Studio update: the photo above is of one of my newest decoration ideas. I wanted to draw venus flytraps on some whiskey cups just for fun 🙂 I will decide if I like one way of drawing them over another in the long run. I plan to put a copper green glaze on them that will give a vignette effect by fuming around the edges of the underglaze. It should spice them up 😉

I’ve started making soft slab lidded boxes lately. I made one last semester and decided that I really like how it turned out, so I added it to my proposal plan. I finished making this box (above) today. I decided to resurrect a decoration idea that I used in the studio while I was in Australia. It turned out successful on my figure sake cups that I made while I was there, so I want to try it here– but I plan on using my new clear glaze that I recently formulated in glaze calculation class. I picked to study barium set glazes this semester because I am interested in a glaze that will give me bright colors. What I found is that barium, like magnesium carbonate, creates a nice satiny glazed surface. It reacts differently with added colorants than magnesium does, though. I do have a few test tiles of my barium glaze with additions of copper carbonate, but they weren’t fired in the right atmosphere for them to turn blue. When I added 3% copper carb to my magnesium satin matte that I formulated two years ago, it turned olive green. It still makes an attractive glaze, but at the time I was hoping for a nice blue color. Barium is more likely to promote bright colors than magnesium, or so I’ve read 😉

What got me thinking about the red orchids design again is that I’ve been talking to a new friend from New Jersey. He’s a tattoo artist and got me thinking about an idea I had a couple of years ago– I did once consider getting a tattoo, but decided against it because the imagery didn’t mean enough to me personally. Talking about it made me realize that I do value something enough that I would consider having a tattoo of it, something I draw almost every day, something beautiful that carries meaning in my personal life. Orchids. I am now considering the idea of getting a small and simple orchid tattoo on my upper back near my neckline. Of course, I will still think about it for at least a couple of months before taking the idea seriously. I would need to decide on what genus/species of orchid I would want, and whether I want full color or just a red line drawing because it’s simply elegant. Anyway, I drew 3 different ideas in one, just to test it out 🙂