Recently...

...I have been working on some new bowls.  I threw them over a couple of days (not quite a production thrower yet!), and most are the perfect size for a big scoop of your favourite flavour of ice-cream!

I am preparing to glaze them with soft glossy pastel colours on the inside, and have a clear gloss on the outsides.  At the end of last week I did up a number of tests, and couldn't wait to get the test tile out of the kiln this morning!

before:

after:

I am quite happy with most of the colours, but of course I won't be using them all! As I used an assortment of powdered stains (glaze, body, multipurpose etc) some of them didn't quite work out.  The Lilac and Pink Body Stain unfortunatley made the base glaze loose its gloss.  I'm very much so looking forward to getting some of these onto my bowls!

porcelain tea lights

a belated happy 2012 to everyone! well it has certainly been a slow start for the year, due to this, that and the other...and the other other, but im all ready to get back into the studio, and back into my old productive habits!

Over the last few months I have slowly been working my way through my first batch of porcelain tea light holders.

Some of them are quite strongly decaled (images above), in comparison to others (image below), however I still have some lovely plain porcelain ones too (bottom image).

I played around a little bit with the glazing, and some are deliciously glossy all over, and others are glazed on the inside, with the smooth bare porcelain on the outside. Regardless of their glazing, they are all quite thin, making them nice and translucent.

Although designed as tea light holders, they of course have many other possible uses - whatever your heart so desires.

The tea lights pictured above, and many others, are currently available at in.cube8r gallery in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, and I can see a second batch on the horizon! More pictures are available on my Facebook page.

delicious decals

I thought some of my plain cups needed a little livening up, so i bit the bullet and applied some decals! After I spent ages playing around, I finally came up with the great idea of cutting the decals, and applying two or more pieces of decal to each cup. I really like the concept of seeing only part of the decoration or design, which comes out really well when the cups are sitting with both sections of decal visible. After more fiddling, putting decals on, taking decals off, moving decals around, here are some results:

At first, I didn't think that these larger decals were going to work, or look any good, but I was pleasantly surprised when they worked well and looked good.

All these cups (and more!) are currently available at in.cube8r gallery in Brisbane. Keep an eye on their facebook pages (in.cube8r and in.cube8r Brisbane) for regular updates on what's in store and what nifty handmade things are happening around your neck of the woods.

Don't forget to keep an eye on my facebook page too, where you may see some sneek-peek's and get some little birdie whispering secrets in your ear!

first batch out of the kiln

I do apologise, as it has taken me a little while to upload these images!

I am very pleased with the way that these spools have turned out - the colours are lovely, and I was able to get the matt glaze on the end of the spools just about spot on :)

I used some 'vintage' Mayco underglazes, as they were nice pastel shades, and also had a gentleness about the colours as well - not ghastly opaque as some can be. But being a little on the older side, it's suggested on the label that the firing temp is only ~1040 degrees, and here I am putting them on porcelain and firing to 1260 degrees! Because they have been fired a bit higher than they would have preferred, the pale blue and the lavender (which you cannot tell is lavender as it has gone quite blue!) have developed quite a gloss. The peach and the pink have retained their nice matt-ness though.

I feel that the spools need a bit of a yellow and a geen, so I have popped some tests in the kiln of a trial 'vintage' yellow underglaze, as well as my attempt to make a pastel green underglaze. For that I mixed dark green and white underglazes together, as well as mixing some green body stain into white underglaze. Im actually quite looking forward to seeing how that have turned out!

porcelain spools are on their way!

I have been working on these little babies for a while now, and they are now in the final stages! Yipee! I applied the pretty pastel underglazes yesterday (and as you can see in the bottom image only some have been wiped back when the images were taken), and I dipped the ends into my super-duper special matt glaze today, and they are sizzling away to 1260 degrees as we speak. I can't wait to pull them out of the kiln tomorrow :)

new little cups

I have recently been able to do some more throwing (which makes me very happy). I am a big fan of plain and simple, however I do think that these may need a little something...any ideas?

(two of these have a commercial clear gloss glaze, but the other two have my lovely clear matt glaze - I had to thin it out quite a lot, as when it was thicker it crazed quite badly, and went very cloudy, but now it looks and feels great! I love it!)

blog feature

The more than lovely Emmaline asked me to participate in an artists' feature on her handmade blog, which I was so excited to be art of. Thanks Emmaline!

She is doing a great job of promoting awesome handmade stuff around the Brisbane area, make sure you have a look :)

first listing on madeit!

