annie singletary ceramics

…ok here’s a little confession. the other night i was out in the studio until about 10 and i came out of the door to find a bear right on the hill in the woods, fortunately bears are afraid of us and so he or she ran around back, well i’m the curious sort so i of course go around back of the studio to see it and there it was right beside my kiln.

I am a little hesitant now to work at night in there. this is not going to work though. ive had a few great suggestions; a paintball gun, a bell  to hang right outside the door and a flashlight….what a novel idea to have a flashlight i can honestly say i had never thought of this being a good thing to have….get a clue Annie. I am picturing myself as this crazy potter lady ringing my bell and carrying my flashlight, is this what i’ve become?

my mason stains came in from US pigments and i’ve been mixing some great colors up for accents, zirconium, bright orange, bermuda…so exciting! loaded a kiln with those in today. i leave you with this amazing fabric pattern i’m in love with, from Lost city fabrics.

have a great weekend. don’t you love fall.

my image taking setup.

very ghetto but  love it. not only can i hide from my 3 yr. old son so he’s not curious about all of this, but it’s quite quaint.

the backdrop is from www.phototechinc.com

i use the gray to black backdrop.

The light box is made from foam core and fabric backing.

The bulbs i use are 300 watt and i set my white balance on my camera using a gray card.

I use foam core with fabric backing to diffuse the light defusers.

a friend just told me a new bit of advice about using foil on one side of object instead of a light on either side. this help take the glare away.

I’ve been using a clear glossy glaze and this is causing a lot of hot spots (which is the glare).

Can’t wait to try this new trick. thanks Joy

A few new pots.

I’ve been working on creating depth in my surface without overwhelming the detail in the form. I am having so much fun playing with some white gold  luster and these precious little floral decals.I have loved English china for a long time and am finally getting an element of what i love so much about it; the small details that give intimacy to a piece.

I’m trying to work on taking my images with this glossy clear glaze without getting

I have been also using some new colorants for my slips. I ordered from US pigments and found some really great deals on some pretty expensive mason stains. I’m excited to get them in the mail, but in the meantime I am using some that were given to me a while ago, like this orange shown above. This new color really gets me excited about Fall.

i’ll let you know about the mason stains, the prices seem almost to good to be true.

check out my etsy site: new pots up for sale www.anniesingletary.etsy.com

I’m settling into my studio quite well. I was told to not be surprised by it taking a bit of time to get used to things and start making work that i am excited about.

Making my glazes and getting all my chemicals into their 5 gallon buckets was quite a task. I think I’ve been spoiled by having the nice glaze bins at other studios, because a 50 lb. bag of chemicals does not fit into a 5 gallon bucket. Somewhere throughout the years i had thought they fit perfectly. Apparently I was wrong. But, it’s fine, I just have about 1/4 of a bag left and they are rolled up tight. Hopefully Will won’t get into them out of curiosity one day.

The sink is in and the water. Do you see that in the picture below. It’s beautiful. I was desperate to get going glazing so I made 2 of my glazes with the hose outside. Glad to have water inside now so I can use warm water. I really like to mix glazes with warm water as it helps them settle in….I’m sure there is a scientific explanation but i will just be simple about it.

Speaking of simple, nice transition huh. I am really excited about simplifying my designs a bit. I am using a clear glaze that I have found to be quite perfect, it’s called Kate the Younger Clear. I like to fire to about cone 5 1/2 and it works well with that. No crazing and no pin holing. Being a clear glaze, it really needs to have these qualities for my pots because I want the body of the pot to show. The lines that I do at the wet stage show up really well in this glaze. It brings out the slip decoration really well too. I’m working on simplifying the patterns and cutting back my time of working on each pot. Between the colored slips and clear glaze I think I’m headed in a good direction.

I’ve also included pictures of some patterns around my house that I have brought into my work.

I used to paint all my patterns with glazes i made and commercial glazes then wax resist them and then glaze the pot. Now, I can do most all the work at the wet stage, which is called the green stage and is my favorite time with the clay. Then I can use this clear glaze and another clear with a little bit of titanium dioxide, which will be in another post specifically about glazing. I’ll put the recipes in that as well.

Whew! and most of this during 3 to 4 hr. nap times for Will. my new motto, “sleep will sleep”.

Thanks for reading.

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