Black & White

The studio is calling me but I just wanted to pop by and say hello to today!  I've been on the hunt for a smaller sized white kitchen hutch for the multipurpose thought of display for my booth at Christmas shows and photo-shoot staging and maybe even something that I can have on the porch here at home for the people in the neighbourhood who keep wanting to stop by to pick out some pots.  Consequently I have boxes of pottery just laying around the house awaiting a pick up-which can last a couple of weeks.  With the kitten loving boxes and bubble wrap and the boys doing gymnastic routines through the living room, I'm thinking some kind of cabinet would make sense. 
I also got a little excited when I saw this little plate in the thrift store.  How lovely is that?  I recently bought a Majolica black 'under/over glaze' by mistake- usually I use a little stamp on the bottoms of my pots with underglaze for my dh (dahlhaus/heather dahl) and noticed that this other stuff turned out glossy like a glaze but didn't stick to the kiln shelf. Hmmm.  According to the instructions it is possible to use this Majolica stuff on top of a glaze before you glaze fire.  I love how 'mistakes' in pottery give way to inspiration.  What would happen now if I silk-screened this stuff onto a glazed surface instead of silk-screening on bisque ware and putting a clear glaze on top.  I'll let you all know how that one plays out. In the meantime, this plate is my inspiration and I'll be off now:)

Just the beginning...

I was pretty excited when these came out of the kiln.  Black, white and grey.  Lines that give definition and allow for pattern emerge.  Simple, modern, smooth and silky feeling.  Plus lots of room for me to expand the series. I've been working towards this series for a few months with no good results until now!  I have more work to photograph tomorrow and will let you know when it's all up in the shop!

More big news: we got a new kiln at the studio!  I'm so very excited about it- it was exactly the kiln I was hoping for- a large Skutt computer kiln in really good shape even though it is used.  I can't say enough great things about our landlord who fronted the money to buy the kiln for all of us!  It has been frustrating to fit my limited studio schedule into everyone else's kiln schedule along with only having 1 working kiln for 6 of us.