tablerrrr no.2

so here's last nights progress on number 2, all the tiles are ready.. it's just gluing to the mesh then on with the big task of cementing... back to the club today after some work and more of the puzzle ahead....a stinker again today ...com'on rain!!

mish mash...

howdy all, its a bit of a mish mash today...the weathers warming up again and ive been kinda lethargic and not achieving as much as i'd like so here we go from the top...

the sky right now we're so hoping for some rain and expecting a break in the heat this week, bring it on i say!!

ahh the new raku kiln, i took the angle grinder to the club last tuees night expecting to get this done but ooops had the stone wheel in it so kevin took it away to his workshop to make the alterations for me and heres how it
came back woohoo!!
sawn in 2 with handles and feet!!.. excellent.... i'll be making a firebox the end where you see a hole and the shelves will sit atop that area and full length of the kiln, i have a wire cage that is to have fibre on and it snaps on to the frame work..
now for the flue i was going to have a hole on the end but kevin's done one in the top so i'm sure that will be fine...I have an old fibre flu that can go on the top if need it's going to be pretty much trial and error with this one, but that's the fun right?

i'll get to relining this next week i think as there's no rush still being summer to get this baby firing, i'll keep you updated on it's progress...

and bamboo face is going on the garden fence now that the fence is repaired... it was still 36C deg out there last night when i was painting the panels and only got one panel started but it will be great!! there was rust everywhere so a decent spruce up was needed, kevin cut all the rusty sections off and refit them yesterday...
woohoo a new space for me to do a tile project! I've had that one planned for a while so it's good to see it happening... yey!!!!

so it's 32C at the airport that's about 36C again outside today expecting to hit 38C again, phew!!

and to wind up this lovely journal entry i just read jims interview on connies blog excellent job and just so cool an idea...nice one jim some of your stunning calligraphic work again, ahh brilliant... cheers all stay warm over there! and stay cool here folks...

a great grand 'stuff' up!!!!!

and that's the first time i've re-written a post title.....i'ts not like me to have expletives on my blog so this is not the time to start.....

anywho a customer came to me with a request could you make me 3 new mugs to go with the one i bought last month????? i thought about it considering our 'policy' is we don't do commissions!!!! so why did i say yes???......hhmmmmm.... still not sure why... so here's the drama i made the mugs and had to glaze fire them twice as i wasn't happy with the glaze thickness, so eventually months later here we go, the new mugs went to their new home...

well last month they came back to me, the customer says can i have a chat...sure i say... and out of the basket come these mugs that are apples and pears next to the original...'oh' i say!! and could you remake them, at this point i'm thinking - i'd rather give you your money back than try and replicate this particular cup who's form i have moved on from.... so what did i say????

sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hehehe that'll teach me, so my strategy is make 4 the same and send them on their way, taking back the original cup and the new ones....

so here they are in the raw...freshly faceted handles complete with scrolly bits....

wood fired raku coming up...

i'm feeling inspired after watching simon leach create a raku kiln out of mesh and fibre... my plan was to build a wood fired raku similar to anna's lil rocket but after watching simon's video i'm thinking get out the angle grinder and cut this baby in half...

so here's the plan and let me know if you have any brainwaves on this...i'm going to create a firebox in the front section of the 'floor' using firebricks we have left over at the club create a raised shelf area horizontally and reclad the fibre on the roof surface..

the chimney will be the cut out hole that already exists in the kiln now and the firebox goes that end too, i'll probably need to put a baffle using fibre for the chimney hole as it might result in no hair no eyebrows otherwise when stoking...

fully loaded....

so another market been and gone and i'm enjoying a quite moment on australia day what a super idea for a public holiday and no i am not working today other than a little garden effort...and later breaking out the webber to cook the roast in, yum...

so fully loaded my lil car made it to market carefully avoiding all the bike riders out for the 'tour down under' and dodging them around the windy hill roads is not an easy thing a few screaching tyre noises were to be heard on the way!! well maybe just hitting those corners a tad too fast...! anyhoo a lovely market day with heaps of peeps out, lots of looking and a few buys a bit quieter than we had hope but it was a lovely day with heaps of friends out and that really makes for a great day.....

well one report to be made about a very uncouth lil beagle who chose my bargain box to relieve himself!!!!!!!!!!! what can i say???? nada!! i went of to the market tap up the road for a few trips and doused the whole lot with soapy water and sun dried them off. needless to say the display was changed after that those crates must smell great to beagles, they use those dogs at customs here at the airport with good reason!!

so off to enjoy the rest of a fine sunny day, and the video studio competition results are out this week, so it will be interesting to see if they choose a mixed bag the 1st one i saw this morning was rather serious...

studio tourette...