Im so excited to have finally started filling my madeit store with goodies! I know its only one item, but its a start, and there will be many more to follow!

little art market

last Friday night i had a little stall at the art fair of a local primary school

A big thank you to everyone that came along to support Wellers Hill SS, and an even bigger thank you to those who made a little purchase from me!

glaze tests - stoneware clear matt

Below are some images of the test glazes that I have been playing with. I just wanted a simple clear matt glaze that could go to about 1260 degrees, but the only commercial matt available is only earthenware temp. (1080 - 1100 degrees), so I decided to find some recipes and mix up my own!

I tried seven glazes in total, and I was very happy with five of them - one isn't really a matt glaze at all, and the other just went weird (the image right at the bottom). The next three images are of my three favorites.

This is the one that went quite strange (its almost nice though, as you can just see a pearly blue coming through on the darker clay body)

The clay bodies I used here were Walkers No. 10 Porcelainous Stoneware, and Feeney's Raku Gold.

new spools

Well I finally managed to get my new moulds finished at the end of last week, and I popped in to open them up yesterday and most of them are looking very good! There was one however, where the plaster didnt come away cleanly from the thread on the spool, so at some point Ill be trying to seal the thread a bit more and then re-pour the plaster.

I have also been after a high-firing clear matt glaze (for both the brooches and the spools) but the only commercially available is to Earthenware temperatures. I mixed up some test glazes from recipies I found on the net last week, but am yet to test them - no idea how they will turn out!

I hope you had a great weekend!

Cass.

weekend fun

I popped over to Brisbane last weekend, and was lucky enough to have a few spare minutes to attend both the Finders Keepers Autumn/Winter 2011 Markets at the Old Museum, and the Suticase Rummage at Redacliffe place, just outside the Library.

Finders Keepers was an amazing event, with food and live music accompanying the almost endless stalls of top notch hand-made goodness. There were so many beautiful things that I was tempted to bring home with me.

The Suitcase Rummage was awesome too - it was much bigger than I imagined! There were so many suitcases filled with vintage and second-hand clothing and goodies, hand-made treasures, as well as people just selling their 'stuff' (there were old i-phones and even a Wii!). I will definatley be going back for round two next month :)

Cass.

recent makings: spools

I have been working on slip casting a series of vintage wooden cotton spools, and considering the inherent length of the process and that I'm now working part time, it has taken a while! I have finally completed a trial batch, seen below:







I have just purchased a brand new bucket of porcelain slip for the next batch (these ones are stoneware), so will update when I have some results! I'm back in the studio tomorrow to get stuck into the new moulds...they are only five-piece moulds...so they shouldn't take long...

until next time,
Cass.

professional pics

'Selection/Collection'; slipcast ceramic; 2010


'Untitled'; slipcast ceramic; 2010


'Untitled'; slipcast ceramic; 2010



all images a'la Cindy Laine from USQ Photography

major catch-up!

I have recently realised that I have greatly neglected the world of blogging! Since last time, I've lumbered though writing my Honours thesis, and completed all the accompanying practical work, so as of the 11th of November, I have been totally 100% University free!

At assessment we presented two bodies of work -> the thesis prac. work (the main body of work), and 'Module B', the tangent work to the thesis prac.

'Selection/Collection' (knives and forks); slipcast ceramic; 2010


'Selection/Collection' (spoons) part II; slipcast ceramic; 2010


'Selection/Collection' (spoons) part I; slipcast ceramic; 2010


The GraduArt 2010 exhibition is amazing, and was again shown at both the USQ Arts Gallery and the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery. Simultainously, Daniel Qualischefski and I also had some bits and pieces in Artisan's Christmas retail showcase, Cherish 2010, in Brisbane.

I also have my own little space at in.cube8r gallery in the valley in Brisbane. Its such a great place and concept, you should all check it out - still time for that last minute Christmas shopping! Im glad to say that its a little emptier than in the photo :) almost restocking time!


I also recently had a short write up done on me by USQ, focusing on the spoons works, and the fantastic fact that as part of Artisan's Cherish 2010 showcase, they were so impressed with my work, that they wanted to utilise it to gift to the directors of Artisan! This was then placed in The Chronicle, and a slightly abbreviated version appeared in Toowoomba's Mail - and all one day after the other!

Good thing that after all this excitement of showing/selling work, and publications, Im off to a little place near Bundaberg for a week!

Cass xo

sem 1 assessment

new earrings!

These came out of the decal firing yesterday and they are just perfect!










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These ones were made using copper wire: