And the best part...

Is licking the bowl. Yummmm

It's cake day!

Sloane wanted to bake today. So we made a chocolate cake, of course!

Yarn Bowl

One of my fb friends received this for her birthday.  As you can see, it is a yarn bowl.  I am in Love with it.  This will be the next thing I create in my pottery class tomorrow.

Check out my Butterfly Candy dish

I am trying out two more new glazes today. I'm painting a butterfly candy dish. The wings will be Lagoon Blue. And the body and spots will be Yadro Print. Can't wait to see how it looks after firing.

Full House

Today was our first Open Studio and what a full house we had.  :o)  Everybody was here today to paint a little something for their dads for Father's Day.  So now I am busy glazing all the pieces to put into the kiln tonight.  Can't wait to see the masterpieces when they are finished.

Lauren was gushing with creativity at Imagine That! Pottery Werks today.  I love to watch children and see what they come up with.  She chose a dolphin that would sit on top of the soap dish.  She wanted them to be "glued" together.  So I sat the dolphin on the soap dish in the kiln and they "became one".  I didn't get a picture of the finished product.  But it really turned out cute.  Kids really know how to think outside the box!  Love it!

Paint-a-Piece

Check out the awesome pieces that people have been painting at Imagine That! Pottery Werks this week.

Let it flow

Jordan came over today to finish her project from a previous class.  She also painted a ceramic shoe and snail.

Quinn was painting his peace sign while listening to the ipod.  Great way to get in the groove.

Crazy crazing?!

I have a dilemma here with product compatability.  I feel that the best way to solve this problem is to put it out there for the experts, or the experienced ceramic gurus...

Background of issue: 

Products we are using are:  Laguna Clay (White EM330), Mayco Stroke & Coat Wonderglaze for Bisque and Duncan Pure Brilliance Glaze (Clear).

My students utilize the Laguna Clay to create their own personal masterpieces which then are allowed to dry to Bone Dry state (min 72 hrs).  The pieces then are fired to cone 06 and then allowed to cool before removing from kiln (min 24 hrs).  Students return and utilize the Mayco Paint to decorate their pieces.  We then apply two coats of the Duncan glaze and allow 24 hrs of drying time.  The pieces then are final fired to cone 04 and then allowed to cool before removing from kiln (min 24 hrs).  Upon removing pieces from the final firing we allow them to acclimate in the garage space before bringing them into the air conditioned studio.  We are noticing crazing the moment they come out of the kiln and only increasing as the pieces cool.  The photos below reflect what is occurring (click on photos for enlargement).

At the point, we've researched and the best method of solving this problem is that we need to either modify the clay or the glaze.  This modification method that we have read about in numerous articles and blogs requires adding or deleting components of either product (ie. silica, aluminum...).  We are uncomfortable modifying premanufactured products (clay/glaze) that have worked well on the bisque products.  So in other words, the clay fires fine, the glaze works perfect on the bisque (no crazing) and the paint looks fantastic on all products.  What do you recommend at this point? 

Options that we are going to test: 

1.  Fire glazed clay pieces today at cone 06 in lieu of cone 04.
2.  Purchase Mayco glaze (clear) and utilize over Mayco paints.
3.  Switch clay to either a different brand, different color, or a different firing temperature (high vs low).

Help me out here.  What do all you atists recommend?

Four GREAT kids

Brook worked tirelessly on The Eiffel Tower.

Skyler knew exactly what he wanted.  He dictated it to him mom, Kim, who lovingly created it perfectly.

Brice has so much energy.  yet when it was time for class, he focused all that wonderful energy into his project.  Check out his awesome shield below.

Sarah was very focused on her bowl.  She asked for help when needed and ended up with ONE awesome Peace bowl.

I didn't get a picture of Tiffany.  She made the Smurf plaque above.  She is amazing and has many talents.  Patience is definitely one of them.  She made this plaque 4 times before she got it just right.

I've been busy casting new pieces from El Paso for the last three days.  Dave and I make a great team.  I prepare the mold by cleaning it and banding it up and he mixes the slip and pours the molds.  Then, together, we take the molds apart to see the magic.

Dave said the other day that it is like Christmas for me when we open the molds.  And he is right.  I just love to see the end result.  It makes me feel like a kid again. Weeeee!!!

new treasures

Dave and I worked in the studio this morning to cast some molds before it got too hot.  Well, that didn't last long.  It was 115 degrees today!  Man was IT. Hot!  We got through some of the newest additions before we had to call it quits.  There is some pretty cute stuff out there.  We have a baseball player, a football player, quite a few small pots, a turtle pot, a mushroom pot, mushroom salt & pepper shakers...and the list goes on and on.

