Porcelain keys

It's been a while since I posted creative stuff on my blog. This work above was done in between over the past few months and I only now get around making a finished product of it.
I just need to pimp the packaging a bit but hopefully I have time to do so later this week!
I haven't had much time to work on new things lately so I'm actually happy I managed to make at least one new thing...
Next weekend I'll be at the ceramic market in Maaseik (Belgium) and I'll be taking these along.
So if you're in the area, please pop by and say 'hello' to me! :)

Workshop results transfers

Above are some results of yesterday's transfer workshop! It was such a lovely group of people
together and we had great fun cutting, applying and eating cookies. :)
The results are super too! It's all in the kiln now so cross fingers that it will all come out well!

Special beads

I've been asked to make some porcelain beads of a certain diameter. Not really easy as the porcelain schrinks when being fired. So I've been making and measuring and writing it down and hope that I will get the perfect bead diameter when they are fired. Fingers crossed! :)

At work in my studio

 I've had a few people coming to my studio to work with transfers. I love it when I see all the pretty illustrations and color designs. It's a fun workshop and thankfully there hasn't been anyone who hated working with transfers. :)

My absolute favorite piece is the vessel above. I love the girl with her real life goldfish balloon!
The vessel was scored at a local secondhand shop that I visit nearly every week and I wish I had found it first! LOL :)

Busy hands in my studio

Today I had a workshop transfers in my studio so there were busy hands cutting and applying the decals. I love all the designs they made.

 Ontwerp en uitvoering van Karla (Lettershop)

Ontwerp en uitvoering van Debbie (Amaritas juweeltjes)

 

Ontwerp en uitvoering Hilde (Hilde Groven)

If you want to design your own transfers or tableware, don't hesitate to subscribe to one of the two remaining workshops this fall (23 October or 7 November).

Workshop results

So the kiln has been firing non-stop to fire all the work that has been made at the workshop last saturday. All has come out fabulous up until now. I'm so pleased and hope the participants will be too when they recieve their goods! :)

Porcelain rings

From the North Story line, we don't have all the designs in all sizes so when someone wants a certain ring, I need to check if I have it in stock. If not, I turn to Anna to see if she has it in stock.
If neither of these are the case, I check my blank rings and see if I can make one. But then when the blank rings of a certain size are not available, I need to make new ones and that's a process that takes a while. For one, I don't always have enough work ready to fire a porcelain kiln so I wait until the kiln is filled up. That usually takes a while. Thankfully we have some very patient customers who are willing to wait a few months for their ring to be ready.  Today I made a few new blank rings to put in the porcelain kiln. Hopefully they schrink to the requested size... otherwise I can start all over again. :)

My favorite ring is this one:

Workshop porcelain

Today I had a few ladies in my studio for a workshop paper porcelain. The studio was clean and tidy yesterday evening.

In the evening it was a mess which made for a happy heart as that means that the participants enjoyed themselves. They were very quietly working and very, very productive.

Can't wait to fire and send them their work and make happy smiles on their faces! :)

Collaboration work in progress

                                      images by Anna (LilaRubyKing & afjewellery)

A while back I told you that Anna & I are working on a new line. I asked Anna to send me some images of her sketchbook so that I could treat you with a sneak preview. We're excited about what we'll be doing next. I love the work that Anna did so far. Whales, waterbirds, sea dragons, krill, bubbles,...
All animals of the big blue! Can you wait? :)

New North Story rings

I made these rings a long time ago but never took the time to photograph them and put 'em in my shop. I came across them the other day and thought that I better do something with them.
They are in my Etsy shop now... More designs will follow soon!

Decalling

It's been a while since I did some decal work in my studio. But we (Anna & me) have some custom work waiting so I send Anna some porcelain pieces that she could decal. OOAK pieces are heaps of fun to make as not one is the same. You can have a preview of Anna's pieces in her blog. Although they are fun to make, I always twist and turn about placing a certain image somewhere. Is it too little? Is it too much? And the secret is to stop in time before you ruin the piece. 
I also like seeing how different Anna's pieces are to mine. I'm rather modest in combining an placing colors & patterns while Anna dares to use big color blocks. It makes her pieces really artsy I think.
Some of these pieces will be in our shops soon. :)
If you would like a OOAK piece of your own, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Fail

So, I thought I woudl try the mould that I made the other day. Of course I couldn't wait for the result and opened it too soon. I have two parts now, not quite what I wanted it to be. Oh well, it will make a good test sample...

Anyone an idea what this will be? :)