Boo!

Coil pot : 4-1

The one that comes after two and before four.  That number coil pot for me. You'd think being the third daughter would make me ok with the number three, but ....looking to avoid jinx n the pit fire.
Greenware, not yet burnished. About 24" tall.

Second Coil Pot

Second coil pot -- quite a bit bigger than my first coil pot, but not jumbo...sits open palm of hand, or two hands if you are being more careful.  Burnished with stone and oil. Not yet fired. This one is set to be fired in pit on beach. I am a bit concerned that she will blow up. We shall see.

First Coil Pot -- Dung Fire

First coil pot I have made...at least in my memory, the little kid stuff was likely pinch pots. 

Some practiced and smashed ones before this, but this one was good enough to "go for."

Mata Ortiz clay, brought to us via guest artist from that region. I burnished with oil and stone. 

Below shows the process of the dung fire.  

a. Pieces set in base of metal container that has spaced air holes. Hot coals underneath to warm the pieces.  No piece should be too close to the open hole as it may heat more quickly. The idea is to heat the pieces up slowly.  Initially all were put in the hot box to warm for about an hour or so.

b. Dried dung (lots of local cows!) placed around the container with lid.

c. Set the fire. 

d. Wait until the dung burns away.  This was about an hour. 

e. Voila, your fired piece. My first coil pot blew up. Perhaps it didn't heat slowly enough, perhaps an air pocket (hmmm), or just the luck of the draw when it comes to firing. I have most of the pieces, so we will see how she looks "re-assembled." 

Ceramic Rod with Felt

Work on hollow forms included this rod, that broke in bisque firing. Took the broken pieces, seasoned with copper wire, salt soaked tee bag, copper sulfate soaked string and sawsut and re-fired to put markings.  Bridged the breaks with lightly felted wool made from wool from local sheep. Ran an acrylic rod through it. Didn't make the "Y" bracket stand yet, so used some twigs to hold it up for now.  Less noise will help focus it here, but for now it stands out in the "wild." 

Bird House -- Guest Artist

5.6 year old charmed again.  Bird house. Complete with:

a. Bird (owl) flooring..each owl with different emotion.

b. Worm container...for eating.

c. Leaf container..so the birds have feeling of outside even when they are inside.

d. Birdseed.

e. Water

f. iPad...for extra indoor entertainment 

g.. Hole in roof so "only birds" can get in and out.

h. Shelves. 

i. Bird pictures on the wall. 

On the outside wall, was a picture of a person behind a grid, smiling. I didn't get it when she showed it to me, but she said, "See, he is happy."  Later my sister explained an earlier discussion -- when the house was being built, the issue of a bird being inside and the loss of freedom that the bird would likely not like...and was compared to a person being enclosed in a cage. So, little one "justified" the concept of a bird house by showing happy people in a cage.  Though, she did make the open roof...so the bird could come and go as it pleased. 

Ceramic Figure...salt, sawdust, copper, tea

Playing with clay making hollow forms.  After bisque fired, applied assorted objects to see what affect they would have. Copper wire (black and pink orange), salt soaked nettle tea bag (brownish), string soaked copper sulfate (brownish). Once "seasoned" with what desired, place on layer of sawdust in sager and fire again to about 1350 degrees.  Sawdust left the large black spaces.

Ram -- Horse Hair Treatment on Cermanics

After being bisque fired, ram was heated to 1350 degrees, removed with tongs, and then strands of horse hair...and some of mine...were applied. Just lay the strand against the form. Carbon leaves black marks as the hair zizzles away. Sugar sprinkled on while figure still hot was used for the dots....I'd rather not have them so blobby on the back...could re-fire, but the whole thing was an experiment, not an heirloom (hairloom...hehehehehe).

Sparky Smile

Simple trick from grade school....a card for a friend. Glue, glitter, card.

Handmade Paddle

Ok, a simple tool for sure, but sawed by hand by the light of a flashlight in otherwise dark night makes it that much more "fascinating" to me. For shaping clay, my latest medium of play.