So Far So Good!

I've had some trouble with pieces cracking lately...I think my studio has just been a little too hot and the clay has been drying too fast...but this Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus (the one that's been so passed around lately) made it!

The mornings have been just a touch cooler and I'm hoping the "cracking weather" will pass soon....I think I'll stick to icon boxes and hamsa hands until then.

Icon Boxes...Prebeads

A goddess box and a nativity box.  

The goddess will have some beads hanging from the bottom  and the nativity will have a star charm that will hang down from the top.They both can hang on a wall

New Glaze on an Unwashed Pot

This is the new glaze that looks somewhat like hammered copper....except in this photo. The flash on my camera made the colors all muddy and greenish.  In real life it's actually blue and magenta and red.  

I haven't finished scrubbing the ash left from the reduction off completely...those are all the little crinkly black lines. 

 Anyway, I like it.

Lone Mary

This is the finished Mary (the one borrowing the baby Jesus from an earlier post).  I'm hoping to fire the bisque kiln tonight, then the baby will be ready to raku .... I'm not sure  Joseph is dry enough to bisque....it could be awhile before her family is all together. 

I think she looks fairly patient.

Tree of Life

This is one of the new larger icon boxes that I've just started making.  I've been wanting to do something with the tree of life on it and this seemed like a good place to start.
I tried out a new glaze on Friday....it turned out looking like hammered copper...really pretty!  I'll post a picture of it in a day or two....anyway, I think that this will be the glaze that I use on this piece.

Hamsa Hands

I've been working on two different styles of hamsa hands.  One is rather plain, so that I can use an interesting glaze,  and the other is made up of lots of small coils...I'll use a wash on those.  This is a picture of a coil one.

I'm off to Raku....nothing like playing with fire on a 100 degree day!

The Borrowed Baby Jesus

Second nativity!  
I've kept these pieces pretty simple to give the glaze a chance to be the focal point.  The angel has been glazed but not yet raku fired (that will be Friday), Mary has been bisque fired and will be glazed tomorrow and then join the angel in the raku kiln, the baby Jesus made for this set is in the bisque kiln waiting to be fired (Mary has borrowed the first nativities baby...for photo purposes) and Joseph is still drying...the baby Jesus for this set is also a rattle...just because I like it that way!