Sunday's Production

A gray, cold and wet Sunday with threatening snow showers was the perfect occassion to hunker down in my studio with a big mug of steaming tea and get down to some serious throwing. I have a custom order for ten soup bowls which will be decorated with the names of my customer's grandchildren. I also wanted to "play" a bit with some hand formed tumblers made from clay that was stamped with a floral design. This is going to be fun to glaze. I ended up throwing 12 soup bowls, and making two prototypes to try out some handle arrangements. Nothing but the whirling sound of my wheel, and the gurgling of the aquarium's filter as I worked with a wonderful stoneware clay from Pottery Supply House in Toronto.
Hopefully they will be ready for trimming this evening, then I attach handles and bisque fire.

My First Blog!

I must say I am pretty pleased with myself!. As a senior, I have fully embraced the electronic age. I have set up my Etsy store am using Facebook, Twitter and now I am blogging! I am slowly transitioning from a full time business person to a full time potter, and will be running Atelier Marla as a retirement business. In addition to selling on Etsy, I have just completed several commissions. My area of interest is Majolica.
While I was a member of a local potters club, I was confined to throwing stoneware and porcelain, and had to amend my technique. In order to achieve the same color brilliance, and design elements, I drew my images on the leather hard bisque ware, and used colored slips that I mixed myself from oxides, carbonates and glaze pigments to achieve my pallet. Once bisque fired, I then glazed with a clear transparent and fired to cone 6.
Now that my home studio is complete, I will be working on my own, I will be throwing with terra cotta and painting my designs on glaze.
I hope to take lots of photos, and to share my progress with you.

Along the way, I have met some very talented and wonderful ceramic artists, and I am looking forward to interviewing them and sharing their work with you as well.
So, till my next post,
Happy potting.