The Challenge

It's a new year and new ideas and challenges are in the making. It was a slow start to the New Year, but things are rolling now. Joining the Etsy Mud Team was my new year's resolution for 2010 and it was the best thing I did for my pottery development. It's a large group of very talented potter's who share ideas, techniques, and everyday chat. One of the features of the team is themed challenges that the members create and post their design to be voted on by the team and the public. The next challenge is creating with a donut form. The following photos are my creation in the works...A Zen Garden Bird Feeder!

Most of my designs start as a rough drawing. As the clay art is being created, some aspects evolve and develop into another design.

The donut form with bird feeder perch. The bottom photo is turned 180 degrees to show true orientation.

The base for the donut form. The perspective in this photo is a little distorted, the donut is not oversized for the base!

Sometimes when building these larger pieces, I have to borrow forms to shape my designs. The smoker grill became the mold to form the base on.

Now if all the pieces of this garden sculpture survive the firing and glazing, the Zen Garden Bird Feeder will be entered into the Etsy Mud Team Donut Challenge.

To vote in the current Etsy Mud Team Platter Challenge and receive a 20% coupon code to use in my Etsy shop and other participating potters shops, go to the following link and vote this week.

http://etsymudteam.craft-sense.com/Challenges/viewchallenge.asp?ChallengeID=43