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.

Where Catfish Bloom

In the last post I showed the greenware version of this piece. It progressed to bisque fired and now to glaze fired. This project was inspired by the poem by Lisa M. Pursley, "Where Catfish Bloom", which I am sharing with Lisa's permission.

Where Catfish Bloom

Yesterday she was daisies,

dahlias and a spray of baby’s breath

until she was trapped

by the frailties of a civil engagement;

an iron woman achieving honesty,

sanity and swept floors.

She shares a confident understanding

of individual smallness.

All her lovely habits fortified,

trampled like the spirit

of a goddess in the rain.

Now she sits, cut

and stuffed, in a clearly gripping vase.

Lisa's poem was one of many submitted to Riverside Artists Gallery's 2016 Poetry in Art and was one among some great poems that were not chosen by any of the participating artists.

It was in my short list of poems I was considering for myself, but at the time I could not seem to solidify my thoughts on how I would approach the project.

I am no longer with the gallery but at that time I had been coordinator of the 2016 Poetry in Art exhibit and had a file of poems that were submitted by poets for consideration by the artists. When cleaning out files this spring "Where Catfish Bloom" was one of several from that exhibit I kept. 

It was very difficult to delete any on them!  

Above:  As you can see the piece stands on a flat surface, but is also wired for wall hanging.

Below:  Some decision making about whether to leave it alone or keep going.  This is the bisque fired head. I thought about leaving the head just like this.  The color of the bisque fired clay is very much like flesh tone and I had burnished the clay a bit so it has a smoother appearance than usual.  The glaze I used on the box is rather rustic so I decided to go ahead and fire the head to cone 6 (my usual glaze firing) in order to get the tan color this clay obtains when fired to maturity.

Below:  I decided to add a little iron oxide to the hair and darken the irises with a combination wash of cobalt ox. and copper carb.  Later, I brushed a little clear glaze on the irises (not shown).  The bisque fired head is among some pots awaiting a cone 6 glaze firing.

white gold

A little price shock ordering supplies this week- 

When I ordered 5 lbs of tin oxide the person taking the order asked if I knew how much it cost. I didn't.  I was looking at a catalogue that was around 6 years old.  So, it's $28.00 per pound now, or about $25.00 per pound if you buy 5 lbs.  Ouch.  What with buying 500 pounds of clay and other supplies I decided to just get 2 pounds at the higher price. Probably not the most logical choice. Oh well. 

Starting to get some glazing done.  I tried out this feather design with a black drawing slip and glazed over it with a clear glaze.  I have very little experience using this material.  We'll see what happens.

Miss Billy finds the one spot on the table not covered with pots.  Of course now I can't see my glaze notes.  Many more pots left to glaze, and a lot of varying glaze treatments in mind for these.  Always very time consuming when I'm jumping from one glaze to another.  Right now I'm aiming to get the kiln loaded Tues. and fired Wed.