My cup of tea...

Deborah is one of the people who participated in one of my workshops 'working with transfers'. She makes beautiful illustrations and applies them to tea pots and cups.

I love her work: it's cheeky and fun and makes me smile.

Since she doesn't own her own kiln, she asked me to fire her work and I get to see all the goodies that she makes first hand. I just want to share some with you because she intricately incorporates her drawings onto the teapots making sure that the image which is already on it, is part of her design.

BEWARE! Cute unicorn overload!!!

Who wouldn't want to have his/her tea or coffee poored out of one of her pots?
I believe that some of these will be available at de Vitrine in Brugge next weekend. There are many more designs so check 'em all out if you are in the area!! :)

Work in progress

Perhaps I'm exaggerating by posting so many work in progress pictures lately but I am working really hard to get everything done for the Sunday Market in Amsterdam.
I made some birch vases & they are in the kiln as we speak. They come out on thursday which will give me just enough time to glaze and fire 'em again. And then they will come out of the kiln again on saturday so that I can wrap 'em up and take 'em to Amsterdam.
Tight timing so I'm just a little bit stressed... :)

How to make and use batwash?

When I first bought my kiln, I knew the shelves needed to be protected from future glaze marks with som batwash. Batwash is a substance you can buy ready made in ceramic supply shops but it is very easy and much cheaper to make it yourself. I thought I'd share the recipe with you.
Here's what you need:

A container to mix the batwash in, a jar to keep it in, a sieve,

a spoon, a paintbrush, aluminium oxide, quarts, china clay and a scale.You need 60% Aluminium oxide - I use 180grams.

You need 20% China clay - I use 60grams.
You need 20% quarts - I use 60grams.
Add water until the substance is quite liquid so you can spread it out easily.
Put the substance through a sieve so that there is no chunks in the substance.
Normally, kiln shelves look like this.
Mine look like this:
I get the old batwash off to apply some new one. I do this about twice a year but it depends on how much you glaze and how the state of your shelves look after firing. I feel very confident that my shelves are protected and I don't have to worry about dripping glaze on my shelves.Looks much better - now it's ready to apply new batwash.You'll find that as soon as you put the brush on your shelves,
the substance will get sucked into the shelves.
Apply in the same direction and let it dry.
That's why I do this outside when it's sunny.When it's dry, apply another layer in the opposite direction.
Two layers will do fine unless you want to be absolutely sure, apply another one. And look how clean my shelves are now...

All ready for many new firings - yeah! :)

Test tiles results

Remember I made these test tiles the other day?This is how they loook after being fired at 1050°C
From left to right I used: Yellow ironoxyde, Synthetic red oxyde, Natural black oxyde, Mangan, Cobalt oxyde, Copper oxyde
A few close ups...
I love how they came out. How about you?