Nostalgia - Slip casting

Did you know I'm a fan of the "Great Pottery Throw Down"? No? (I only mentioned it in this post once, so I'm not surprised.)
Did you know that I always wanted to try pottery throwing, but somehow it never happened? No?
But did you know there was a time when I did a bit of slip casting? Also no? Well, get ready to be surprised.

The story starts with "Kontakt" and "Kontakt" starts with the German-American Friendship Week.
There used to be a US Army base in my town. Once a year they celebrated the Friendship Week in summer which was basically like a giant open house, so people could get to know the base. On the last day there was a big fireworks display.

It was a mix of a small fair with a large beer tent where you got American style food (including tacos and burritos 😉) or could ride a mechanical bull, tours through the buildings on base, but also presentations.
One of those was a make-up demonstration on a stage. My two friends decided that I was the one to go up there. I remember having a veritable Mount Vesuvius on my nose at the time and not feeling up to it, but they insisted (we were all teenagers, you can probably imagine the scene).
While the poor make-up lady did her best to cover my nose and worked with brown mascara and soft rose tones because of my age (why do I still know that and also that I wore a warm jacket I called "The Monk" because of its hood and a loooong hand-knitted scarf despite it being summer?), my friends were addressed by someone from Kontakt. In the end, one of my friends said she'd like to go to a meeting and I went along and we became members (to improve our English, but let me put it that way, we definitely improved our knowledge of cursing in English).

We did all kinds of things, from playing minigolf to outings in the area, Christmas market, barbecues, movies, bake sales, a memorable Halloween that I wish I had pictures of, and more.
And we went to a slip casting course at the rec center which was my favorite.
What is slip casting? In (very) short, you have slip or a clay slurry which is poured into a porous plaster mold. After a layer of clay has formed as the mold absorbs the water, the rest of the slip gets poured out again, and when the clay has firmed up enough, the parts of the mold are removed.
Then of course comes glazing and firing.
I loved it. They had so many molds. Very popular among the Americans were the huge beer steins, but of course we started small. In fact, we never got to the really big pieces which I always regretted although I did not want a stein.

We started with little figurines most of which I gave away and some of which came back to me eventually, such as these little ladies that had been standing in my mother's shelf.
The blonde one must have had a tumble because some glaze came off her hair and she lost half an arm. It really doesn't make sense to keep her around, but for now she still reminds me of the time she stood on my mother's shelf.

The pup and the snail were my very first pieces if I remember right because they were small and the easiest ones. They went to my grandmother.
One club member trained as a porcelain painter back then which you could tell easily as all her pieces looked so much better than those of us others. The snail was my first one and I struggled with painting on the eyes, so after scraping them off more than once, I asked her for help and she gave it that squinty look.

Then there are the Buddhas.
I actually made three of them. One of them went to a friend of the family. I still remember her laughing and saying "At least one man who's smiling at me." I know she kept him on her book shelf for at least a few years.

These two are my own.
The standing one wasn't supposed to be, but as you can see he has a problem.
 

The workshop had big shelves for storing all the pieces during their different stages because of course people couldn't be there every day to do the painting, glazing or even to pick up their work.
One night someone broke into the workshop. They broke the door open so violently that it crashed into one of the shelves. I don't think they ever found out who it was or why they did it. There was nothing of monetary value there unless someone knew of a black market for clay and used molds. It was probably just vandalism.
Some of the pieces like several huge steins were broken completely, sometimes part of them survived, for example one stein lid. We were quite lucky because we didn't have anything big that a lot of work had already gone into, but my Buddha was one of the victims. The workshop manager told me to glue it, probably because she felt sorry for me. The hand was lost, though.

I wish I could also show you the stein lid. It looked like a wizard and I had admired it before, but the mold was in high demand and there was no way for me to just cast the wizard. The lady wanted to make a new stein and asked me if I would like to have the lid. Just the staff had broken off, so of course I accepted.
That was when our club president went back to the US, though, and the club changed a lot with the new one. Unfortunately, we never made it back to the workshop, so the wizard lived in one of my cabinets unfired. To be honest, I don't know where he is now, maybe he broke when we moved, maybe he's hidden away in a safe spot. If I find him, I'll add a picture.

Then there's the cup. I never used it to drink out of because I didn't trust my glaze, but I had pens in it.

It's the one piece that shows my "signature" best. We got assigned numbers to distinguish who made what and I added my trademark cat and my name.

