A simple slab project...

I really like this project because its great for beginners working with slabs.  All you have to do is cut out a very long right angled triangle, add some texture to both sides, and then fold it up attaching the folds with a little slip.

Cupcakes

Lately I have been using Pinterest a lot to get new ideas for pottery lessons and projects.  I saw some cupcakes on there and thought they would be fun to make.  Here is my version of the clay cupcake:

Warm and Cool Landscape/Cityscape

I thought of an idea for a lesson plan involving the use of warm and cool color schemes using underglazes.  I figured the students could choose between a landscape or cityscape and produce a silhouette type effect on their pots.  The blues in the cityscape turned out a bit darker than I planned but you still can see it somewhat in the photo.  Below are my samples:

Baltimore Cityscape

African Landscape

What makes underglaze run?

Recently I made the pot shown below, painting the design on with underglazes.  After I painted it, I fired it to make sure the design did not smear when I applied the glaze.  Needless to say, the underglaze still smeared (Mostly the black).  Why?  I investigated and found this answer on a ceramics message board:

It doesn't really matter how high you fire your glaze kiln but 

you have to fix the underglazes at a HOTTER temperature to keep them from 

moving under the glaze. So if you bisc to 04 then your glaze firing is 

supposed to be at a lower temperature. That's if you want your 

underglazes to stay put. 

Blue & Purple

Recently I rearranged a lot of the pottery I have all over my house.  I decided to do a purple and blue display in my kitchen.  What do you think?  I love the cool colors.  They seemed to turn out darker in this picture than in real life :(