A Fun Little Fairy House Box

by Eleanor Hendriks

Soft slab construction Fairy House Box -yes the roof/lid is removable!

Funny little window

Out of focus eye stalk/ chimney

Fairy sized door

And some colourful fun...

...for Wacky Hair Day -A smile goes with everything!

Woodland Diner -Making a Hand Painted Sign on the CHEAP

by Eleanor Hendriks

So I haven't made much pottery lately, and what I have made, I didn't take pictures of -it's easy to get out of the habit of documenting the making process when it isn't happening regularly -and since my blog has always been based on pictures, I've had very little to post here. I hope to change that soon because I have some pieces nearing the end of the (very slow) making process at the Guelph Community Pottery Centre that I would like to show off.

     In the meantime, I would like to share something else I made with you (any readers that may still be hanging around). The assignment was to make a church kitchen look like a 50's diner for a fundraiser -and I was to make the sign -on the Cheap!! So with a cardboard box left over from a bathroom renovation, some leftover primer and 4 colours of Walmart acrylic, I made this...

 Large cardboard box.

Left over primer to reduce the absorptiveness of the surface.

 I did both sides of the cardboard with the primer, because it started to curl.

 The black took two layers to cover completely.

 I created the design in Corel Draw and used a polka dot pattern in the background to make it easy to line up the tiled printout.

 I tested the colours over black before painting the whole backgound -thankfully the Walmart colours had enough pigment to do reasonably well at covering the black with one coat -though I did have to be careful not to spread the paint to thin -and had a few areas of touch up -but overall much less work than painting the black around the lettering!

 Painting on cardboard is frustrating up close because it is impossible to get a smooth, straight  line over the corrugations -but it doesn't show from a distance -and cardboard is the right price for a project like this.

 Trimmed around the edges and painted them black -this is the least satisfying part of working with cardboard -the edges were fuzzy and uneven. If I were to do it again, I would consider cutting the shape first and trying to neatly tape the edges before priming -but that could take a while -maybe not worth it for a one evening use sign...

 I think the end result looks pretty good.

 'Dry' brushed highlights in a lighter shade and white add depth and a look of neon glow.

 Dots made with the handle end of a foam brush look like lights -to be really authentic I should have skipped a few or done them in black to look burned out.

 I can't believe my son let me draw this 'tattoo' on him with Sharpies! He's a good sport. And this is a rare sighting of me in a pink headband -don't expect to see it again any time soon.

Starting Over

by Eleanor
Things have changed here at StudioÉlan. And the changes are so big that it is like starting over.

The vagaries of life have resulted in the loss of my husband, the loss of my fabulous studio and a move to a new city.

This blog will no longer be a cheerful collection of studio activities, nifty projects and storage solutions. There won't be any more reports about students or invites to studio sales.

I don't have a studio or the financial stability necessary for my family that would allow me to continue as a full-time potter.

This blog is now about what I can do with what I do have -all of my experience, skill and the compelling desire to make things out of clay. These can't be taken away.

My focus in my new life is my children.



You haven't heard much about them here before even though they have always played a big part in the shaping of my pottery life and decision making. I haven't wanted to be a 'mommy blogger' and I doubt I'll start now. I do expect though, that focusing on what is best for them in my new circumstances will have a more obvious effect on how my future in clay takes shape than it has in the past.

For now, I know that having my hands in clay regularly is going to be important to my capacity as a single mother. The ongoing search for balance between family, survival and the need to create will just be that much more intense.

My first step in finding that balance has been finding a place to work:

And today my first session with wet clay since October 2010 had simple but encouraging results:

Make it Work Moment

by Eleanor Hendriks

Only dribs and drabs here at the blog even though I have tonnes of great posts floating around in my head. I need a time machine -the kind that makes more time!

I revisited the project that left me feeling kinda blah back in August and I think I've come up with a good solution. Adding the pedestal resolved the proportion problems and some creative reshaping and carving have (hopefully) solved the thickness problems....
At least now I can stop taking the time to spray and rewrap it every time another day comes to an end without a chance to finish it. Two months is the longest I have ever kept a large project in progress in a workable state. I have kept smaller parts moist longer in my plaster lined rubbermaid box, but this piece didn't fit. And now that the cold weather is here and heating season has begun, I had to finish or abandon the work I had already put into it because the drafts and dry air would make the decision for me otherwise.

Some delicious details...


Of course now I have to figure out how to glaze it... will it be another 2 months before you hear from me again? Let's hope not...

Just do it once already!

by Eleanor Hendriks

Even though I've been at the pottery gig for a few years now, I can still catch myself doing stupid things.

Just the other day I was making handles for a batch of mugs. Because I was a little distracted while I was making them, I ended up recounting how many I had already at least 4 times.

Finally I got so fed up with myself that I reorganized the handles into groups of 5 on the board so that I could see at a glance whether I had enough for my 2 dozen mugs yet...



Since this was a doing stupid things day, I made a couple of extra handles too, just in case...

I didn't need the extra handles, but the groups of 5 is going to be a new regular studio practice.

