New work

Tommorrow you can find new collaborative work in Anna's shop LilaRubyKing. As usual, I like to tease you a little... don't forget to check it out on monday! :)

And I have listed the bunnies that I have been working on recently in my shop.
You can find 'em in the Bunny Art - section. Aren't they cute?

Bunny butcher

I love bunnies so you can imagine I was kind of sad when this happened...
Not surprised though 'cause the ear was kind of vulnerable because it came off earlier and I 'glued' it back together with vinegar and slib before firing. So while sanding, this happened.
Oh well, will make a new one to complete my series of 10 bunnies...
The other 9 will be listed later this week. They are jippety jappety happy to meet you.

I love red!

My favorite color is without a doubt green. Mossy, lime, dark, light,... green makes me happy.
But I have a deep love for red too. Up until now, I have been searching for a nice red glaze and I have not been satisfied with the ones I bought in the past.
Red is a very difficult color to glaze in general so it's always a surprise when I make samples of a new red glaze. I was in for a nice surprise when I opened the kiln last week. I love this deep and dark red. Do you like it too?

How to make & use plaster plaques?

You must think I'm a plaster addict... well I am one apparently even though I don't like the mess of it but plaster is just so useful to many clay artists. I use a lot of plaster plaques while working with clay. They extract the water from the clay so that means that the object which is put on there will stay nice and flat. When my clay is too soft, I put it on a plaster plaque and a few minutes later, it's ready to use.
They are super handy to use so I'm going to show how I make these.

Here is what you need: baking trays or big plastic trays,

liquid beeswax, brush, plaster, container, waterPut some beeswax in your tray.
This makes sure that the plaster will come loose from the tray.

Makes sure that you put beeswax all around the tray.
Oops, I used a bit too much here but I'll poor it over
into another tray as I'm going to make lots of plaster plaques!

Mix your plaster: 1 cup of water & 3 cups of plaster - depends a bit on your plaster.

I usually use the pyramid method: put the plaster in one pile and when the water doesn't suck up the plaster anymore it's ready to stir.

Poor the plaster into the tray.

Shake the tray a little bit so that the airbubbles come out.

When the plaster is nearly dry, I quickly pressed some leaves into them.
Since I actually use the smooth side, I thought I could use the bottom too to create some textures... You can see what I did with the textures here.

After half an hour/an hour it's ready to come out of the tray.

It's still to wet to use but after drying it for a few days, it's ready to use.
It's freaking smooth - love it!

Here you can see the textured side.

And this is what I do with them: I put little cut out pieces of clay on them to let them dry. If I would let them dry by themselves, they would go all crooked. But since the plaster sucks the clay onto the surface they stay nice and flat. I also use newspaper to put on top as that also sucks the water out of the clay.

Hope you enjoyed another of my plaster/clay adventures! :)

How to color clay gradually?

When working with clay, it's nice to bring some color into it. Since I especially love objects that are unglazed, I sometimes color clay to get some gradations into it.
It's very easy to do this but while I was doing it, I mad a few snapshots to show you the process.

Here is what you need:
Clingfoil, mask, gloves, pigment, paper, (porcelain) clay and a scaleFirst weigh a certain amount of pigment to mix underneath the clay.
I advise you to write it down somewhere so in case you don't have enough,
you can still make the same mixture.

Then add the pigment to the clay.

Mix it underneath it and when it gets too dry, add a bit of water.

I made a little schedule to mix the clay so I wouldn't make any mistakes.
The end weight for all colors is 70 grams so you just add more or less colored clay to white clay.
I made 280 grams of colored clay and then weighed all the mixed colored parts and put them in clingfoil.

Then weigh 60g of white clay.

Mix both parts really well by kneading it.

And now you can start your gradation project!

When I was done mixing it looked like the darkest color wasn't really black
so I mixed another tone with lots of block pigment.
(oops forgot to write down how much I added)And this is the result when fired.

You can do this with polymer clay too of course only then you don't need to add pigment but you can start mixing right away!
It's fun to get some gradations of color in your work! :)

Not happy...

... with the mini art feeling 'happy'.
Since creating it, I always had this feeling it was not right somehow. Perhaps because I made a 'happy' before and I liked that one much better?
So, when the feeling happy expired on Etsy, I decided to make a new one which would make me much happier... The stamp of the little flower just did not scream happy to me.
I replaced it to another one which has a more visible texture.
I think I need to see 'happy' more clearly and this certainly does make me happy! :)
Now I wonder how you feel about happy...

Inspiration + experiment = creation

Last week, I was reading one of my favorite blogs 'The red thread' by Lisa Tilse. I love to visit it because it's an amazing source of inspiration, it bursts of creativity & it has this whimsical twist that I love! Last monday I bumped into this post that inspired me to make this...

a paper boat
a fabric boat drenched in clay slib

a kiln fired ceramic boatDo you think I will need to take up origami soon? :)

Happy sunday everyone!
I'll be at a craftfair today and hope I can show you some pictures tommorrow! :)
And I'll draw a winner for the give-away when I get back from the fair so you can still enter here...

How to make and use a positive mould?

When you make a positive mould, you press clay onto the mould instead of into the mould.
Usually you work with clay plaques and that's what I'm going to do too!
First I'll show you how to make the mould, which is a piece of cake, and then I'll make a little plate that you can use for fruit, chocolates, tealightholders,...
Here is what you need: a bowl, liquid bees wax, paintbrush, plaster, container to mix plaster. I usually use old ice cream containers because that allows me to eat icecream! :)
Take some liquid bees wax and brush it into the surface of the bowl. This will make sure that the plaster won't get stuck on the glass.
Make some plaster ready in the plastic container. Mostly it is made with 1 part of water and 3 parts of plaster but it depends on the kind of plaster you use.
I always go with the pyramid method: you poor the plaster into the water at the same place and a pyramid will form. When the pyramid doesn't suck any water anymore, it's enough plaster and you can start mixing it with the water.
If you like that the plaster will set quickly, you can use lukewarm water or add a pinch of salt.
Mix the plaster with the water. If you don't want rough hands, you better wear gloves.
Then poor the plaster in the bowl.
Shake a little bit with the bowl so that the airbubbles that are in the plaster can come out. Let it set for about an hour.
Then you can take the mould out of the bowl. It's a perfect round & very smooth. It's still damp and needs to dry a few days befor you can use it. I usually put it in the sun,on the radiator or on the lid of the kiln so that it dries quicker.
The mould is dry so now we can use it. Take a piece of clay.
Put it in between two wooden sticks.
Use the rolling pin to roll the clay flat.
When the clay is rolled out, make it a bit smooth with an old credit card. Then place a square piece of paper on top of it and cut away all the edges so that a nice square remains.
I usually put flat pieces on a flat plate of plaster and go over it with a credit card again so that there are no bumps.
Then you take the square and drape it over the mould.
The mould will suck the water out of the clay & the shape will remain.
After a few hours, you can take the dish away from the mould and it looks like this.
I'm too impatient to show it to you when it's fired & glazed, so I just put some chocolates on there so you can see how it will look when it's totally done! :)
You can also use the mould in a different way to make a bowl.
When the clay plaque is rolled out, you drape it onto the mould.
Then take a little wet sponge and press it gently against the mould.Take away some of the excess clay around the mould.Then with a soft rib you go over the clay plaque and press it gently against the mould and make it all smooth.Cut away the excess clay.
Finish the edges smoothly with the soft rib and let it dry slowly upside down.
This bowl holds even more chocolates I think! :)

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