here's a lil taste of my studio tour video that i sent into ceramics arts daily for the video tour comp...unfortunately it was very hot while i shot this one hence the voice going and generally looking like a beetroot!! probably could have done with some more music in there but anyhoo no stress.. it was a good challenge and i still haven't had a clean out yet, there's probably buckets and buckets of dried up test glazes and just stuff that accumulates across the year...i will get in the mood for it one day!!

feel free to ask what the heck is that??? as i probably didn't explain myself in minute detail...happy wkd all...

getting plastered....

a super time we had yesterday at roses studio, we planned a lil plaster workshop between rose, ali and myself to do some work together and also be influenced by each others processes...i've made some simple slump plate molds, ali made some rather large plate molds and rose got stuck into mr HIIIYA a lil plastic money box that somehow references both sumo wrestlers and astro boy!!!! a complicated piece with lots of undercuts that is now in a 4 piece mold!! we had so much fun with the lil guy his bare bum popping out of the mold work when we flipped the mold over was just too cute!!

ali had to do the kid dash at 3pm so rose and i carried on into the night and a long one it was i got home 11.30pm last night exhausted and quite a cracking head after a very hot day....

checkout the pics of rose swimming in ali's mold cottle and of course my lefte braine righte brain shots of my cottle work i thought for sure i was losing it last night when i couldn't work out what the image was of...quite an interesting image as the cottle work was set up on a large mirror and you get the roof reflection behind the work looking like some corrugated card...i do have fun staring at those kind of images and making them flip backwards and forwards in the negative positive space..

anyhoo, weird not long weekend coming up public holiday on tuesday not monday who's idea was that!!? and market on sunday here's hoping for some lovely weather and a smoking hot crowd!!!

lefte or righte brained? tell me what you see....

I discovered this one last night when flicking through the images on my phone cam...tell me what you see 1st then stare at it for a while and see if the image flips.....




i was looking at my pics on roses back porch last night from our long day of plaster mold making and couldn't work out what i'd taken a pic of then later i flipped the phone upside down and freaky!!
there it is!! i was thinking when did we make bread buns rising in a pan or is it stones in a hole??

hello my pretties....

hello ello ello....where to start?? sat night i think... was a lovely outdoor gig where my friend to you shall be known as 'drek' not quite as green as shrek but one syllable all the same...its been a while since we've all gone out to a gig, me and my friends that be...don't know why just hasn't happened... so drek got this gig a last minute reshuffle to the town hall as the other band that were joining the pub setting canceled.... so where do ya do a gig in prospect? well outside of a very famous coffee shop called CIBO's who did very nicely from the forecourt crowd...we bunkered down amongst the trees, all lit up with lovely led lights i suspect as the colours kept changing making the space a little surreal with all the up lighting... so the sounds were dance- funk- jazz -lounge with an upbeat- a song about dancing in your undies and yes that is the only title i can recall ...funny that!! something about tom cruise and some other movie star jigging in their jocks...anyhoo twas a fun night topped off with yummo pumpkin and spinach pizza hold the cheese as im still no cow dairy and finished the leftovers for lunch today adding some sheep's feta and kalamata olives...oooh nice..

and this morning to my pretties i cracked the kiln oooh so nice....lovely when things work out so here's the collection, some lovely new lil blue crackle bowls and a whole range of summer bowls just right for salads and snacks should go down a treat at market this sunday, see you all then! and an interlude on thursday is a plaster mold workshop at roses so a lil vid i think for that one...cheers all have a super week and get cracking!!......

balmy evening...

off to the beach we trecked last night celebrating lauren's b'day my niece, only took us 22 years to get there apparently it's been always inclement for her event and we just haven't made it...but there ya go persistence...and a lovely sunset it was...i grabbed a few shells some lovely pointy ones to experiment with and perhaps on the tiles...

and this week a plaster workshop at roses place woohoo!, i'll be doing some plate molds to whip up emergency kiln fillers and just play with the plate form which can be a bit tense when throwing them ... so the goal is to loosen up with the plate form and work more on the deco side!!

mud says hi!...

and there we have it! the whole system back together and not a leak in site yey!!



and of course the posts are still waiting it's been a bit wet after the heat wave and not much has been done pergola wise...ahh back to it, warming up again for the wkd...

Mud says hi!
but that was all i could get out of him this morning nap time apparently...he's outside now chasing a mouse around..you wouldn't think he was 13...

and this is what happens when you deco over 40C sparkly colours all over!! they're back in the kiln for glaze firing now so i'll have loads for market...

and these guys i just love so much the rustic nature the cobalt dash of texture and a little splash of colour too, it will be interesting to see how they go down this month at market too..well that's my day including some clay pugging
this afternoon nearly lost a tool in the machine as i was trying to clear some old clay left to dry in it and was grabbed by the thing.. luckily the off switch is handy and yes it shouldn't have been running while i was poking around in it trying to get things moving....all good though both machine and i survived the encounter...!!

all good things...