Something to blog about

It's been very quiet in here while the kiln has been broken. Thanks to Jayne for fixing the kiln - yay! This is where I would insert a picture of Jayne headfirst in the kiln if a)I had thought to take a photo at the time or b)I could actually draw. So now I have something to blog about.

These two bowls thrown on the wheel are only noteworthy for their mistakes learning possibilities. Bowl 1 teaches me that the glaze must not be too thick and when sanding I must make sure the item is dustfree before glazing. Bowl 2 teaches me that the use of wax resist to create a speckled bowl has potential but requires further attempts (maybe the outer glaze was not thick enough.)

Last month Jayne suggested everyone in the Mildura Pottery Club give her one of their pieces of pottery to enter in the local Show. I was amazed to hear that I had won first prize until I went to the Show to see for myself. In actual fact everyone had won a first, second or third in various sections, thus lowering my sense of excitement. All the same, I shall be displaying my card next to my pottery.

Zone out now if you are not interested in random bird photos I have taken recently with my new digital SLR.

Baby plumhead parrot bred in our aviary.

 

Topnotch/crested pigeons in our back yard. Thanks to my son for editing out the garden hose in the foreground. (Something I need to learn all about in the next holidays.)

Close up of "Tom" using my macro lens, focusing on his eye. Tom is a kakariki bred in our aviary.

"Missy" having a bath. Missy is a young crimson rosella. She will lose her green and gain more red and blue as she becomes an adult. This photo was taken from outside the cage so the wire has caused the slight foggy look. I will learn to edit that in time.

 

Teenage magpies hanging out in our yard. They actually had a sort of "play wrestle" on the ground at one point.

A willy wagtail having a bath in our yard. If you see the photo in a larger frame, the drops of water are visible.

"Jasper" having some downtime in a hollow log. He is my young male crimson rosella.

Colourful pots

Very happy with the shape of this pot. My third session on the wheel. Also very pleased with the royal blue gloss glaze.

Smaller pot, matt lavender glaze...

Handbuilt pot with jade green underglaze...

I bought two pots while on holiday in South Australia. I like the colour combination of my newest pots sitting alongside them.

 

Improved photo quality due to the purchase of a digital SLR.

New creations

It took me six months but I finally got the courage to attempt hand sculpting a dragon. It's taking quite a while to dry. I'm really glad I hollowed out the underside at the start and not afterwards or it would never have survived.

 

Then there was another bird, a cockatoo this time.

 

I was very excited to get my first thrown bowls out of the kiln after glazing. Bowl one was glazed with tenmoku, bowl two with hyacinth blue and bowl three double dipped tenmoku then hyacinth blue. Bowl three is my favourite for shape and colour.

My second session of throwing produced two shallow bowls with straight sides due to my first collapsing sides requiring them to be cut down. I experimented with some different colours of glaze (lavender and royal blue) but using a brush has taught me not to use a brush. I used a brush simply because I had bought them myself in smaller quantities than the colours I can use at the pottery group. Jayne has suggested I try pouring the glaze over next time. I'm willing to give that a go as I would like to have more colours to choose from.

This week my third session of throwing produced two new shapes that I am loving, especially the larger one which is exactly what I was aiming for. Next goal is to go LARGER!

I know it's Winter but...

...my Sturt Desert Pea is flowering already with a good month left until Spring arrives. It's the first year I've had one of these and I'm super impressed. It has been grafted to give it more chance of success.

In other un-pottery related news, we did a flying visit to the Melbourne Zoo on Friday filling in time before the wwe Raw event (I'm a woman of many interests). We literally ran through the zoo to get to the flight aviary being huge bird enthusiasts. I have a female eclectus parrot

so I was very excited to see a male eclectus parrot! He was looking inside a hollow in a tree and we said "Look, he thinks there might be a girl in there."

And we sure were surprised when we realised he was right.

He ended up flying over and landing right next to us.

The joy!

Look!

I threw a pot!
This week Jayne taught me to throw and turn. I made three bowls. This is the my favourite out of the three. I am still in shock that I made it. No doubt a trained eye and hand could find faults with it but to me it is perfect.

Watch this space

Had my first lesson on the wheel today. Threw my first pot!

New glazes and a novel for potters

I found a glaze to suit the chickens I wanted to make. Chrysanthos brand, mid brown underglaze. These chickens represent our backyard chickens so one is slightly bigger than the other as in real life.

I also tried out Cesco royal blue full glaze...

Photo doesn't really do the colour justice.
And Cesco lavendar full glaze...

And I have just finished reading a novel that I would like to recommend to you all called A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park. It is about a boy working for a potter in Korea in the twelfth century. Not only did I become totally absorbed in the story and the characters but the references to pottery techniques added extra interest.