Monday, May 26, 2008

Being Angelic in the Studio!

by Eleanor Hendriks

So, someone out there in blogland actually gave my angel tutorial a try! Leigh Whitaker and her daughter made this sweet angel in Leigh's pottery studio.



You can check out Leigh's pottery studio blog here:

http://leighwhitaker.blogspot.com/2008/05/cute-project-for-kids.html

And the lovely things she makes in her studio are for sale in her Etsy shop!

Thank you to Elizabeth B. for introducing me to this style of angel (which I have since tweaked a little) in the first place!

If anyone else makes a version of these, please let me know -I'd love to see them (and show them off to the world if you are willing!)

Friday, May 23, 2008

Learning things the hard way!

by Eleanor Hendriks



It's so easy to fall into a habitual way of doing things, even if it doesn't really make sense. For example, I made glazing Berry Bowls much harder than it really needed to be for a long time.



In case you aren't familiar with Berry Bowls, they are small colanders for washing, storing and serving berries, usually with a little matching saucer -like this one that I have in my Etsy store.



The biggest trick with glazing these is keeping all the holes clear of glaze. When a bowl like this is dunked in a bucket of glaze the holes usually fill in because the glaze is quite thick. They have to be cleared or the bowl won't drain.



At first, I used to dip the berry bowls, let the glaze dry and then scrape the glaze out of the holes with a little knife. This was a messy, dusty job and it took forever. I got the brainwave that it would be easier to remove the glaze while it was still wet. I started blowing through the holes that were clogged with glaze immediately after dipping and this worked admirably well -for a while.



My Berry Bowls became quite popular and I now make them 3 dozen at a time. When I first started doing them in this quantity, I would have to avoid glazing too many at a time because all the hole blowing would make me lightheaded -if you've ever tried to blow up a whole bunch of balloons at once - you know what I mean.



Finally the day came when I had to glaze quite a few Berry Bowls all at once and was up against a deadline so I didn't have the luxury of only doing a few at a time. I stood at my glazing table dipping and blowing away until I was more lightheaded than I had ever been. I kept working anyways -and I blacked out for a moment! Imagine my surprise when I came to only a few milli-seconds later and realized that I had lost my balance and hit the tongs holding a freshly glazed Berry Bowl against the side of the glaze bucket. Luckily, I hadn't dropped the bowl AND the sharp hit had cleared all the holes completely and more neatly than all my blowing had ever done!!



I now dip and tap my way to clear holes in any quantity of Berry Bowls whenever I like -without losing my head!!



Here are a few fully alert Berry Bowls in the kiln ready to fire...





Does any one else learn things the hard way??

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Big Box Store Vs. Handmade

by Eleanor Hendriks

I usually stick to my own little corner of the world but I'm venturing out a bit with this blog. Check out this neat entry over at Modish comparing quality and prices of trendy scarves at Big Box stores with Handmade items....

http://blog.modishhandmade.com/modish/2008/05/hip-handmade-sc.html?cid=114771048#comment-114771048

Interesting!!

Friday, May 09, 2008

Stamps and Aliens

by Eleanor Hendriks

I was busy in the studio today putting handles on these... ...with little stamps like this... ..when I realized that i was tired of my stamps and that none of them were really the right size. So, I made some new ones! Once they are bisque fired I'll be able to spice things up around here!! Another of today's fiddley projects -a special order salt shaker that is supposed to be a bit like the critter and a bit like a dog with a bone...How do you think I'm doing?

Friday, May 02, 2008

Angels in the Studio...

by Eleanor Hendriks

I hosted a Mom's Night Out for some of the parents from my children's school a little while ago. A small but enthusiastic group of ladies gathered at StudioÉlan for an evening to make clay angels.

Just look at the fierce concentration...

...attention to detail...
..and a peek at the results...
The whole host of angels together...

And you CAN try this at home, folks!!
Start with a slab of soft clay...
Cut, decorate and smooth a circle...
Cut it with one segment a little larger than the other...
Form the larger segment into a cone by joining the straight side to itself starting at the middle. The curved edge will meet at the corners to form the circular base of the angel...
Cut a pair of wings from the remaining piece...
Smooth and decorate both sides of the wing piece...
Attach the wings to the back of the angel, partially hiding the seam in the cone...
Make a smooth ball for a head...
Poke a funnel shaped hole in the bottom of the head and join it onto the point of the cone...
Make some hair using some soft clay and a Kemper Klay Gun (don't you hate it when companies intentionally spell words incorrectly in their product names -or is that just me?..)
Do an angelic hairdo....
Make a halo from a thin coil of soft clay and attach it to the angel's head...
And voila! A clay angel....
Let me know how yours turn out!!
Related Posts with Thumbnails