Toad houses...with toads

                                                                                   
I made two toad houses for a customer who wanted to give them as gifts. I was instructed to make each one a little different from the other, and with toads on top of both. I made large toads perching on the sides of the roof rather than try to make tiny ones to fit on the very top.  Getting the details of the feet and legs seemed like it might be too difficult in miniature.  By the way, the toads bodies are hollow and after attaching to the roofs I made a hole through the roof and the toad bellies so as to avoid any unfortunate toad explosions.
                                                            

The houses were made on the wheel as closed forms.  When leather hard, I placed them back on the wheel and threw the little finials, one an acorn, and the other a beehive (sort of) on top.  
The color application came after bisque firing.  I have some engobes and slips that can be used on both greenware and bisque, but find I prefer to use them on bisque since, being dry and porous, it holds the material better.  Also, I often apply the color then wipe off to leave a light stain in some areas and darker stain in areas with etched designs- a technique which works best with bisque fired pieces.  Next, the toad houses were glazed, then a 50/50 by weight combination of frit 3134 and mason stains was brushed over the glaze to get the toad color.  A little disappointment here- what worked great on a test tile (chartreuse spots over tan) did not work as well on the toads, as the chartreuse can barely be seen.  Actually, at least around here, toads are not green, but the customer asked if I could add touch of green.  I am very glad that this particular customer understands that working with glazes is not the same as choosing crayons out of a box!

One of those grab and go mornings with the items, still warm from the kiln: Quick pictures of the finished toad houses with an oak tree for a backdrop at River City Farmer's Market in Marietta, Ohio just before meeting up with the customer.

rewind

Now that I'm not in a rush to get things ready for a show maybe I can go back and talk a little about the process that went into some of the pieces.  Most of what I made for the show were forms I've never tried before.  Some of the surface treatments were new for me also.  Hey, why not up the stress level by experimenting?  One of the materials I tried out with very little testing was a couple of variations on a slip that is wonderfully versatile.  It can be applied to greenware, bisque, and even over glaze. It does not rub off easily, so handling the piece after applying the slip will not result in smears.  It can be applied like paint so that it is opaque, or thinned to use as a wash. Maybe you clay people out there already know all about it, but if not, and if you're interested, here is the recipe-

George's Black Drawing Slip

Kaolin (EPK) 64.2
Gerstley Borate 13.4
Black Mason (#6600) 22.3

I use it at cone 6, but the recipe states it can be use at 04-6.  Like I said, very versatile, and I've used it for a few years.  When I wanted to try the animal heads and was mulling over how I was going to get the colors I wanted I figured why not use the same recipe with other Mason Stains?

It's not difficult to come up with browns.  Iron oxide is a very common material to the potter.  Mix it with water for a wash, throw into your clay slip, use it in an engobe, but to come up with the shades of golden browns I wanted without a lot of  time-consuming tests was another story.  Paint was briefly considered as an option.  But, I sometimes sell knob hangers which I suggest can be used to hang pendants, scarves...etc.  I was thinking of suggesting that the animal heads could be used, like the knob hangers, to display favorite necklaces, in which case a fired-on pigment would offer durability that paint could not match.

I mixed up two batches subbing 20 grams of 6107 (dark golden brown) in place of the black in one, and 20 grams 6190 (deep brown), likewise in place of black, for the other.  I thought that I could probably use a little less than the black since getting a black may require more density.  I did some mixing and overlapping with these slips, and added more water where I wanted a lighter pigment.  I also used some of my usuals- white slip applied when the pieces were in the greenware state, and some iron oxide wash rubbed into texture after they were bisqued.  I will say that unless the Drawing Slip is watered down it will overpower the Fe wash.  Though the Drawing Slip may be used on  greenware as well as bisque, I only used it after the pieces were bisque fired as the bisque allows for better absorption.

Well, that's about it.  These heads were left unglazed.  My other pieces in the show were glazed.  I mostly used glazes I already had but ventured into some new layering combinations I will not go into here, since I'm getting a bit lengthy as it is.

One more thing...The piece shown here was sold the night of the opening to a very nice couple who were buying it as a gift.  They described to me how it would go with the recipient's  home.  They were happy, and it's going to someone who will appreciate it. Nice to hear.

Well she wrote me a letter

 

Showing the afters before the befores:

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some overtly valentiney decoration.  I may be adding ribbon to these.  This is June Perry's Purple with a Gunmetal glaze which is heavy on Albany slip clay substitute.  Wax resist and automotive striping tape was used to make the designs. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see the green halo where the glazes overlap.

 

Some of the above images are from graphics fairy. They are leftovers I had printed out to use in a surface decoration workshop at Parkersburg Art Center.  A couple of the techniques I used on these tiles and shelf sitters were taught in that class.  Some of these images were applied using tissue paper transfer.  Others were applied directly to the clay by taking a copy of an image from an inkjet printer, laying it on the clay and rubbing.  Remember doing that with silly putty and newspaper?  Like that. I've found that going over this transferred image with a permanent marker can help make the image more distinct.  Then I brushed the same frit and mason stain mixture on the tile that I used for the tissue paper transfer. Normally, as in the photo below, I use my own drawings for tissue paper transfer.  The graphics fairy images gave me some ideas for new stuff, so that was fun.  Besides, I can't draw a decent airplane.

 

no whine zone

I admit it- there's been some whiney posts.  Usually I try to keep the frustrating aspects involved in pottery making to myself rather than risk annoying, boring, or insulting readers. So, here's a short non-whiney story:  A young woman in a nearby town checked out the River City Farmer's Market site because she was looking for locally made gifts.  She saw the link to my blog, found pictures of mugs she liked, went from there to my etsy shop, and sent me a convo from the shop site.  She wanted to know how she could buy those mugs- She could not get to the market since she works Saturdays.  I let her know I'd be working at the gallery Tuesday and could bring the mugs in then.  I did, she showed up, took the mugs, yea!  She got the local hand made product she was looking for which, I think, gave me as much satisfaction as it did her.

Here's what's on the pottery table, besides the bisque ware I really need to get glazed but put off to get in some last minute clay work.  I seem to detect a bird theme.

Applied a gray slip over the slab and dragged a wood grainer from Lowes through it.  The crow will be filled in with a black engobe

Tried this printing method on wet clay slabs for the first time. I've seen this method in a couple of places. Here's one: http://printpatternproject.blogspot.com/2011/03/image-transfer.html

I used a 50/50 by weight combination of Mason Stain and Ferro frit 3134. See how it works out. The paper is a tissue-like paper that separates the decal paper I've been using for the decal transfer printing.

Some hand-built birdies.  Going to go minimal with these-  White or off-white glaze with a little color just on the beak and eyes.

I didn't jump on the Christmas ornament band wagon this year.  I have a few stars left from last year and was planning to make a bunch of different types of owls this year.  Was.  I found (sorry if I sneak in a little whining here) they just took too long to make.  Mostly, I was surprised at how much time I spent painting the owls after they were bisque fired- close to an hour. Changing the design to be more stylistic, less realistic might be something to think about.