So that was my "career" as a potter.
It being so short is the only excuse I have for having been lousy at it. No matter how hard I tried or how few or many layers of glaze I put on, there were spots where I just failed miserably to get them even.
My tired little lady doesn't have a real neck because glaze has collected under her chin, my snail has the same problem on her house.
I still see myself sitting at the future porcelain painter's house trying to get an even blue on the Buddhas. I was hopelessly in love with the royal blue and hopelessly bad at using it.
I'm sure I could have learned, but it was not to be although you can tell I had already improved a little from one Buddha to the next.
The best pieces colorwise were the cup - I actually wanted the sky to be like that although it surely could have been done better -, the third Buddha (not blue) and (if I remember that right) a pup and a little lady for my other grandmother which didn't make it back to me, so you'll just have to take my word for that! 😉

The hen and the egg

A few weeks ago, we visited the local pottery "Töpferei auf dem Jackenhof" where I also got my happy yellow mugs last year (and yes, I still love them so much and use them all the time). Although I was just the company this time, I couldn't resist to get at least a little something, in this case a small vase in a beautiful blue and shaped like an egg with a broken off top.
I showed a picture because I have friends who also love pottery and one of them said she wondered what hatched from it.
Now I found out! It's a little surprising, though, I had expected something bigger ...

Whenever I'm learning a new technique, my goal is to try and combine it with my previous techniques.
Obviously bead embroidery is the easiest one to mix with hand embroidery. Just throw some extra beads on there, right?
Like so many of my pieces, this tiny hen was completely unplanned. I had a small piece of linen and wondered if I would like working without a frame. The inspiration to make a hen came from a cartoon I had seen shortly before.

Of course there are things I would do differently now. I would have planned in to pad the hen, so the silver edging wouldn't sit on the top even if they are size 15 beads. I would not have used the thicker felt to stabilize the linen and my hen would have got a beak that's more visible. My only excuse for making it ecru is that it was late at night and I just grabbed something without thinking.
After all this was just meant as a small experimental piece originally, I hadn't even thought it would come this far.

I definitely learned something from it. Maybe I'll find a pin small enough to put on the back and pin my hen to the collar of my denim jacket. Or maybe you have an idea?

Random Saturday - Putting more happy yellow into my life!

Do you remember my childhood memories with the colorful "Arabella / Boston" dishes from the 60s? It really revived my love of yellow. Not that it had gone away completely, but yellow is a little hard to use in jewelry, at least for me, and it doesn't work on me as clothes. I always wanted at least one room with yellow walls, but wasn't even allowed to have that (that's a longer story I'm going to spare you).
Dishes are a very good way to get yellow into my life.

Now there's one problem with my Arabella set.

Look at the cup. Anyone who knows me knows that this is a but a sip for me (I only drink coffee as a cold brew or with ice cream, by the way). I'm not good at elegantly holding a cup with my pinky up in the air, unlike a friend in school who did this without even noticing which never failed to amuse me.

For daily use I'm very much a mug girl, the bigger the better. I have a LOT of mugs and while I am using quite a few of them, the biggest one is my favorite. If it isn't too hot, which it usually isn't because I prefer cold drinks, I don't even hold it by the handle because it can get quite heavy when it's full.
Big mugs or cups are also a childhood memory for me. My godmother's father who was a farmer had a big breakfast cup that I was very jealous of even as a child. I can still see him sitting at that table and smell cows and hay and country air - not meant negatively at all - and feel comfortable and happy watching him drink his morning coffee.

So I had this idea ... how about looking for a potter in the area and ask if they could make me a mug in yellow? Of course I could have looked for a yellow mug online, but 1. I like handmade - who would have thought, 2. I like to support local artisans if possible - not always easy depending on what you need or want, 3. I didn't want a solid yellow, but one that reminded me of Arabella's stripy appearance.

I checked online, found the pottery "Töpferei auf dem Jackenhof" (a former farm in a village not very far from me which has a lot of old farms), and sent them an email with the Arabella picture explaining what I wanted. A few more emails went back and forth to clear up details about the size and shape of the two mugs. Yes, by now I had decided that I of course needed two.

Yesterday I got notice that I could pick them up. My "chauffeur", who hadn't been on the Jackenhof before either, and I were amazed at how idyllic the house was situated, away from the street, an alpaca grazing on the other side (there's an alpaca farm), trees and sculptures underneath. It may sound corny and silly, but I got this 80s feeling of what we called the "alternatives" here in Germany, making me think of hand knitted socks and sweaters, the beginning of the "green" thinking, drinking tea from handmade pottery, colorful neck scarves from India, and actually I read afterwards that the workshop had opened in 1987, so maybe that's what I felt, and it was good ;-)

Welcomed inside, I asked for my mugs, and the potter said she had two choices, one was more of a brownish yellow, but course I immediately picked the bright yellow one. She said that the dark ones were made with a glaze and the other two painted which gave the mugs just the look I had wanted. I was so happy and will love using these, I'm sure. Maybe it's a good thing the pottery is not that easy to reach with public transportation or I could put down quite a bit of money there although the mugs were very affordable and even the price for the standard mugs although I had asked for bigger ones.
Can you tell from the picture that they don't look exactly the same? The shape, size, and top edges are a little different. I like that because it shows they are handmade.

