Glaze Day

I spent much of the day glazing stuff.  I'm trying out a new glaze...I really hope it turns out  'cause it was very nice to work with.
Here's what things look like when they are glazed...I'm going to raku next Thursday and then we'll see!  From right to left this is Tara, an angel (her wings are in the kiln) and Hillin....Tara is the one with the new glaze...hopefully it will look like oil...all dark and rainbowy


I painted a few sayings on the walls of the shed and loaded the kiln.....things still need to dry a bit but I'm hoping I can bisque next week!  Oh...and I bought new raku gloves...no more burnt fingers!

Some Random Stuff

 I've been thinking of making the saints, etc into a more useful type thing and so....I think I'm going to make some saint containers for human ashes and probably pet ashes also.

Yesterday I made a large pot with a lid...something I've been wanting to try to hand build....the outside looks pretty good but the inside is questionable...anyway it was what got me thinking about ash containers...the paper towel is just to keep the lid from sticking and/or shrinking and not fitting anymore.


While I was pondering life and death I painted the door of the circuit breaker box in the shed...if you look closely there are little faces in the tree (seems I've always drawn on walls when frustrated)....

 and I made an angel (the circle thing is her wings...trust me it will be cool) and a few more hamsa hands...I guess I've been busy...mostly just hot.

First of the Tara Goddess Series

I've been fascinated with the stories of the goddess Tara lately...she's in myths from many cultures..she's either born from the earth or sea, falls from the sky or springs from the compassionate tears of a male deity...regardless of how she arrives she is always given the chance to be reborn as a male..... but she chooses to remain a female as long as there is suffering on the earth (she'll be around awhile).  I've decided to make 12 different renditions of her and then take pictures and make them into a calendar.....so....I started with the Cheyenne Tara.  She fell from the sky as a star and the places her body touched the earth made food for the Cheyenne people grow.  Those who ate the food from her body became more enlightened (remind you of anyone?).  I googled "food of the Cheyene" and, other than fish and buffalo, the only thing that kept coming up was corn...so... her braids end in corn...her hands have holes (?) for me to add star charms after she is raku fired...I think the next Tara I make will be the Polynesian one...she was born from the sea....

I also made some more small icon boxes.  In an effort to make something that is less expensive than a saint or goddess I keep experimenting with the icon boxes. I made two today that are different than the others, less time consuming, hopefully easier to glaze and still appealing...a goddess and a nativity.  The nativity will have a star charm hanging from the top and the goddess will have a place for three charms...so, she's sort of generic until I add the charms.  I really prefer knowing who someone is as I make them but I think this is a good marketing option....

Web Page!

At last!  I've got the first page of my website up.  I pressed the publish button at 2:22 pm today...that's got to be a good sign.
Just a couple more days of computer work and then I can get back to my dirt....there has been much missing!

check it out   www.firebrushedpottery.com

Dirt On My Hands

Sooooo...I made three small icon boxes.


St Giles, Rhiannon and a sea nymph and the norse goddess of compassion, Hillin.




 I did a little more tidying and some tax stuff...all is well in my world!

Clean Shed!

After the last minute hurries to get everything finished for the artist market last weekend, the shed was sort of an explosion of clay, brushes, beads and lots of little bits of wire.  I spent yesterday cleaning...everything was nice and tidy until I dropped the newly organized box of beads! The next several hours were spent picking up beads....lots of beads......I finally decided my eyesite was worth more than the remainder of the beads and swept them up.....today, dirt!

Finished Bowls

These are the before and after pictures of the I-can't-believe-this-made-it bowls.  I'm pretty pleased with the results and I'll definitely be making more!