South American fishes

All finished. Amaco Velvet Series underglazes on cone-6 porcelain.

 And here's the Pixy Hawkfish, the first finished "Coral Reef" piece.

Koi lantern

I'm working on making the support fins more anatomically correct

Helen

Meet Helen

She's a Black Devil deep sea anglerfish

There's her parasitic boyfriend

Did I mention she's a lantern? I think she's beautiful.

Here's my source book

Did you know there are 160 species of deep sea anglerfishes?

I stole Helen's main glaze combination from Pottery Pal Jessica.

Who borrowed the glaze combo from Pottery Pal Jeff.

New birdbath in progress

It's 16 inches in diameter, but will shrink to about 14 inches after it dries and fires. I use an old stoneware birdbath top as my platter mold, and I stretch an old T-shirt over it to help remove the piece when it's dry enough (I learned that from lining my pan with foil when baking brownies).

I'm going to paint goldfish in the center, and the rest will be glazed in my usual way. I hope I'll be able to find the style of birdbath stand that I like. So far, I haven't had success.

Snake platter and day tripping

The Snake and the Turtle (platter)

It's for our group show in May 2013: "Garden Art." It's not like I haven't been making garden themed pieces for the last two years! Snake-related pieces generally don't sell, but I love making them. Do snakes eat turtles? Yes, if the snake is very large and the turtle is very small.

I visited the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo last week. The grounds have some beautiful plantings and sculptures, but this guy really startled me!

Bronze monkey sculpture at the Cleveland Zoo

I also visited Schoepfle Garden in Lorain County (part of their metropark system). Check this out: it's a climber, shaped like a flute! It can be found in the children's garden.

Flute-a-pillar climber at Schoepfle Garden

Platy cup and saucer (in progress)

Tomorrow I'll glaze the "South American" place setting. I'm thinking Shino.

That's better (Tetra bowl redux)

There wasn't enough contrast between the Lemon tetra and the background, so I swapped in a few red ones (Callistus tetra).

Such a doofus

This is background number four for the Angelfish plate.

Lemon tetra (in progress)

I painted the background and washed it off three times. Can't seem to make up my mind, but I'd better quit before this gets too grimy. I'm re-working the Angelfish plate too.

Black Hawk and the Orange Crusher (in progress)

They're my sister's Angels.

Pixy hawkfish (in progress)

The puzzle is how to suggest coral and the way it continuously moves and feeds.

Sacred Vessels Opens Friday May 11, 7-9 pm

You're invited!

Sue Peplin

Sue Kirchgessner "Water Urn"

Julie Barker

Leah Gary

Sue Kirchgessner "Sky Lantern"

Joan Krummert "Body Bottles"

Leah Gary

Sue Kirchgessner "Earth Jar"

Joe Morris "Goblets"

Sue Peplin

Cris Till

Joan Krummert "Ganesh"

Cris Till

Jeff Chalmers

Linda McDonough

Joan Krummert "Pitcher Plants"

Jessica Ramage

Joan Krummert "Mother Earth"

Sacred Vessels: Vernal pools

 So happy with these, especially the frog pond.

I took a risk with the Fruit bowl... I repainted the floral design in the center with low-fire glaze and put it in a bisque firing. The kiln's too hot to unload, but I took a peek: it looks better than I had hoped.