Light up my life

Last time I tried to take photos of my work, it took me 4 hours to photograph 10 items.

The sun moved too much that the position I setup in was useless midway into the "shoot" due to shadows from hanging branches.

Those little damned green flies kept sitting on my background paper and wouldn't go away when I blew at them (whilst kneeling on one knee with one hand on camera reaching awkwardly over to rid the scene of them!).

The background paper I had taped into position to some lawn chairs had seperated from the wind howling and bending and tearing the paper.

I nearly lost all feeling in my legs while kneeling on the concrete bending over and peering into the camera.

I had enough! Time to get myself a professional photography studio and leave all that drama behind....

you know how much that would cost? Forget it. I needed to figure out a much cheaper alternative....a light box. Not just any light bow, but a homemade one!

After scouring the internet, I found several amazing sites with instructions on how to build a variation of light boxes with plumbing tubes, boxes, lamp shades and ikea products....to name a few.

I settled on the Ikea option with instructions from PlanetJune, as seen here:

http://www.planetjune.com/blog/light-tent-for-better-product-photography/

I thought I'd send along my step by step progress of assembling my photo box to show you how I achieved it!!

1. Get the Antonius Hamper Frame from Ikea http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/10103804. Only £5 - what a bargain.

2. Get some type of white fabric. I chose a cotton sheet from Ikea because I was there and it was cheap. You could get white fabric just about anywhere, but in the UK, no Joanne's Fabric or Michaels to hop to in craft emergencies - so Ikea it had to be...

3. Cut 3 large rectangular pieces from the fabric, using the frame as a guide, cutting 1.5 inches or so bigger than the actual frame size. Do the same for the two ends, cutting smaller more square pieces. Start pinning them together on the frame to get a good snug fit.

4. After pinning, start sewing your pieces together. Put it on the frame to check the fit and adjust where necessary.

5. Start figuring out the lighting!

This is something I haven't had much luck finding! Many thanks to all the Etsians and countless blogs that I have reviewed for some more insight into the appropriate bulbs to use for this light box.

Being in the UK reading US blogs means I cannot take advantage of the great product suggestions available at all those great US hardware shops. In London, B&Q and Homebase without the Lowe's, Home Depots and Walmarts, don't seem to even have a small portion of the selection of bulbs I would have available to me!

I have resorted to online ordering which isn't so bad for ordering the bulbs. However, finding the appropriate light fixtures has proven to be much more difficult!!! Can I ask all of you out there, where did those clunky old clamp-on desk lights go? That is a blog entry for another day...

However, for the bulbs, I can gladly report my decision based on the advice of loads of Etsians:

I am ordering the trumpet low energy compact fluorescent daylight photo bulbs.
They are a bit wider than the usual bulbs, but it seems loads of people have had a lot of luck with them. They have a kelvin temp of around 6000, close to daylight as possible.

The width of them makes finding a lamp more difficult, but I am determined. More on that next time.

I'll post photos of some test shoots as soon as I sort out the lighting!

Does training for a 1/2 marathon and potting mix?

Hmmmn, that would be a big fat NO!!!!
Every morning that I train, I cannot help but be extremely exhausted and useless the remainder of the day! Sadly, with my impending race next weekend, more training sessions means more useless days.
I did have one to two really productive days this past week.
First, I managed to clear 118 test batches of glaze. Yes, you read correctly, 118 batches of 100g glaze pots, built up over 2 years in my endeavour to find that perfect glaze and slip. Can you believe it took over 3 hours to scrape clean into plaster batt (to dry for easy dumping into toxic section of my local recycling/waste centre) and scrub the pots clean. Man, that was a workout in itself! However, what a great feeling it was. Not only did it open up space in my already cramped pottery, but it was a realisation that I had reached the end of my journey of researching, developing and testing.
Once thought of as the unreachable goal, I find myself emerging on the other side of that excrutiating long dark tunnel I have been crawling through for years. I feel like I can finally start enjoying the creative process again, now that I have some decisive conclusions about the clay, additives, slips and glazes I will be using going forward. No more juggling between 22 strains of stain concentrations tested amongst 6 different types of slips which lie under the choice of 15 different glazes, all of which can be applied on top of 11 various white clays. You get the point. The variables have narrowed to a manageable amount.
I have my chosen materials and batches of slip/glaze.
I know how my kiln fires - knowing the hot and cold spots and how best to fire my chosen materials.
I know the forms I want to make and sell.
I have even managed to simplify what it is that I am making - reducing the types of forms on offer, streamlining the making process to a more suitable level of ease.

This leads to the second productive day of my week: I actually started making my new forms and it felt so good just to create, knowing exactly what decoration I was going to apply rather than settling with some undeveloped glaze cover for the sake of finishing the form off. How great did it feel!!! Now I just have to fire and assemble the goods to see how they look!

