Trimmed Pottery

This week I trimmed 9 pieces of pottery. As you can see, there are some new shapes for me. My favorite piece is a jar in the middle. The lid looks like a hat. Next weekend they will go into the bisque firing and the week after I will glaze them. Stay tuned.

On a Roll - More Pottery

I am on a roll. It takes 5-6 weeks to create a piece. First the piece is thrown and the initial shape is formed. It is then kept under plastic for a week until it is leather hard. The piece is then flipped and the "foot" is trimmed. After drying, yet another week, the piece is put into the bisque firing. The next week it is ready to be glazed and then fired again (at a very high temperature, to melt the glaze onto the ceramic.

#1 - Matt Black/Korean Blue
#2 - Matt Black/Rutile Blue
#3 - Matt Black/Matt White
#4 - Matt Black/Orange Shino
#5 - Apple Green (Bowl)

My Latest Pottery

As my website www.flickeringilluminations.com needs to be redesigned and it is much faster to post on my blog - here are my latest pieces of pottery from the kiln. I have been working with a combination of glazes and chattering (repetitive marks) to create different effects.

#1 - Matt Black with Turquoise
#2 - Matt Black with Non-Iron Blue
#3 - Peter's Celedon - new glaze - photo does not capture the delicate color and crazing.














#4 - Kei Ito Red
#5 - Matt Black with Korean Blue
#6 - Matt Black with Non-Iron Blue (better result than above)











#7 - Matt Black with Robb's Green (a very metallic look)
#8 - Matt Black with Kei Ito Red (my first "I Dream of Jeannie" bottle)
#9 - Matt Black with Turquoise - unlike the first one, both colors over the entire piece

Spring Awakening - Creative Souls at Heart & Soul

On March 1, Creative Souls moved to Heart & Soul Healing Art Center in Pasadena. The theme was "Spring Awakening" and the challenge was to decorate a blank journal cover.

The session started with a visualization exercise of a past winter and the transition into spring. Each participant was then asked to write out their thoughts during the visualization. Soft music played in the background as each filled the first page of their journals with ideas.

Each person was given a prepackaged kit including decoupage papers, quotes about spring and other embellishments to use in decorating the journal. In just two hours each of us created something beautiful to use for our own writings or to pass on as a special gift.

Marie's Cover (below)











Vicki's Cover (below)














Donna's Cover (below)











Laurel's Cover (below)

Heather's Cover (below)

Creative Souls will be back at Heart & Soul Healing Art Center on Saturday, April 5, 2008. We would love for others to join us in reconnecting to our creativity.

Chinese Fortune Hanging Tags

On Saturday, February 23, Marie, Laurel and I got together to create Hanging Tags using Chinese Fortunes as the theme. We each decorated both the front and back of the tags and then traded them with each other when we were done.

Marie's Tags (below)















Laurel's Tags (below)














Heather's Tags (below)

Artist Trading Cards - The Great Romance

On February 16, 2007 - Marie, Laurel and I got together to create ATC (Artist Trading Cards) using the theme of "The Great Romance" Each card is the size of a playing card and part of the challenge is tell a story in such a small format. We each used papers, images and sayings from magazines and other embellishments to tell our story. At the end of the session, we traded two cards and kept one of our own.

Marie's Series (above), Laurel's Series (below)

Heather's Series (below)

Mixed Medium Angels on 24" x 24" Canvases

Inspired by some mixed medium portraits we'd seen on our trip to The Art Bar in Santa Ana a week earlier we decided to make portraits of our angels.

It was interesting to see all of our personal preferences of mediums shine through. Laurel is a quilter and she used a lot of fabrics to create her angel. Marie likes working with beautiful decopauge papers. And finally, I like to paint.