Sunday, May 13, 2012

ginkgo leaves

I'm down to the last of these planters and I just had a request to make a couple more of these with the ginkgo leaves impressed. Saturday I had another shopper looking for anything ginkgo for Mother's day at the market, too. 
Notice Billy, the cat, in the background to the right of the spray bottle.  She's keeping and eye on Red, who also wants to be on the work table. However, she considers two to be a crowd where Red is concerned.
I throw the bottoms of these planters on the wheel. When they dry to the leather-hard stage I add the slab collars. I toss these slabs at an angle onto a canvas covered board rather than roll them out, to get the organic look I want.  Normally I glaze these in gunmetal-see the planter on the left.  I'm thinking the weathered bronze green on this test tile might be good on these too.  If you're wondering why the ginkgo leaves are yellow when it is clearly spring, not fall, it's because they have been in my freezer.  Sometimes I stockpile a few leaves in the freezer to use in the winter months. I picked these up from under a neighbor's tree last fall.

 R--E--D just ate my last ginkgo leaf!  There is nothing subtle about this cat. Hope he doesn't throw up anywhere that involves upholstery.  Tomorrow I need to mail some honey pots and I know there's a ginkgo tree near the post office so I will re-supply.
 
Yesterday I bought these spoons from one of the other vendors at the farmer's market .  A couple of customers had asked if I had small wood spoons to use in my salt pigs and I noticed George Corbitt had some large mixing spoons out on his table along with the  wonderful boxes  he makes, so...

I'm very pleased with them and already sold two to customers who previously purchased my salt pigs.

5 comments:

  1. Really like that new glaze test tile in the first pic. Do you keep the ginkgo leaf on for the bisque firing? And then how do you keep that leaf space clear when you glaze the piece? Geez, I'm clueless in how to do that. The salt pigs are just beautiful, simple forms.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Amy, you can find that glaze on some different sites, here's one: http://cone6pots.ning.com/forum/topics/pete-s-weathered-bronze-green
      Check out Frog Pond too.
      I'll remove the leaves when the clay gets about leather hard. I don't know that it matters, though. I figure they would burn off before it's time to close the kiln lid. As far as keeping the leaf space clear, that gunmetal glaze brushes on easily. I might dip the lower part of the bottom just to save time. I don't have much experience with the weathered bronze-green but it looks like it brushes well also.

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  2. Poor RED, hope he didn´t get sick, that ferocious cat. Makes my laugh that he´d ate your last leafe.

    My cat had his nose in everything yesterday when I was glasing, so maybe I´ll come up with a new cat-nose pattern.

    Love those little critters.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Gabi, I found no evidence that Red got sick, thankfully.
      I do think a cat-nose pattern would be charming. If I have a small containor of glaze sitting on my table my other cat, Billy, will dip her paw into it.

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  3. wow, Melissa- that website is so interesting... Many thanks- I have so much to learn about glazes and that will help immensely!

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