EtsyTreasury **** Gardeners wish list by restlessheartscrafts.blogspot

yonder:treasurytuesdaygardenwishlist

Many thanks for including my plant markers amongst such stylish garden items.

Giant egg planters & my love/hate with porcelain!

I have a thing about eggs at  the moment maybe its with spring "kind of in the air" and with Easter round the corner, eggs and the egg form have been something I want to replicate. I've been experimenting with casting plaster and making two piece slip moulds, but more about that next time as the moulds are still drying and the castings are only preliminary ones.Oh... and keys, have a thing about them too, so I've been playing about with silicone and plaster moulds taking casts of them too. Thats about as far as I've got with the keys, not sure how I will use them or what they will be incorporated into but I'm just playing and seeing where it will go; but I have decided they will be made from porcelain, which leads me onto the love/hate thing. The thing with this material is (anyone who has used it before will aggree I am sure) it has its own limits, about 20% of what I make from porcelain makes it into the kiln and a staggering 80% flops before its dries out, or cracks of just turns into dust long before getting near any heat. That's a staggering failure rate, I realise yet I'm still drawn to its buttery consistency and whiteness.
So after much cursing here are a few of my porcelain cast keys and as you can see many broken ones in the photo aswell, I would say the failure rate is much like the above, so no change there.

My egg planter drying out on the window shelf.

A little slab built pot with a new succulent.

Yes here is the 20%  success  80% failure in progress.
*But cute don't you think?*

The first signs of spring in my garden, crocus poking through all
the dead leaves. I love them at this stage.

Porcelain Hearts

Porcelain Hearts
Originally uploaded by littlebrickhouse

Just for Valentines!

Porcelain Hearts

Porcelain Hearts
Originally uploaded by littlebrickhouse

Its Valentines day, so here's something for the girls. Lace impressed porcelain hearts.

Rustic Plant Markers with pear tops

Rustic Plant Markers with pear tops
Originally uploaded by littlebrickhouse

These are new and not tried before, a simple pear is stamped at the top of these markers, (think I might keep a few for myself)

Little Bird feeders

Little Bird feeders
Originally uploaded by littlebrickhouse

Three new stoneware bird feeders still warm from the firing. Ready and listed.

Ceramic Hearth tiles

Ceramic Hearth tiles
Originally uploaded by littlebrickhouse

Here are six of the twenty six hearth tiles that I have made hot from the kiln.I would have liked to see more of the verdigri green glaze on these tiles, however the colour does have some bronze tints and are all lovely and flat ready to be laid.

One of the hearth tiles

100_3247
Originally uploaded by littlebrickhouse

Mixing glaze for the tile application

Mixing glaze for the tile application

Originally uploaded by littlebrickhouse

Leaving the tiles to dry -out after a coating of glaze ready for the next stage.

Kiln Load

Kiln Load
Originally uploaded by littlebrickhouse

Tiles have been loaded into the bottom shelves of the kiln and the bird feeders have been placed above and at the back. At the top are some cone planters. This firing has greenware,bisqueware and some glazed items and will be fired very slowly to 1260c in my 11kw kiln. Probably will take between 15 & 18 hrs.