My creative space

Today my creative space will partly be claying on some new stuff and partly applying oxydes & glazes to some fired things.
I'll start with the wall art tiles that are fired but need some color.
The creative bubble one is already reserved for someone special so I hope that it will come out as she likes. If not, it will be for someone else! :)

Here is the process of how it's done: the plain fired tile, the tile with the painted oxyde on, the washed off tile.
In a few days I will fire my kiln and show you the results! :)
They will look completely different!

Want to show your creative space? Hop over to Kootoyoo's to play! It's fun! :)

Flickr Favorites

After last weeks start of showing Flickr Favorites, I have to say that I loved seeing all yours! So many new favorites and contacts make up for great inspiration. Thanks for playing whoever played!
I decided to make this 'Flickr Favorites' a weekly feature on my blog so if you feel like playing and sharing your favorites, hop in on tuesday's! :)
You can show your mosaic of Flickr Favorites in your blog or Flickr. Just copy/paste the link where you posted it in Mister Linky. You can click on all the links to see the Flickr Favorites made by whoever participates!
Mister Linky is kind of wonky sometimes and last week he was a whole lot of trouble. I hope he behaves better this week! :)

I feel touched

When people buy a mini art feeling, they sometimes write why or for who they are buying it. My curious nature loves that but mostly I'm very touched by the story behind it.
One of my feelings courage went as a gift to a person who just recovered from a coma. Another one went as a gift to someone who's battling with cancer at the moment.
I hope that both these people will find the courage to conquer the hard times that they are going through. I feel touched to know that my work has reached their hearts and that my little feeling 'courage' will be part of their journey...
Both these sales are in my heart more then any other and I quite often look back and hope that 'courage' will help them remember to go on in hard times and that they are surrounded by people who care about them...
What touches you?

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?

Dream in progress... part 2

I finished all the two row squares for my Babette blanket. It was fun & easy and I love the colors although I'm having doubts about the red because I kind of feels too 'hard' compared to the other colors. What are your thoughts?
I have a slightly pinkish red color cotton too so I might change to that.
The bigger square in the corner is the next set of squares containing 4 rows. I need 49 of those. I think these will take me a bit longer to make.
I didn't sew in the last thread yet 'cause I don't know if I need it to join the squares together. I have to find out about that.I'll keep you posted on the progress...
And I also want to share a nice feature Artsybeat did on me & my work.

Happy package

Yay! Finally time to draw the winner of the happy package. Thank you all for entering the happy package give-away. Since the guessing of what the the plastic thingies were in combination of how many were in the bottles got too confusing, I changed the rules after the first few answers. How did I know I was asking the impossible? :)
So, to pick a happy winner, I put all the names in an Excel sheet and sorted them alphabetically. Then I tweeted if someone could give me a number between 1 and 56. Lovessunflowers was first and said number 22.
The lucky winner of the happy package is... Glasfaden aka Devi!
Congrats! I'll be making something especially for you this weekend & sent it next week! :)

So, what where these plastic thingies anyway? Have a look:
Lots of you were right about the piggybank. My dad turns 70 this sunday and there will be a big party. But what do you give a man who has everything he needs/wants? Yip, a piggy bank with a 70-supermanlogo! :) I'll be putting some cash inside so he can buy whatever he needs/wants.
My nieces are doing their communion on sunday so I made them choose their favorite feeling and made a piggybank out of it too! I bought for both of them an acrylic paintset and varnish so they can decorate it themself. They both are supercreative so I'm sure they will love to do that.
And believe it or not: it's mother's day too on sunday. So these salt & pepper shakers are for my mom:
It's all firing away right now so I do hope all comes out well or I'l lbe in big trouble! :)

My creative space

My creative space today is the procteted kitchentable & the sink.
Recently, I fired some test tiles to test oxydes for the wall art feelings I'm working on. I bought all the supplies & know how they will more or less look but I love testing them out anyway. All these different textures will give different results and I'm looking forward to fire them & see how they've become. Like with paint, you can also mix oxydes together to get different shades of colors so I could make 1000 of testtiles that all look different but I'll go with the basics for now! :)
Oxydes consist of powder and you mix them with a bit of water. With a brush you apply it to the tile and let it sit for a few moments. Then you hold it underneath running water and rub the substance off. Some of it will stay in the texture of the tile so that it will give a slight color to the ceramics.
You don't get bright and happy colors with this but the effect is kind of rough & natural - I like it a lot.
I'll fire these tiles tommorrow and will show you sometime next week how they came out.

I also tested out some engobes by applying it very thin to leatherhard clay, let it dry and then scratched into it etc. These are engobes that I bought but when I have a bit more time on my hands, I'll be making my own as I have all the supplies at home. And like with the oxydes: many possiblities.
Ceramics really is a different world where you can explore endlessly...
I have to move my bum now and start claying so I can fire the kiln tonight. I made a few gifts that need to be fired by sunday so I don't have time to draw a winner for the happy package give away. But I'll do that tommorrow so if you haven't entered you can still do so...
Don't forget to enter the give away below! :)

Want to show your creative space? Hop over to Kootoyoo's blog to play! It's fun! :)