Some of my latest work

[smkie]

THe exterminator broke one of the best ones by bumping into the shelf. He would have broke them all if I hadn't already taken most of them off because I didn't know what the fog would do the surface.

This bowl was made by first making a pinch bowl and then lining it with another kind of clay and working it. The orginal bowl broke into little pieces that I had a devil of a time keeping it all together. hyia will tell you I said "don't crack dont' crack" for the whole time I was making it.
I then used iron oxide on it and it was fired in a gas kiln.

 

[Baxter'smybaby]

oh smkie--I love those birds! Are you selling them as a group--or singles? they are so graceful and peaceful looking.

 

[smkie]

I am going to be trading them for dog food basically...or vet bills or whatever has to be. It is going to be a shame to break them up...and i already messed one up firing it. Picking them up with tongs during a raku firing is like picking up a piece of butter with chopsticks because they are burnished. I am going to have to do it like I do with the owls and tip them into the trash can. They hopefully will be soft shades of black or grey. Cross your fingers for me..for them! He broke the second one on the left. : (

They look easy to make but they are not. They have hours of burnishing on each one. I glazed the beaks on two little ones but didn't like it afterwards. It broke up the movement of the line so i will leave them a solid from now on.

I have some owls that I will fire Thursday and i am still working on the totem pole. I have not been able to think due to illness, the move and the stress of spiders so i am very very far behind on everything.

 

[Baxter'smybaby]

oh that one that he broke is my favorite--can't wait to see them finished.

 

[smkie]

Mom's too. She was very upset it got broken and kept saying surely he was insured to pay for it. It wasn't finished tho so I didn't feel like I could insist on it, and I might have broken it during the firing so I will just have to make it again. I still have the head...sighs for what good that does. Thank goodness I had the one off the shelf that I made while Aiden was being born. It had 8 hours of burnishing and is my very best work. It doens't show up well in the pic because it is facing the camera. I want to give it to my son when it is finished, because it is the Aiden bird.

I don't have to think hard on the owls, birds and bowls, not like I have to when I do the dogs. I am just not up to concentrating like that. THe one for the totem is just exhausting. I still have one leg and his face to go. I had the lower jaw on and was starting on the face then I decided it was too big and cut it off, resized the head, and now I am back to that part again. I would give anything to feel just a little better so i could work like I use to.

 

[PWCorgi]

Those are fantastic! LOVE the birds!

 

[smkie]

I like burnishing. I can do it while I watch a movie, and it is somehow relaxing. Good to do when your worried too. I made one bowl I called my Mary worry bowl when she was at the vet's with her first pancreatic attack. I sure coudln't think to do anything else. That one was donated to Art unleashed and the bid that won it was 60 dollars. IT was kind of heavy so that was a fair price, even for a good burnish job. I do much better, lighter bowls now.

 

[Renee750il]

I think the birds are superb -- and it's a shame not to be able to sell them as a set.

 

[crazy_paws]

You do beautiful work!

 

[skittledoo]

As always you do such amazing work. I still have one of the bowls that you made me a few years ago for the christmas swap. One of my roommates accidentally broke the other two but I still have one and I absolutely LOVE it

 

[smkie]

I am glad you still have one. My dogs and Sancho eat out of that kind of bowls too. ONe day I ought to try to make some more. i basically had to choose one way or the other, hand building or wheel throwing, since I could hand build at home I chose that route but I miss the wheel once in a while. Wish I had one here.

 

[LittleBigDog]

Your elegant bird sculptures and the earthy bowl are wonderful, Smkie. I hope they end up homed where lots of people can enjoy them. A dentist I used to see when I lived near Seattle had a patient who was a glass artist. (Chihuly country here.) She would pay him with her art and he would display it in the treatment rooms. I think it really helped anxious patients to get their minds off their worries while waiting in the chair. (I sure appreciated it!)