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!

speed craft part 2

So it appears I haven't posted in nearly 2 weeks!  Do you want to know why?  I completely forgot!  Oh dear, I hope this isn't a slippery slide into old age....

In my last post I told you about the first half of the day at Speed Craft, you can read it here if you are so inclined.  I went with the lovely Jane from Loopy's Place.

Our fourth activity of the day was with Katie Almond, an incredibly talented ceramics designer who I've taken several workshops with.  I had a bit of a wobble when she asked if I'd left mum at home as mum usually accompanied me...  But I powered on and got on with the job at hand, the hanging plaque above.  This is the piece in wet clay and painted with the glazes.  I'll show you the finished item when it comes back from its firing.  I felt like doing a house in a heart to represent my renewed love for my lovely old Victorian house.

The last activity of the day for us was lino cutting and printing.  I've done lino cutting a couple of times now, having taken a class or two a while ago.  I decided to represent my current lifestyle and cut out a bottle (of vodka, I don't like wine!) and a cocktail glass.  I drew both freehand so they're a little rough around the edges.

We used the finished stamps with ink brayered onto tiles rather than ink pads as I've done in the past.  I printed on some book pages and we used the results to make a little collage.  Sums me up rather well!

Speed craft

Back in October, wonderful mum and I went to Speedcraft at Debbie Bryan.  You may remember me posting about these events before.  5 tables, 40 attendees (1 man this time which was great to see), 5 x 50 minutes to do a craft, cake, coffee, cake, coffee, lunch, cake, coffee etc.etc.  Mum loved speedcraft and had booked us on to the one in April.  I will go, but I will miss her.

I'm not going to write 5 posts, I'm going to tell you about it all in one post.  I thought I'd made some notes about the tutor's names and websites, but I can't find them.

One of the tables was papercraft and we made 3d hanging decorations using sugar paper, metallic paper and vintage papers including old lace patterns.  Debbie is a bit fan of stitching so there is always thread on all the tables, we used it to add some accents.

I really like some of the papers used here.

Next we did wirework.  We started by scribing the copper circles using various tools, then made a hanger from a piece of wire.  I added tiny paper "bunting" and tassels to mine. I really like this!

It's about necklace size, maybe a bit longer (width-wise), but it's too delicate to wear, so I've hung it up in my craft room.

I did a different pattern on each side of the circle, just to try something new.

One table was weaving which I've never tried before.  OK, maybe as a kid, but I don't remember.  This was great fun, using all kinds of different materials from ribbons and lace to lengths of fabric and yarn.  

I just need to sew the ends under to tidy it up.  I could really fancy doing this again... the only problem is, what do you do with it?

As usual, Katie Almond was there to do ceramics with us.  Me and mum really had the knack of this by then, and we made our pieces in about 10 minutes, leaving lots of time for the delicate painting!  We were both improving too.  Above is the pre-baked piece.

And this is it when I got it back.  I didn't have a Christmas tree this year, so I propped it on my mantelpiece!  it will be the star of the tree next year.  

There was a fifth craft.  It was printing using acrylic inks brayered onto tiles and impressing stamps and tools into the paint before placing paper on top and making an impression.  Unfortunately, we hung them up to dry and forgot to collect them!  You're not missing much, printing is not one of my greatest skills!

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! 

Hanging hearts

I have some bunny news to start with.  A few weeks ago we lost Kate, our newest bunny.  She had been paired with Harry, who is now on his own again.  She wasn't ill so I can only think that she had a heart attack, she was a very nervous girl.  It's a shame that I only got to spend a few months with her, but at least she had found her forever home and was, I hope, happy with Harry.  Harry has had an eye infection this week, I took him to the vet on Tuesday and discovered that he has cataracts and is most probably blind!  It does explain why I'd been finding it so easy to catch him, apparently I'd been sneaking up on him, poor fella.

Totally unrelated to bunnies, today I wanted to show you the results of a workshop at Debbie Bryan with the very talented Katie Almond.  It was to make a hanging plaque, or a series of hanging plaques.  I went in with an idea of what I was going to make.... and made something completely different!

The photo above shows the pieces just as I was starting to paint them, prior to firing.  We used Katie's usual techniques of cutting shapes, adding texture with lace or stamps or rollers, adding cut out pieces and then painting to highlight.  This is my best job yet with the paint, I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it!

I'd used a textured roller and I highlighted the flowers only.  Painting does take a long time and so I didn't get time to do as much painting as I wanted on the largest heart. 

But I'm really happy with the results!  The picture above and those below are of the fired items.  Katie uses porcelain clay which has such a different finish to the earthenwear clay we've been using on workshops with Katherine Fortnum.  

I punched holes top and bottom (except on one) using a heart punch and a flower punch, just for something a bit different.

I strung them together using Fireline which is a jewellery making material which is very similar to fishing line.  If you're thinking it's very invisible, it's because I didn't string them until I'd taken these pictures!

I didn't know where I was going to hang these, I've got a large collection of hanging hearts, some made by me, some by other individuals and some mass produced.  I decided to hang it in the kitchen.  I've been avoiding hanging anything in the kitchen as I STILL haven't finished painting (3 years after the kitchen was fitted...), but now it's time.

See that silicone on the wall??  That's why I've been avoiding finishing the decorating.  Anyone know how to get it off?  Mr CA said to just keep painting over it but that's not working!