bird soap dishes, bunny windchimes, and ceramic beads...

Here are a few of the new projects sitting on the greenware cart waiting for their first firing... 

These are bunnies and carrots for another windchime!

(ceramic beads to be used in windchimes)

and some small bird soapdishes...











I'm also testing some new glazes on coasters and once they're fired, I will post the results. They are blue rutile, seaweed, and smokey merlot.


Thanks for coming by!

some Ideas for new pottery creations...

This is my new project during Fall and Spring break... thought I'd try to make a few soap dishes. This baby bird on its nest is my first. Just have to put the feet on the soap dish to raise it up a bit. 

Here is a different view... made the holes so the wet soap could drain. Plan for it to be a baby bluebird.

I have also been making ceramic/clay beads because of all the trouble I had finding the right beads for my windchimes. The holes in the center were never big enough. Besides, there's something about making your own... in exactly the size and color you need.

Also I want to make a bunny windchime for my front area. Working on that now. I learned from my mistakes with the first one, so maybe this next one will be a better model.

First windchime

As you can see  in the above pic,  the bottom chimes do not have a separation piece in between them. This is because I made it wrong... either put the holes in the wrong place or needed a support piece to keep it horizontal. So since I couldn't use the separation piece, the bottom chimes all hang together (but they still make a nice sound).

beginning of bunnies and carrots windchime

This is as far as I've gotten with the bunny windchime... and since I can't fire anything until the studio reopens at the end of August, I'll go ahead and make the other pieces I need as well as buy more cord to string it with. With any luck all I'll need to do once the kiln is available is fire the pieces, glaze, re-fire, and string it together. 

New cheeky chickens in progress... and a new favorite glaze!

This past Saturday I put more cheeky chickens onto the oxidation cart for their last firing. Along with them went some parts to a windchime I'm trying to put together as well as a mug with a new glaze. (These windchime parts have been underglazed in black.)

In the background you can see what can be either a chicken soap dish or sponge holder...

And here you can see where I tried some red iron oxide on the 2 chickens on the left...

These above are my normal cheeky chickens ready for their final firing.

And here are some parts of the windchime I'm currently working on... (they have been glazed in Blue Rutile like the finished mug in next picture)

Blue Rutile Mug

Comments and suggestions are appreciated!

Thanks for visiting...

My new Pottery Blog!

This is my new blog which will have photos of my Cheeky Chickens Critters.  I'm hoping to display them as they are produced. I would appreciate any comments or criticisms you may have. Their size can be seen by the chicken in the teacup to the right.

Please bear with me as creating this new blogspot has not been easy! (my fault I'm sure)

They are sculpted by hand out of either paper clay, cinco blanco, or t-mix. I have the best results with paper clay - meaning I find it the easiest to work with. 

The process is: 

1. Sculpt the head and body 

2. Add the eyes, comb, and wattles

3. Let clay dry a bit

4. Carve in the feathers

5. Dry for a few days until ready for first underglazing of comb, beak, wattles, and eyes.

6. Needs 3 coats of underglazing (a day inbetween each).

7. Fire greenware chicken

8. Use blackbird stain/slip on bisque product

9. Fire again in oxidation kiln.

10.Voila! Product finished!

I will add other chickens and/or critters as I create them.  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask (also any suggestions or comments).

Again... bear with me. This is definitely a work in progress.