Yellow Haze!

Tuesday's Treasury is inspired by the pollen that is reeking havoc on my allergies! Aaaaaachheww!

Yellow Haze!

Picked by laspottery

Two by Two

Etsy Mud Team is a social network group that is made up mostly of potters, however everyone is welcome to join.

The group is great source of information, tips and tricks plus a great place to vent everyday frustrations! Belonging to the EMT group is very inspiring and motivating to try new things, improve your art and skills.

The group has member themed challenges every few months and the entries are always unique and amazing. The current challenge is Two by Two which is pottery in pairs! Click here to check out all the wonderful entries and vote!

When you vote, you will receive a coupon code for 20% off to use in participating shops including LAS Pottery. Voting ends March 10 at the end of the day.

The winners of the challenge get to choose from prizes that members donate. One of the challenges was Clay and Fiber and had entries from other Etsy teams. I donated some jewelry and button items for a prize and below is what the artist of iWunder created! I love to see what others create from my pottery pieces!!

To purchase this pendant or see other great creations,
visit iWunder's shop or click here.

Tuesday's Treasures

Lucky Charms

Picked by laspottery

Every Tuesday a treasury will be featured with a new theme. All the items are found in Etsy, click on an item to go to the shop!

Enjoy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

"Spend New Year’s Day the way you want to spend the rest of the year"

I just read this posted in my EMT thread.
Great, I spent the first day of the year creating this bird feeder, a birthday present for my Mom. I was so happy to get out in my studio and play in the clay.

After a week with my foot up healing from surgery, I had a ton of time to watch You Tube videos and catch up on other pottery links. I watched how to make a cylinder into a square. I have seen this technique before but never had tried it myself. Here the results of my first day of the year!

How did you spend the first day of the year?

'Tis the Season'

It's hard to believe the "season" has come and gone.

In the pottery world, the "season" starts in June or July, which makes for a long time of designing, producing and marketing. And we always make open promises not to start so late again this year.

In the course of designing, making, testing and finally marketing, we learn many things...like what works, what doesn't and sometimes what people want.

Like this year, I had a great idea! I am going to make this "12 days of Christmas" ornament for collecting. Seemed great, but I had more requests for all 12 and the buyers did not want to wait for the other 11 days. Makes sense, I do not want to wait to create them either.

So off to the drawing pad to start designing, planning, producing and hopefully be ready for next years "season."

Happy Holidays,
Lisa

BTW...It was a great season! Coming soon will be some of the highlights and new products in the works!

Etsy Mud Team Donut Challenge!

Oh no, this is not a contest to see how many donuts we can eat! Donuts is the form that Etsy Mud Team members had to create. Clay donuts are thrown or hand built and the challenge is to design something unique or functional with the shape. Check out this link for all the wonderful entries that clay artists have produced!

http://etsymudteam.craft-sense.com/Challenges/viewchallenge.asp?ChallengeID=44

Please vote for your favorite donut creation and you will receive a coupon code for 20% off to use in participating Etsy pottery shops, including mine.

Here is the Zen Garden Sculpture in final form and entered into the Etsy Mud Team Challenge. I really liked the sculpture in its naked (unglazed) finish, so I decided to enhance the details with a Red Iron Oxide stain. The top feeder surface has a glossy glaze finish. The sculpture is built in 3 pieces and they fit together like a puzzle and balance perfectly. Yet, they come apart for moving and shipping! Both donuts in this sculpture are wheel thrown and the vine and pod detail added.

Custom Pendant Design

What seemed simple, turned out to be a bit of a challenge. Yes, it would be easy to closely duplicate the pendants, but to replicate with a new design was more of a challenge.

First of all, I thought how wonderful that a husband would go through the process of finding someone to reproduce a new set of pendants that his wife loved. So this first set of images came to my mind. A graphic image of a man and woman with a heart pendant. I first carved the pendants and then made molds of them. In this design the black frame and detail is raised similar to stain glass.

As an artist world events can influence our designs, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan was deeply in our hearts and mind. People from all over the world were coming together to help and aid those in need. Our Etsy group also got together and made donations, which I was very happy to donate to. So my design idea was...when hearts and hands join together, we can make a difference!

Here's another variation. The color and design on this next set wrap around the edges, with the heart finished on the edge as well. The white line is carved into the surface.

This next set is an abstract with the glaze applied and swirled together. Then, I had an idea to add black glass beads just before firing. They ran more than I expected and you can't really see the swirl design. They looked really good as small black dots, that will have to be in the next generation of designs.

Here's some of the blank pendants and molds that I created. Also a close up of another man and woman design. I do not have one of these glazed, since it was broken during process.

I have learned a lot about the process and fun designing and carving the images. The painting process is tedious and I now believe I need a magnifying glass or reading glasses to keep my eyes from going blurry!

This was a great challenge to replicate some 20 year old pendants with a fresh new design. I look forward to creating more designs.