More Handmade Soap

I thought I would try out a new recipe which uses all natural ingredients again. This time I made the basic cold pressed soap recipe used previously for goats milk and almond butter soap but omitting the almond butter, goats milk and the essential oils, instead I replaced those ingredients with wheatgerm oil, calendula petals (dried marigold petals) and orange essential oil and mixed all together.

Here are the ingredients for making a moisture rich soap.

Here's what it looked like after adding some of the petals and orange oil.
Smells yummy already!

little brick house clayworks: Kids & Clay

little brick house clayworks: Kids & Clay: " Clay tutorials for children I have two boys mad about bugs, dinosaurs and anything that in..."

No breakages! No explaining!

In a recent post I mentioned the Greek pinch and coiled pots created by year 5 and 6. Well I've just unloaded the little kiln and all have remained in one piece. So here they are....

Phew!!!!

Just a wee bit nervous about this!!!

A few weeks back I was involved with a local school making clay vessels with class 5 and six who were learning all about ancient Greece. They all made either a pinch pot or a coiled vase which they all really enjoyed. They have been drying out slowly in my workshop and I've been stacking them into a small top loading kiln ready for a bisque firing.
I'm now feeling dread at the thought of opening it after firing incase they explode! Usually I don't worry but because there are so many and they spent so much time on them I'm feeling the pressure a bit, plus I'm using a smaller kiln that I'm not used too. So here goes, I'm gonna switch it on and see.


Their pots occupy 3 shelves of this little kiln, I have some of my test pieces at  the base of the kiln and a couple of my stoneware eggs at the top. (we shall see how they fair) I've fired lots of childrens work in the past but I just feel a little concerned with these as some have small components attatched added with the unfamiliarity of this type of kiln.



Indian block printing

I've been meaning to use these blocks for ages for something other than printing into clay (which I love) so I had a go at using them for what they were originally intended, printing onto indian paper & fabrics. I started out using them to print onto brown parcel paper & the backs of old wallpaper rolls to see how they came out.

Here is the selection of indian printing blocks all different sizes and designs.

I've mixed some water based paints and used some old fabric to press the blocks onto to absorb the paint.

Heres some of the results printed onto the brown packing paper

Here they are drying out on an inspiration board. I'm going to use some of them to pack up my ceramics next time I do a stall and some to wrap gifts, next time I will try using them with fabric, (next time I indulge)