thought I'd just use it as somewhere to put pretty things on display.  We were using earthenwear clay and started with a big ball, flattened on the bottom.  We added a tail.

And a head.  At this point, things started to go wrong as my tail kept sinking, I held it up with a plastic bag, but I should have made it smaller and thinner.

Next we started to carve out the wing shape using the tool you see in the photo above.  We had to go in from both sides and carve very carefully.

After this I have no more photos as at this point both my head and tail started to fall off and I got frustrated and upset with it.  I went outside to have a ciggie and Katherine fixed it the best she could.  When they were finished, we glazed them, but again, I have no photos.  

I think we collect them in a week or two so I'll show you the results then - I'm expecting my head and tail to have fallen off and possibly for the body to have collapsed...

Cake stand

A month or so ago I wrote a post about a ceramics class that wonderful mum and I had attended with Katie Almond.  We made a two tier cake stand.  You can see the process post here.  We picked them up a few weeks later and assembled them.  Here is mine.

It's sewing themed as it's going to live in my craft room, holding sewing notions.  Nope, no cake is going to grace this stand.  I don't bake.

I tied the little "sew" tag on with a piece of ribbon that matches the colour scheme of aqua, navy and red.

It took me ages to make and put on all those buttons round the edge!

I am really pleased with how it turned out.  I love Katie's style of ceramics and I don't think I did a bad job here.

Speed Craft #2

If you missed my previous post about Speed Craft, please scroll down.

Our second table was ceramics.  The tutor was Katie Almond who we've taken two classes with before - the first at Debbie Bryan where we made plant pokes and brooches and another in Leicestershire where we made a cake stand.  I collected my cake stand when we went to collect these little bowls, so I must show it to you soon.

I can't believe I managed to make this in just 45 minutes.  Rollling out clay, stamping it to make the impression, stamping and cutting out the letters and painting it all with glaze is a time consuming process!

I'm going to use it on my dressing table to keep my rings in.  The motif is a bit off-centre but that doesn't bother me.  I wish I'd been able to paint the outer ring of motifs, but I just didn't have time.  I stuck to the red/blue/navy combination again!

As you can see, it's just a shallow little bowl, around 4" diameter, so cute!  Once again, I really enjoyed working with the porcelain clay.

Next up: Hand-built robin

Cake stand, not a cake in sight...

Today I have something unfinished to show you.  What's that?  When do I every show you anything finished?  Well, yes, you're right!  So nothing new today then.

Me and wonderful mum went to a class to work with porcelain clay and make a 2-tier cake stand.

We've taken a class with Katie Almond, the class tutor, before and loved it, so had no hesitation signing up for this one.  I absolutely love Katie's style and you should go and check that link out, even if you have no interest in pottery, it's inspiring for many other crafts.  

Above is a sideways picture (it's round, why did I feel the need to turn my phone round??) of the bottom tier of my cake stand.  I think it's the top.  I used some acrylic stamps which came free with a magazine to stamp the dress-maker's form, the Singer and the tape measures.  I then coloured them with glazes.  The light blue patch on the right hand side is where I rolled a piece of lace into the clay to make a nice texture.  I'm hoping the glaze on that area comes out very pale, I'm kind of wishing I hadn't painted it now.  I made all the buttons round the outside and in the middle and had the idea of making them spotty or stripy as well as solid coloured when I realised how hard it was to paint the sides!

I cut out a small tag shape and some stamped letters which I very carefully painted with a very thin paintbrush.  I have no idea how this will come out!

Here we have the top.  Possibly.  The blue lines are where I impressed an open zip into the clay.  I only painted the tape, leaving the teeth unpainted.  At the bottom is a button jar and some stamped buttons, along with the handmade buttons that I've glazed.  I got the idea of doing the mini bunting from another girl in the class, she was doing big bunting for her tea party themed plates.

We should be getting the finished pieces back any time soon, then I'll put it together and show you how it turned out.  Fingers crossed my painting hasn't ruined it...