New Project ( Glass melt jewellery)

Ive got some new projects on the go right now, amongst keeping up with orders and school related activities, Ive felt the urge to work really small again.
Ive been making some test pieces of little porcelain discs in the shape of a tiny bowl to melt glass and glaze together. I would like to make an array of colours ( something to match what you wear ) maybe, but Ive only had current success with cobalt and aqua coloured glaze glass.

These are the unfired porcelain discs.

Here they are again after they have been fired with glass, I do like how the glass crackles inside the bowls.

A few extra colours but the results have varied much as some of the glazes haven't suited the glass.

This is the bowl I got the idea from, I wanted to create the same kind of technique only on a miniature scale so I could wear them.

A product shot for Not on the High Street

Ive also thought about some attractive packaging for when I ship them out.

View more glass and ceramic melting projects here.
and
Here

student clay work and weaving update.

A few weeks back I posted some clay work with feather imprints onto my blog. You can see the original post here....
Since then I have mounted over 250 window framed paintings/drawings for the GCSE exhibition and displayed them so needless to say its been a very busy time for me. 

For the clay work I didn't want to display on the boards as the student hadn't put holes in her work making it more difficult for me to hang it so I decided to use this old unused beech drawer I found in the art department. I have used a black mount board inside it and gave the outside the drawer a quick sand. The clay work fits in a treat!, so now it is displayed this way and lent against her board with her weaving and batik work. I like how this students work draws attention as its not like anything else in the room, she has done well!
She has also made ceramic buttons and tied them into her weavings.

Potting outside with my pup

It was too nice a day to be in my workshop so I relocated to my outside table area with my boards, tools and clay to roll out some slabs for bowls. 
I got quite a bit done listening to the radio with my "not so little" pup sleeping next to me. 
Only two months ago I could have fitted him into a shoe box, now he wouldn't fit into five shoeboxes.  

Rolling out slabs of clay to impress fern leaves and beech leaves into them.

Poppy stoneware bowls drying after being made.

 

G.C.S.E. Art prep works

Next week the students take their Art Exam. This year is exciting for me as in previous years all students have painted and drawn in the exam, clay work was not even considered, however this year is different.
Alongside the drawings and paintings students will be screen printing using batik methods and working with clay during their exam! Ive been involved with all these processes in recent months so I cannot wait to see what they do next week!

Here is some of the supporting work done by one student who is looking at contemporary weaving from Artists such as Ann Richards and Laura Thomas and my work to do her research on, we have used feathers to imprint into clay and made ceramic buttons to thread in with her raffia weavings, its all shaping together well for her, she has decided to make ceramic buttons during the exam and then make the weaving and after they have been fired and glazed she will thread them onto her weaving at a later date.
Here is her supporting material.

Fresh from a difficult firing.

Here are some of the ceramics I got from the kiln firing over the weekend. It was a frustrating firing as both kilns decided to play up.
 I initially decided to do a smaller firing in the little kiln so that I could get a couple of big orders approaching the dispatching date out to people. 
Since offering wedding favours at a 4 week turnaround I've had to step up with the firings and organising my clay making time, not a natural state for me, yet I hate to let people down.
The small kiln decided to fire itself up to 300c within an hour, leaving the majority of clay work in pieces, (devastating!!) After leaving it to cool down I cleared up and retrieved some of the work in the same condition and loaded it into my big kiln. (I was too annoyed for picture taking although in hindsight I wish I had)
Then the big kiln let me down as it reached 1000c (I needed it up to 1250c) fortunately it was the switch tripping out because one of the cables had corroded. Fortunately my man with his practical skills sorted it out for me so the kiln resumed its firing.