Christmas Decorations in the making....

Preparation for some Tree decorations, I'm changing the decorations this year partly because I have less time to do them and also because I just want to offer a few individual ones and less of a "conveyor belt style" opperation in my workshop. It seems in recent years I have had so many at different stages and then when they all come out of the kiln it takes so long matching and putting into sets. So I'm taking the "less is more" approach so I can concentrate on other work.
Here is what I've come up with so far:


A selection of the Christmas Tree decorations at bone dry stage.



Amongst some of the usual stars and hearts I have made some cubes using my little owl stamp and the tile decorations are stamped with various decorations and are ready for sanding.

These will also hang on the tree, but the thread holes are hidden.

The tiles getting some sanding attention before the bisque firing. These will be threaded with wire throught the two top holes when finished. I'll post more photos when they are fired.

Tutorial: How to make clay rollers & stamps...........

A great way to texture clay is by using textured surfaces and stamps and this is a quick guide to show how its done. I made these clay rollers and stamps a few weeks ago at school for the pupils to use with their clay projects (in particular with the clay aboriginal art masks they have been making.) But more to come about those in a future blog.



 

Roll soft clay into balls approx size of a nectarine.





Push down with palms of your hand to flatten the sides of the clay ball.

Roll the clay on a smooth flat surface to create a soft even edge all round.

Make about six to start with so that you have a few to texture in different ways.

Find objects that you think will create an interesting pattern in the clay (try them out on seperate clay before deciding which to use) I have used the ends of pencils, credit card,print blocks,string,lace ect...

Start to imprint the objects around the clay roller, ensuring even markings and care taken not to distort the clay roller which will still be pliable, it may take a few goes to make the rollers you wish to keep.

The oddest of objects may appear dull and uninteresting but once an impression in clay is made may appear to look really good, experimenting with different objects is key.



Here are some of the rollers just after making them, they will shrink whilst drying and once again if fired. Firing is nessesary if using these rollers onto wet clay but can be used at bone dry stage for polymer clay projects and if a kiln is'nt available.









These stamps are made in the stame way but they are formed like little mushrooms instead of rollers and the surface is flattened and imprinted with objects in the same way.

Here is an example of what they looked like rolled onto slabs of wet clay.

 




The finished rollers and stamps fired in a kiln.
This tutorial can also be viewed on the Folksy Making guide where it may be printed off in step by step stages.







Go make soap! ....

Back in March 2011 I made a few batches of cold pressed soap and put a few of my favourite recipes on the blog, after the soap had set I sliced it into rectangles and stored it away in my airing cupboard for it to cure, its been a few months now and its colour is paler and the soap has gone hard ready to use. This soap has loads of tiny bubbles when its used and the scent is very mild. I've decided that some will be given away as small gifts this Christmas so I set about packaging it with some lovely printed papers, this is how I did it....



A selection of patterned papers to wrap around the soap.




The papers were cut into rectangles approx 25cm x 10cm and folded around each soap and secured with paper string.





Here is the cured soap I made back in March 2011. The recipe for calendula & orange soap is here, and the recipe for Goats milk a & Almond butter is here.



After the soap is wrapped I attatched a label with the soap name and ingredients onto the string

The labels were designed in a word document and printed onto regular white card.



Finished soap!
 

Mixing New Glaze samples in my workshop & making clay colour samples.

Here are some new glaze samples I am mixing up and storing in glass jars. I am trying to build up a few different colours so I have ordered a few new ones to try.  

Warm water is added to each glaze sample and mixed well then allowed to settle.

Each jar is labelled with the colour and firing temperature and stuck onto the jar for easy identification. The colours will differ significantly from the colour of the mixed glazes in jars. Amongst these there will be reds, greens, blues and mustard toned glazes. At least, this is what I am expecting, but different firings produce different effects with glazes.

These are clay smaples which I will use to keep a record of the new glaze samples. Some will be brushed on and others dipped, both creating different effects. The dragged lines on the samples are to show how glazes work on recessed areas and smooth areas. The hole at the top is just so that i can pin them up in the workshop as reference.
To see more of my workshop visit my Workshop Tour

Tags are taking over my space...........

I have been busying away sorting out a few little extras to add into my shop, my work is looking a bit sparce and I really need to add some new stock to my shop and start thinking about building up a selection of things for Christmas stalls,shops and pressies too. I made a start today with a few smaller projects.....

These are little clay tags to tie onto pressies, they are leather hard at the moment and I will fire them and use oxides and glaze for a bit of colour at a later stage.

I used this leaf textured wall paper to imprint onto the reverse side of the tags.



This is what the reverse side of the tags look like with the wall paper imprint.