Busy hands

Today I had the first workshop 'working with transfers' in my studio.
Busy hands working magic.

And they werey extremely productive so I have a few kilns to fire in the coming days... :)

Glazing earstuds & new designs

The other day I glazed some earstuds. Normally I apply the decals onto unglazed ware but with digital decals it is much harder to apply them to unglazed ware. So I had the joy of glazing fiddly tiny discs for earstuds.

When Anna made the new designs for the Sea Level line, there is always room left for a few teeny tiny designs for earrings. Below you can see a sample of some of the new designs. Yes, some, there are more then these but I didn't feel like cutting all of them out just to get a sample. :)

These new earstuds will be first available at the ceramic market in Maaseik on the 30th of June. 

In the mean time, there are still some pieces left of the MINORERROR work if you like to get a good deal. :)

MINORERROR

What a weird title for a blogpost hey? It's a coupon code that's available in my Etsy shop. While making the new line, there was some testing involved of course. And not all went right.
When I fired the pieces, I placed the plates on top of the bowls. The temperature I fire the transfers is not that high that I would think the glaze would be affected. Unfortunately it has and so I have some bowls and cups with minor errors on top of the rim or on the bottom of the plates or saucers.

The errors are nearly not visible so we decided to offer these pieces on a discounted price. If you have been eyeing the new work you can now get your piece at 50% discount. I tried photographing the errors but they are so tiny that it's nearly impossible...

Anyway, below you can see the images of 2 pieces only but on all the bowls, plates, cups, saucers, the errors are that minor. The errors are right below the text. Put on your glasses 'cause they are very hard to see. ;)

If you want to adopt a piece with an error on them, please go to my Etsy shop, purchase the piece that you want and add MINORERROR as a coupon code and it will give you a discount of 50%. 

I will update the pieces that are available here so come and check here what's still available... These are the pieces that have errors on them:

• Seadragon bowl
• Seadragon plate
• Coral bowl (SOLD)
• Coral plate (SOLD)
• Coral cup
• Coral saucer
• Bird bowl
• Bird plate
• Bird cup
• Whale bowl
• Whale plate
• Whale cup

If you purchase pieces with a discount and they are not available anymore, I will cancel the sale.
And obviously, the coupon code is only available on the Sea Level line.

Preparing for the ceramic market in Maaseik

I have a few days off work and take this opportunity to prepare for the ceramic market in Maaseik on the 30th of June. The list to make is still long so this is just the beginning.

Launch new collaboration line 'Sea Level'

Today is the big day! Anna and I have been talking about tableware for some time now and at last we decided we should just make it. While I'm very busy with my 9 month old baby girl, Julie, I don't have much spare time to make the tableware myself so we decided to buy tableware which was already manufactured. Much easier as making and glazing the tableware would be such an intense, time-consuming job. Besides that the tableware we selected is such a fun collection that fits our goal exactly: it's innovative and looks great.

When we decided on the theme of the new line, Anna started drawing and since I love her work, I wasn't surprised to see beautiful illustrations. I ordered the transfers, applied them to the tableware & fired them in my ceramic kiln. I love the result of the blue tones on the white ceramics. It reminds me of Delfts blue but in a contemporary way. The collection is called 'Sea level' as the theme is plants and animals living in or by the water.

We made 4 different designs on 4 different tableware pieces: a bowl, a plate, a cup and a saucer. All pieces are available seperately and you can mix and match as you like. For the next few days I'll be listing all designs in my shop. Hope you will come by and check 'em out.
With every order of this new line you will receive this beautiful postcard to send or to frame.

Curious about the recipe of the cookie in the images? They are divine so I can recommend baking them.

They are called thumbprint biscuits and here's the recipe for you:

Ingredients:
225g selfraising flour
100g cold butter
75g sugar
1 egg
2 spoons milk
raspberry jam

Preheat the oven at 200°C and grease a baking pan or use a baking sheet.
Add the flour and the butter in a bowl and mix it with your fingers until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar. Whisk the egg and stir it through the mixture.
Add the milk little by little through the mixture until your dough is soft. If the dough is too dry, add some more milk.
Scoop teaspoons of the mixture onto the baking tray. If all goes well, you have enough for at least 12 biscuits.
They grow a bit while baking so leave so
Make the top of the biscuit a bit flat with your spoon or hand and press your thumb into the middle.
Add a bit raspberry jam into the thumbprint hole.
Bake the bisquits 15 to 20 minutes in the oven until they are golden brown.

Take the biscuits out of the oven and let them cool down.
You can keep 'em 3 to 4 days in an airtight container.
me space in between them while baking.

Sea level

So excited! 

We'll be launching our new line tomorrow. 

I'm prepping the listings as I type this...

Stay tuned!

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: