My Kiln is Fixed

Hooray, my kiln is fixed. The men at Orton are so nice. I highly recommend them to anyone who is thinking about buying a kiln with a controller....get an Orton controller! Their company is right here in Columbus/Westerville. Several people there also bought pendants from me!

Here are a few of my new things I just took out of the kiln yesterday.

I am still waiting for the weather to break out of the clutches of winter. We had 14" of snow here and it has been much colder than normal all winter. My fish are under layers of ice and have been all winter. I hope they are all right.

Working with the bright colors of the glazes helps lift the winter blues.

Paper Clay

Last night I played with paper clay. What is paper clay, you might ask? Well, it is clay mixed with paper! It is supposed to make a lighter clay that doesn't WARP when it dries. I struggle so with warping, I thought the extra effort to make this clay would be worth it. I tore up newspaper, soaked it, and whirled it in my industrial strength blender to make the pulp.
I mixed the pulp into the clay, it is supposed to be about 10% paper, 90% clay. The paper seemed to form lumps in the clay, but I went ahead and cut out some forms anyway. The fact that it was lumpy didn't seem right to me, because those paper lumps are going to fire out. So I looked on the internet, and I was supposed to get the clay like mud and then stir the paper in.
Then dry the clay on a plaster batt, which I don't have, so I'll have to get one and try again. I'm still going to fire the ones I made though, and see what happens.
I am happy to report that the pendants are almost dry this morning and very FLAT!!

Kiln Blues

Well my kiln has been on the fritz and I feel like someone has tied my hands. I have orders from Etsy that I haven't been able to fill. My brother and I replaced the elements on Friday morn, but that wasn't the problem. So into the car trunk the kiln goes, and there is a very nice man at Orton that is going to help me tomorrow morning. I also had some greenware fired at Adobi ceramics, where another nice man said he would put my pots of pendants into the kiln at no charge.
I have 4 hollow bead forms in the batch that I plan on using to create a set of seasonal beads for the Bead and Button competition. They are allowing ceramics this year after excluding us last year, so I am going to take advantage of that and enter.

Summer City Scape

This is an entry for the Feb. Art Bead Scene Challenge, which was to make a necklace inspired by the featured photo.

I loved working with the colors that I never would have chosen without the photo to work from. I thought my sun face pendant was perfectly in theme with the painting which seems so happy and full of summer fun, reminding me of trips to Cedar Point, the New Jersey shore, and salt water taffy. Here is a link to the painting :http://artbeadscene.blogspot.com/2010/02/february-monthly-challenge.html

I would recommend this a way to stimulate creativity and to get past "design blocks" that we all experience occasionally.

The necklace is 36" long including the dangles, and features chain, glass and semi-precious stones.

Stormy Dragonfly Necklace

Joan Miller of Joan Miller Porcelain, has featured one of my necklaces in her Treasury on Etsy. Check out the wonderful dragonfly art.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=111189.

Leave a comment! Thanks

Bead Combo

Visit beads-of-clay.blogspot.com. I am offering this bead combo that features a beautiful ceramic pendant and matching beads as a prize in the analogous color scheme contest. The next contest is for complementary color scheme. I will be offering a prize for that also.

Ceramic with Metal

I was in my friend's bead store and admired a necklace she had made with a Vintaj brass dragonfly wired to a semi-precious stone for a focal. I was inspired to buy some of these brass elements (mine are not Vintaj) and try combining them with my ceramic.

It makes a beautiful focal and a stunning necklace.