Dragonets

I recently blogged about deciding on a theme for my pottery. I had a look through my Mum's book of fish, all of which can be found around the waters of Scotland.
I found this fantastic shaped and coloured fish called a dragonet.

Common Dragonet

Spotted Dragonet

These guys or variations on them will be appearing on a teapot, mug and two bowls in the very near future. The designs are all hand drawn by me and therefore unique. Really happy with them.

I also tried a portrait of one of my cats :o0 that was a bit scary. It's turned out OK, but no pics yet. It was scary because I used underglaze and painted the portrait directly onto a greenware tankard. I suppose not a total lose if I hate it once it's bisque I could always cover it in a dark glaze. I'll get pics of my hand painted greenware for my next blog.

Octopus Bottle

I'm really proud of this guy. Started off with a double pinch pot. I then beat it up, cut a whole in it and used my fingers to push out the shape of the head. I added the body and the tentacles, then finally added the detail.

It was then bisqued, dipped in tin white, Laguno blue was sponged over the body and some underglazes washed over the rest of the white.

I love the way this has turned out. Really lived up to expectataions

Themes

I have been pondering lately how unfocused my pottery is. I think it's due to there being so many different techniques to try.
I have absolutely no problem with having heaps of unmatched plates, bowls, and cups in my cupboard, but I think if I want to start selling some items I need to develop a style or theme.

I think I have about 3 emerging in general: Mushrooms, Chickens and Sea life. Chickens and Mushrooms are my type of design - I'm drawn to 70s style and I think that these fit in well with this. Sea life is much more to do with my roots. I come originally from a fishing village and  grew up with the fishing industry in different forms. Dad fished and supplied the Restaurant my Mum ran with Shellfish. Mum cooked and filleted fish before studying marine biology.

I'm thinking about doing more fish themed things. This will come as no surprise to P. You should see my pottery Pins.http://pinterest.com/zombiecazz/boards/
I had a look through Mum's fish identification Book to see if there are some cool coloured fish to use. So far I like the Opah, the Dragonets and the Lumpfish. Of course there is always the Salmon, crab, prawn and lobster too.
Anyway here's a little reminder of my interest in the sea.

Fish box made for my Mum. About my 3rd/4th item of pottery ever

That's my fish plate there too.

goblets

Salt Fish

This was inspired by seaweed floating in the sea.

My Octopus Bottle. Really must blog about him

Another salt fish drying out.

Tentacle Mug.

So it does look like the theme is already there, but I need to do loads more.

Tumbling Tumblers

Just back from a lovely relaxing time in Uist and P did a firing while I was away. The results are fab. We've been having some issues with some of the underglazes ending up being rough and blistered. When I was taught pottery our teacher always instructed us to use 3 layers of underglaze, but I have watched a couple of majolica videos and they use watered down underglazes for their work. Hmm I thought. Would this sort out our issue.
So with this in mind I have been applying underglaze to greenware in a watered down version with only one or two coats. Here's the result for the first lot of tumblers

Stoneware, cone 6 underglaze at greenware stage and some carving . Inside LHS and RHS is Scarva  Helios glaze.

I'm really excited by how well these turned out. Definitely have to do some more.

Here are some cute little wine tumblers. Not sure how much they hold yet, but pretty sure there's at least enough for a glass of wine.

Thrown Stoneware wine tumblers. Covered with blue slip and then  designs carved into them.  Some have been splattered with red and yellow underglazes.

The slip on these was made using white stoneware clay and some cobalt carbonate and rutile. Really love the colour and will have to try to make some more.