Cup of Tea

I am proud to admit that I'm producing my teacups rather quickly- be still my heart I think my studio is finally firing my work. I am on my way out the door to see if these new tea cups have been bisqued and if so, I should I have a total of about 8 tea cups to glaze.

I may have mentioned that I loved glazing, and if I did, I will admit I really only love it when the glaze turns out well. My last round wasn't so hot. I fired a set of bowls in Calico and boy did they surprise me! I was so let down by the turn out of these, it was like a slap in the face. I mean seriously, these bowls were really nice. Nice shape, nice weight, very close in size, but the glaze just ruined it! So prey for me. These tea cups are my babies.

Please Gods: hook me up with a successful glaze fire, or I don't know what I'll do..

Item #1

Enter collection item number 1: Tea Cups

I am working on sets of oversized tea cups and saucers. Who doesn't find these sweet and endearing? But also, it makes me wonder what ever happened to tea time? maybe we never really did that in America, but we should! I for one love a good cup of tea and the only way I could only enjoy it more would be with nice warm english scone, some strawberry jam and clotted cream. But if your on a diet like I am now, and I can't exactly indulge in my favorite delectables, how about indulging by using a fabulous and worthy tea cup and saucer. It's not exactly the same, but at least it makes tea-time more fun.

Set the table

It's all about sets. I'm on my way to making this into a handmade business so i need to make sets. Everything looks better in sets because you can outfit an entire table. Not that I don't like the idea of mismatching pieces, but they somehow still need to be cohesive together. I am working on making pieces as close in size and shape as possible, and I think it's finally working. But one thing I am finally embracing is allowing each piece to be slightly different because naturally by hand it's impossible to make each piece exactly the same and anyway I want to avoid it being manufactured looking. That's part of the beauty of the hand made.

Floating Blue

These cereal bowls turned out perfectly. The floating blue glaze was a complete success and they are very close to being completely uniform, all fitting comfortably stacked. This is for sure an achievement for me being my best set ever and first set of bowls. Getting a great result is the best feeling because there are more chances than not that the work won't turn out the way you planned. I must have waited 3 weeks for these to be fired after I glazed them and I don't even want to think about how long the entire process took considering the speed my studio runs the kiln. I guess the wait only makes the positive result feel that much better.

Presentation

How do you make a vase look really good? Just like this: Add some amazing flowers. Actually, I was just having a conversation with a fellow potter in the studio about this. Sometimes the work speaks for itself, but often it's the presentation that really grabs the attention. You can try and sell a vase without flowers, but when you add the flowers a person can identify with it, envision it in their home, in the foyer greeting them as they arrive home from work , or on their dining-room table; the icing on the cake of an almost set table.

I've often noticed in interior design mags that the spaces they shoot may be attractive but it's the stylists who really do the magic adding the flowers, objects and changing the light. This was always my favorite part of the design process. Thanks to my thoughtful boyfriend Reed and his contributions to my constant desire for flowers, I have been able to take my vase up a notch in the world and really make it look fantastic. :)

Greek Inspiration

Reed and I took a trip to the MET where we both felt inspired. We spent most of our time with the Greek and Roman ceramics and I focused my attention on the painted patterns and the shapes of these ancient yet very contemporary looking objects. I feel inspired to start exploring these throughout my own work. I am drawn to these patterns and textures and can certainly learn a lot from the shapes that were created for functionality and ceremony. Even though we've been to this section before. We were struck by how modern these looked and how they could easily be created today and never given a second thought.

Before and After

The most satisfying part is looking back on the process. There are 3 significant stages of ceramics. The wheel throwing phase, the bisque phase and then glazing. Because the process requires so many stages its easy for many things to go wrong which makes a finished and successful piece feel that much more gratifying.