Berry Bowls are Full of Holes!

by Eleanor Hendriks

One of my spring projects was to get properly stocked up on Berry Bowls and I'm thrilled to be able to say that I've accomplished that goal... but along the way I was reminded that...

...Berry Bowls are FULL of Holes!



Each of those little bits in the pile on the right represents a hole that had to be cut in one of the many berry bowls I made. I was only half way through them all at the point this picture was taken and of course, the picture doesn't include all the bits that rolled away onto the floor either! The funny thing is that I could probably just put half a dozen holes in the bottom and the bowl would function as a colander perfectly well. But I'm really attached to my flower pattern of holes and can't imagine changing it any time soon. So every once in a while, I can expect to be nearly overwhelmed by hole cutting.



And it doesn't end with cutting out the holes. Each hole is also beveled inside and out so that the bowl is a smooth and pleasant experience for the user.

I eventually finished all of this spring's mega batch of berry bowls and my Etsy store is fully stocked with two sizes in five rim colours. You can find them here.



Wedding and shower season is upon us. May I suggest that a collection of handmade kitchen goodies like a Berry Bowl, French Butter Dish and a Garlic Grater would make for that perfect combination of practical and beautiful that should please any new couple. A blender is practical, but oh so boring, a painting may be beautiful but totally miss the mark for the new couple's preferred style. Try handmade and functional to really bless your friends...

French Butter Dish


Garlic Grater

Don't Break my Twigs

by Eleanor Hendriks

When I make a batch of things the same size I use something stuck into a blob of clay on the edge of my splashpan to mark the height and width so I don't have to measure each piece as I work.

For about 10 years I used a twig plucked from a bush outside the door of my old studio in Fergus. It was just the right length and thickness and, most importantly, it had a bit of spring so that if I made something a bit too wide it would bend and ride on the surface of the clay instead of digging in and making an unwanted groove in the piece. It was a very special twig that I always used and that had a place of honour in my toolbox. The bush it came from succumbed to a combination of cold winters and my lackadaisical gardening efforts a few years after I plucked the twig, so there was no ready source for more of the same.

One day, a friend was sitting in the studio and chatting with me while I worked (something I had been begging him to do for ages). He is an incurable fiddler and can never have his hands empty. He picked up this very special twig and, much to my horror, proceeded to snap it into teeny weeny bits as we talked. I didn't dare say anything because I didn't want to chase him away. I hoped to find a replacement twig without telling him what he had done.

I have never found a suitable replacement.

I tried broom straws from traditional style brooms, twigs and grasses from wherever I could find them but never found something that worked as well as my original twig. For the last 8 years or so I have settled on bamboo skewers as my new clay marker. They work reasonably well. They are long enough, thin and come to a nice sharp point for marking but they just don't have the spring that made my original twig so perfect.

Then one day, not so long ago, I couldn't find any bamboo skewers as I prepared to make a set of mugs. Not wanting to waste time looking I grabbed the nearest long thin stick-like object as a substitute. That object happened to be a thin paintbrush. As I was sticking it into my lump of clay, I realized that the pointy brush end would be a perfect marker! The handle was long and thin enough and the brush end could ride along a too wide pot without marring the surface. Why hadn't I thought of this sooner?!?



This brush is now my new twig. If you come to visit my studio and see me scurrying to hide something as you come in, don't worry, I'm not up to anything illegal, I'm just hiding my twig!

Streamlining the Process

by Eleanor Hendriks

When I sit down to make a batch of similar pots, I often think about ways to speed things up. I like to think of myself as an artist and I strive for some level of artistic vision in everything I make, but let's face it -some things about being a potter are factory-like. And if I'm going to spend time being factory-like, I may as well be an efficient factory. Theoretically, this will leave more time for the pieces closer to my heart that just can't be churned out.

This past week, one of my goals was to restock my French Butter Dishes. My latest version of a French Butter Dish has a knob that is thrown onto the lid portion of the dish. Previously, I made this knob by trimming the lid, attaching a small ball of clay, centering it and then throwing the knob like a small, short walled bowl.

I got to thinking that there had to be a faster way. Centering small pieces of clay is tricky and slow. Opening right down to the lid seems like a waste of effort. So, I devised this way to make knobs without having to center or open. So far, now that I've had a bit of practice, it seems to be a bit quicker. I'll have to make another batch to evaluate further. But, in the meantime, I thought I'd share my efforts with you...

I started with a 2" thick log of softish clay...

...sliced it into 1"ish discs...
...poked a hole through each with my thumb...

...trimmed the Butter Dish lid...
...scored and slipped where the knob would be attached... (sorry so blurry!)...
...stuck the doughnut firmly and evenly all around...
...and started throwing it, making sure it was attached all around...

...threw to the final thickness ignoring the ragged top edge...
...trimmed to the required height with a needle tool... (I'll cut the discs a little thinner next time because I had to cut off quite a lot to get the right height)...
...smoothed off the rim...
...did a final shaping...
...completed batch of eight.
These will be hitting my Etsy shop in a couple of weeks. I'm planning on glazing them Powder Blue, Spring Green, Bright Cobalt Blue and maybe one other colour...
Now I just need to make enough ware to fill the rest of the kiln, including another batch of the Now Even Faster French Butter Dishes...