Pulled some beauties out of the kiln this morning.  (click on the images  to see the full size samples).  These are the samples of all my midfire glazes that hubby gave me for Christmas. I tested them on porcelain and a light brown stoneware.  The top of each piece has only two coats of glaze, while the bottom 2/3 are glazed in three coats. Some appear too heavy at three coats, so I’ll keep that in mind when I start to glaze pieces for sale.  The wheels are spinning: I already have some mold and glaze combinations planned.

Fun is over: back to work for me!

Or more appropriately, where’s Dot??  I’m here, in body if not in mind.  This is what I’ve been up to lately:

Yup. I’ve finished 118 tax returns, and have about 6 on my desk waiting for more info. Lost a week of work with the surgery, but we’re catching up now. Last night when I got home I glazed 22 mid-range stoneware and porcelain sample pendants with the new glazes that hubby gave me for Christmas. See:

All of these pieces are textured; this will give me an idea of how the glaze will run (if it will at all). Most of these glazes don’t even resemble what the finished product will look like: I can’t wait to crack the kiln tomorrow.

Break’s over! Back to working on a nightmare of a return. Serenity now!!!

I picked up these mugs last week when I went to Dover for my final post-op visit.  They were made by Salmon Falls Stoneware and they’re salt-glazed.  The big one is for hubby’s coffee habit. Now he doesn’t have to “leave” the poker table while he’s playing on the computer: no need to go for refills. The “little” mug also holds a lot of liquid.  I had to try out a number of them until I found one that had a comfortable handle.  I can fit two fingers in there, no more.  Not so great when I have sore hands, but then I end up holding it by the bowl of the mug anyway.  Something to keep in mind when I start on the wheel. 

I forgot to mention some good news I received the other day: some of my beads and pendants will be featured in Beads 2010!!!  I ended up going through my stock and sending an assortment in for their consideration.  I have no idea which pieces they selected, and worse, I have no idea which pieces I ended up sending in.  Mental note: take a picture next year.  I’ll also have a necklace and pair of earring in the summer issue of Stringing, but this time I know what pendant and beads to make for backstock.

I’m also mulling over what I want to submit to Bead Dreams 2010 this year.  Last year they essentially snubbed ceramic pieces, so the clay community rose up and made a stink.  This year we have a category, so we better have a good turnout or this will probably be our last chance.  Rather than use the molds that I’ve made from my antique buttons, I think I’d like to create something from my sketchbook.  Hopefully it will translate well into three dimensions.

I’m working from home today (on my new laptop!! Yay), since the weather is really unpleasant today.  There’s a mix of “stuff” falling from the sky today, a little of everything.  I’m sure the meterologists have a special name for it, but I call it sleaze ( I figure that’s pretty all-encompasing).

Back to work. Think Spring!

I want to thank you all for the well wishes!  I’m glad to say I’ve feeling much better; I caught it early so I wasn’t even that sick to begin with.  I was back to work within a week since this is a crazy hectic time of year.  I work with my father prepping income taxes, so the boss was easy on me .  I’ve also been playing catch-up in the house since then; hubby was good at taking care of our son, got the dishes washed, but the pile of laundry took on epic proportions! Since I’ve decided to take Sunday off I’m hoping to get caught up and get my soup ingredients all together then.

I received new glaze AND new clay this week.  I was excited to experiment with the new glazes, until I discovered that I’m bankrupt in the bisque department.  I sat down for 20 minutes last night and managed to make lots of beads in one sitting.I forgot how simple it is to make beads when you don’t have to take the scraps and wedge them all together again. 50 pounds of white earthenware clay, freshly pugged, waiting to play.  LOVE IT!

I’m getting lots of beads made in anticipation of offering KITS!  Yes, kits!  While I was recuperating I had a dream that I was putting kits together.  I even dreamed about the packaging and everything.  I woke up at 2:30 in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep because my mind was racing.  Hopefully I’ll be releasing them by the end of March.

Until we speak again…

Because of my surgery, which so rudely interrupted my fun time, I was not able to complete my bead soup piece.  I even went so far to dream last night that I was going to cut class in order to get it finished in time (keeping in mind that there has been no class to cut since ‘99).  I’ve been working out what I want to do in my sketchbook but haven’t had the stamina go actually go dig up some tools and such.  Since I’m feeling much better today  I’m hoping to have it ready by the weekend.

In the meantime, be sure to visit the other participants and check out what they made with their goodies.  I’ve already visited a handful of them and let me tell you, it was worth the wait:

I had such high hopes for getting the photo tutorial out.  First tax season hit early; tax preparation is my “real” job, so I’ve been straight out since the middle of January.  Then, I felt lousy all Wednesday night after dinner, and finally early in the morning I suspected it was my appendix giving me troubles.  Sometimes it’s lousy being right….

So it’s out, and I’m recuperating.  My bead soup project will probably have to wait till I can “belly up” to the work table.  I’ll be in touch soon!

My Ice Skates pendant made it into this Etsy Maine Team Treasury.  Brrr!!!

And no, I haven’t forgotten the tips I promised for taking product photos.  We’ve been suffering from a lack of sunny days lately–the one sunny day we had, I wasn’t home.  I have a draft in progress, but I need to take some pictures.  Soon….

Just a few of the pieces that came out of the kiln on Sunday.  The first time I fired this load I underfired it, and the stuff looked, well, crusty and nasty.  Much better this time.  I’ve been loading many of these new pieces into my shop, so stop by and take a peek.

Isn’t that focal beautiful?  These came from Eileen at Dorset Hill Beads. Don’t they make you wish you were somewhere tropical?  Now I have to decide what to do with them….such possibilities!

These are the pieces I sent to Eileen.  Sorry about the photo quality–I grabbed these pieces out of the kiln late in the afternoon and packed them for shipping that night, so there was no natural light.  The toggle is a new design that I’m excited about; rather than add wire to the toggle bar I’ve just left a hole in it so that the designer can choose what color metal to use.  I have another one coming up in blue in the next kiln load.

The wavy squares in the lower right hand corner are vintage German glass from The Beadin’ Path. The opaque pink beads are rose quartz, then there are crystals and silver glass seed beads.

I spent this morning adding a number of pieces to my shop for Valentine’s Day.  Quite frankly, I’m all “hearted” out.

If these pieces aren’t in the shop already, they’ll be there before the end of the day.  We’re having a very snowy day today, so I won’t be getting any more pictures taken till the sun makes an appearance (if it ever does again). In the meantime I’ll just get some more glazing done and maybe play in the clay a little bit.  Hope it’s sunny where you are!