Alright, here’s a challenge: try to guess where the photo of this teapot was taken… 3… 2… 1… nope. Not at the studio with the big pain in the ass setup. I took this photo in my bedroom, on the floor with a piece of cardboard resting against the wall, and a clippy light on a stick held in place by setting a box on top of it on my bed. Yeah, it sounds crazy, but it’s nice to be able to do laundry, make dinner, and wear my pajamas while imaging my work. Wouldn’t you agree? I thought the results weren’t too shabby. It’s about time for a new camera battery though, if I can find one. Maybe I should just invest in a new camera– it has been over 4 years now. Anyway, you should have seen how many projects I had going on at once half an hour ago.

I’m hopeful about these glaze tests. I read up some more about copper blue/turquoise, and decided to test something I read. I picked one of my newly developed glazes that I targeted off of a grid tile (based on Ian Currie’s 0.7  limestone set corner glazes), then mixed tin and copper in varying amounts in that glaze to create 8 different combinations. I also decided to see what difference lowering the copper content in an oribe base would do (the oribe is the salt and soda “Turquoise Oribe” glaze from the John Britt book). I’m curious to see if it needs help fluxing out when fired in an indoor gas kiln without salt.

I’m getting ready for my upcoming show, so my space is a little crowded. I’ve been trying to reorganize but things just keep building up. I had to set my bisque ware down where I usually just keep wet green ware. More photos of that stuff later. I made an orchid about a month ago, bisque fired it, and let it sit until my professor suggested buying a live orchid plant to bring in to the studio as a reference for painting.

I had a lot of fun with it. I took my time and painted with as much detail as my brush and eyes would let me. I used amaco velvet underglazes modified with gerstly borate, watered down a lot. I didn’t apply any glaze over it, but was pleasantly surprised after I glaze fired it to see that it was satiny and just very slightly glossy on the surface. The idea behind trying to sculpt and paint orchids realistically is something I want to pair alongside my functional work somehow.