It is so fun to uncover the treasures.  We are going at it again tomorrow morning to see how much we can do before we faint from the heat.  Wish us luck...

More Changes

It has been SO. HOT. here...113 degrees today!!!  Yikes!  I am so glad we have a pool.  Phoenix in the summer is like a giant oven.  Even at night ~ MIDnight~ it is still 97 degrees.  It just doesn't cool off here in the summer.  That said, I haven't been out in the studio AT all in the past two weeks.  It's just TOO hot.  I've been working inside.  I have had pottery classes and paint-a-piece classes to attend to, which is great.  I LOVE working with people and showing them they too have a creative side.  Most people come here and say they aren't creative.  Pooey!  Everybody is creative.  You just have to relax and let it out.  If you look at past posts, you'll see lots of creativity swirling around.  It is so fun to watch the transformation.

SO!  Anyway, I worked on my blog for most of today, revamping it.  Then this afternoon, Dave and I brought some bisqueware inside from the studio to display on our new shelves in the classroom.  What do ya think?  I am so excited to have products insided so people can be enticed into wanting to paint something.  I mean, really.  Isn't that how the stores do it?  They put their merchandise right in front of your nose at the check-out.  Then before long, your dd or ds is holding it and asking to paint it and before long, you can't hold out any longer.  Wa-la!  You and your child are painting a piece.  Yay!!!  That's how I want it to go.  :o)

Unloading ~ Part 2

We got to the storage facility at 7am this morning to finish unloading the truck.Here is our space.  Look at the white trail we left, taking the molds from the truck to the space.

Quinn was bored last night.  So he was drawing on the ground with broken pieces of plaster.

Thank you, Sloane for taking this lovely picture of me in the truck.

We left about 200 molds in the van and brought them to our house so we could start sifting through them.  They filled up the space where the golf cart usually sits and part of the studio.  I should have taken pictures.  I'll try to remember tomorrow.  This is just an overwhelming amount of molds.  But there are some really great things.  There are HUGE pots of all shapes and sizes in there.  I don't know if I'll be able to keep those.  Not sure if my kiln is large enough for those.  We'll have to see.

Unloading ~ Part 1

OMG!!!  Look at all the molds!  This truck is PACKED!

We unloaded for two hours tonight and only got half the truck unloaded.

Here is the storage facility we rented to put them in.  We had no place to put them at our house.

It's filling up...

El Paso to Phx

My boys got home just now from El Paso.  They bought about 3000 molds from a going out of business.  Now to see what the molds are...

Check out our newest addition to the classroom.  Don't the shelves look stunning!  I LOVE them.  This is where all the bisqueware will live.  Now, everybody that takes a class will have full view of all available pieces to paint.  Yay!!And here is one last look at my studio before Dave comes home with our HUGE lot of molds.  He is headed to El Paso tomorrow with our 7yo son, Quinn to pack up and drive home a huge lot of molds, a kiln and other things that I'm not even sure will be in there.  I am soooo excited to see my new treasures.  I know there will be some molds that are dated.  But there is also some exciting, new, cool molds that are going to throw this business into overdrive!!!  Wish us luck.  :o)

paint your masterpiece ~ day 2

Today there was a father-daughter team working together to finish three pieces.  They didn't finish today.  So they'll come back next week.  I didn't want to rush the creative process.Check out the star bowl and tray this fantastic lady created.  She was very attentive to detail.  It was make an excellent addition to her home.What a charming little tea pot.  Won't she have such an enchanted time using this with her sister.  And to think, she created it all by herself.  Awesome!

Today's class was the return group from this day.  They are painting their masterpieces.  

This young lady is VERY detail oriented.  She created a (small) tea set.  Boy is it ever CUTE!  Can't wait to see it after it is glazed and fired.  This little man went right to work on his volcano.  I think he was finished painting in 5 minutes FLAT!  LOL  He is the cutest guy ever.  Once he was finished painting his masterpiece, he asked if he could help clean up.  Well, of COURSE!!!!  :o)  I love little helpers.  Here's little Left-Handed Lucy.  She is very precise and focused.  I loved watching her calculate every color with precision.These next three ladies were SO quiet.  I never heard a peep out of them the entire two hours.I love this guy.  He is very creative and scientific.  After he was finished painting and waiting for his sister to finish, he experimented with paper towels and sponges and water.  I loved watching his mind work.  Even when he was "relaxing", his mind was still working.  Isn't it great how we are learning all the time.