So, from now on it is time to keep moving with my prototypes and emerge from my long retreat and show everyone what it is that I can offer the world.
A very exciting time! Perhaps all these years of slogging it behind the scenes with scores and scores of okay ideas always seemingly resulting in bad outcomes will actually start paying off!

So, after next weekend's big race, I can only imagine what more energy from reduced running will bring to the potter's wheel! I cannot wait!

Just how specific is this darned specific gravity?

So, there I was remeasuring the specific gravity of my orange glaze, making sure it read as it should from a month ago. Good news, it read the same. Bad news, it looked so damn lumpy and so different from a month ago, I really couldn't believe what I was seeing.

To appreciate the amount of frustration I was feeling at that juncture, I must go back 2-3 months ago when I undertook the painful process of understanding my glazes more. With every kiln firing producing various results, I had undergone the necessary cone fire testings to ensure the right controls were in place and that I was firing evenly and consistantly. After cracking that issue (mind you, that took about 4 months....), I started reading up on how to get my glaze consistancy constant (say that over and over again really fast- I dare you).



I started with hyrdrometers and after reading bucket loads of info on potters.org, decided against persuing that angle. However, the good people on potters.org recommended using SPECIFIC GRAVITY as a reliable method for measuring the amount of water (the consistancy) in a batch of glaze so you can replicate it every time you make up a new batch.

So I eagerly and dutifully tested all my glazes at a thick, medium and thin consistancies to better decide which one was best for the glaze. Once confirmed, I made sure the batches were well mixed and measured the specific gravity accordingly. In fact, I did this three times to ensure little to no room for error.

This is why after re-measuring the batch recently and recording a same specific gravity as before, I was dumbfounded to see a thick muddy pool of glaze. Help!!! Does this mean I cannot even rely on this measurement either? I don't want to go back to sticking my finger in the batch and measuring thickness by just how much of my skin texture can be seen through the glaze film - too much room for error!

Anway, I will proceed. I am ready to dump these glazes once and for all and streamline to one reliable glaze - is there such a thing!?!

WOW - I have been such a bad blogger the past few months! I have been too busy going away like a little jetsetter on holiday to Tobago with my hubby! It was the first holiday with just the two of us that we have had in so many years!
I was hoping to find inspiration where we were, with the flora and fauna of the beautiful island providing me with a feast of ideas to explore in clay. Instead, I found that my initiative melted away in the 30degrees plus Celcius sun and I couldn't really get beyond rubbing my sunscreen on every 15 minutes. Man, that was a lot of work anyway!
What I did discover was an incredible sense of calm and centredness. No time constraints, no plans, no dressing up, no make-up, no brush (!), no noise, no pollution, no rushing, no one to answer to, no diet, no mirrors (that IS the best way to start chilling out ladies!).... just plain and simple R & R.
It is really so true what they say about the positive impact the sun has on us. Those rays and a quiet connectedness with nature really brought my mind back to the basics: eat, sleep, and be merry. How nice life could be if we could always have it in our minds to seek no more than what we need and to enjoy what is around us.
I was so very hard to get my mind back into gear after getting home - a good week. And now when I begin to stress, I close my eyes and remember all those moments sitting on the beach when I told myself to just listen to the waves rolling in, because it is that sound that I can hear now when I need to escape.
So, rambling over. I'm off to fire my kiln tonight.

My new project!

I finally worked on something that has been in my sketchbook for a good 2 years or so now!
It was so very relaxing and I am so pleased with the outcome!

Picture three of these next to each other in a wall hanging, or a massive singular flower plaque on its own! The options are endless!

I'm a little worried I might get swine flu

with all these pigs around!

Coloured clay! Results are in!

I must confess, I've had these results for some time now, but just hadn't gotten around to posting them!

As you may recall from previous posts, I went ahead and added three concentrations (2, 5 and 10%) of stain to my semi-porcelain body to see what results I would get...

Here is the lilac, which I don't think really looks lilac at all...

The green which I thought was best from the two I tested:

I thought this green was a bit too mint gum looking!

Here is the blue. Oh, the different finishes on each bowl were two differnt glazes on either side with coloured clay exposed in the middle, which honestly is my favourite part on all of them! No glaze, no hassle!

Shame that I like the mandarin so much, as 100grams is THREE TIMES MORE EXPENSIVE than the other stains. Damn!

Out of all the tests, I settled on these particular shades for each colour to make up my pastel pallet.


Now that I have tried adding stain to this clay, I am very intrigued and excited to explore this further. However, looking at the price of the stains, I now realise my my instructor never wanted us to go near them!