As it is, I couldn't resist getting a cat - anyone surprised? - which is a salt shaker, but will be just a cat for me, and a liqueur cup whose color and shape I fell in love with and which I will happily use for my beloved Drambuie.

Do you have a favorite mug or a favorite piece of pottery?

Interview with the artist - Lisa from Bottletree Pottery & Gifts

It has been a long time that I had an artist interview for you. Today I want you to meet Lisa who isn't just a cat friend of mine, but also a talented artist. I'm very happy to have her on my blog. Welcome, Lisa!

Tell us a little about who you are and where you come from.

Well, I am an utterly native Alabaman. Born here, lived my whole life here. I do wish I could travel a lot more, but such is life for the other half.
But being so ingrained in Southern culture is not a bad thing. It's given me a steady foundation for my whole life. My artwork mostly reflects the world seen through those glasses.

Large bowl in shades of blue

What's your craft and how did you get to do it in the first place?

Oh so many answers!
I started sketching as a kid, because that was the medium available to me. I was (and still am) completely enamoured of horses. So I drew horses. Lots and lots of horses. I tried to copy the sketches of da Vinci and Michangelo, but I had no real training until college. That's when I really found my legs. It offered me a variety of mediums I'd never had the opportunity to try before. First watercolors spoke to me. At the same time, I was taking history of modern art-something that had previously just flew by me. That class opened up my perception of art as a whole. Combined with an amazing painting teacher, my career in abstract art just took off. It's almost like being able to taste colors, it's so visceral.
I needed another fine arts elective, so I took ceramic hand building. Holy cow. There are times in your life when you recognize that things will never be the same again. That your grand passion has arrived. I threw myself into clay with a vengeance. Every fingerprint, every move. Every emotion. It all comes out in the clay. It's almost like a recording device. Feeling up one day? It's there in the clay. Blue? Right there for the world to see.

Is there a story behind your shop name?

I wanted to express my Southern roots without the same old, same old. No "old south" this or that. I'd seen bottle trees my whole life, but never understood the meaning behind them. (The color of the bottles hung from the tree attracts evil spirits which then become trapped in the bottles- a combination of European and African traditions ). When I learned, I knew that it was me. Tradition and quirk.

Gemstone studded vase

I think this is one of the most asked questions – where does your inspiration come from?

Oh Lordy. Where doesn't it come from? I love fairy tales and mythology and oral traditions. Those ways in which we have expressed our dreams and fears and histories throughout time. But also, I go- ooh! Shiny!

Tell us a fun thing about yourself.

I have feet like Fred Flintstone. Seriously.

Do you do other crafts, if yes, what?

I do EVERYTHING.

Velvet ribbon bracelet with watchworks, jelly opal, and pearls

Which one of your pieces is your absolute favorite? Which one was the hardest to make and why?

It's actually a pair of pieces. They are each a representation of Gaia- the original goddess and the embodiment of the earth. The painting is a 30 x 40 inch watercolor and gouache painting. There is not a square inch of it that is not covered with detail. The sculpture that goes with it is a 90 pound hand built ceramic statue of a woman's body from mid hip to right above the bust. It is carved all over with flora and fauna that one would find in Alabama, and colored with both fired and unfired pigments.

Is there someone whom you admire and who inspires you, artistically and/or for life? 

My watercolor painting teacher- Rick Mills. He gave me some of the biggest compliments of my life, and offered me a great deal of encouragement to continue to grad school. He also says the painting he owns of mine is one of his favorites. It doesn't get any better than that.

Pencil drawing "Deep Sea Charging Station"

If you had free choice of one supply you need for your work, no matter how expensive, what would it be?

Gold. Because I really want to learn to make jewelry.

Do you sell online, if yes, where can we find you?

I'm on Etsy! Although I'm damned hard to find. It's Bottletree Pottery & Gifts. I'm also on Facebook as Bottletree Pottery.

Turquoise and crystals necklace

Famous last words ;-) Is there anything else you want to tell us?

Feel free to buy stuff from me. Lots of stuff. XD
I need to be able to support my clay habit.


Thank you for being here, Lisa :-)
I hope everyone will go and check out your pages now as there is so much to see!