Into the New

Happy New Year's to you all.... may 2012 be better than ever!!
Here is a look at some of Steve's improvisational pieces.... just for fun... maybe worth developing....

Merry Holidays!!!

The more the merrier!!

 We hope you all are enjoying the holidays with family and friends. Here are some pics of our last kiln load for 2011. You'll notice some small experimental pieces in there that Steve is working on. We are embarking on our annual clay playtime. I'll post some closeups for New Year's.

Two views of the last kiln load for 2011 and two orders nicely finished.

Kiln Firing 12/3/11

Here are the results of our last kiln.
Glazing was near perfect!!

A couple of gorgeous gingers

New Pink Lady Slipper!!

It's a girl thing

And what, you ask, has Cherie been doing while Steve has been slaving away on the MET order??
Ah.... working on these:

How did I do this before??

The tale of two firings

 As the weather turns colder here in the Northeast, we focus on getting some holiday orders completed first for the galleries and then for the rest of us. I even posted what's in stock on our website tonight and will be adding to that as we continue firing this and next week.

These are the two vases with the daffodils on them that we made those press molds for earlier.

On deadline

 After many hours of work, we are quickly approaching completion of our order for the MET. Steve has made all of these from start to finish.

Bisqued

Glazed

Fired

Umbrella Stand of Birch Trees

We are in full production right now. The studio is packed with work in different stages. Here is an umbrella stand I'm working on:

Every Picture Tells a Story

Sculpting the flowers in bas relief

 We took an order for larger daffodil vases than we usually make. It is designed to have a daffodil motif around the neck using the press mold we made a while ago to make the flowers. They were outsized on the new pieces so here we show how we made two new press molds specifically for the larger vases. Of course then we will have them for other pieces. The largest flowers would look really great on an umbrella stand. Here's a peek at the process.

and placing them on a thick slab of clay

Sides of the mold will be clay slabs

Flowers are cleaned up and without undercuts.

Boxes made to contain plaster

Volume of water and plaster are figured.

Weighing the pottery plaster

Slacking in the plaster slowly

After slacking plaster in, it is allowed to sit.

Drilling begins at 3 minutes.

Plaster is setting up.

Checking consistency and thickness

Thickening up

Ready to pour

Release any air bubbles by jiggling the table.

After plaster is hardened, cutting away the clay mold.

Pulling off the original

Drying the mold.