New Blog website

Hi ... I imported this blog into my pottery blog, and am now hosting it on my website. If you have this site linked or are following it, it is now here:

http://blog.nkpdesigns.com

Also, if you are following this blog, please consider following the new feed. I'm going to leave this one up for about a month, but already I have quite a few posts on the new one. Click here to check it out. Thanks so much!!!


Natalie

Alphabet Ceramic Beads

A few months back I acquired some letterpress ... perfect for making alphabet beads. The first step is deciding which clay body to use. I'll start out with a nice white. This particular porcelain clay body is quite translucent. If I use a transparent glaze, then it should break in interesting patterns over each textured letter.


I think I want a bead that fits nicely between the thumb and forefinger, so I'm going to use this home made bead 'measurer' which will give me a bead that is between 13 and 15 mm.


In trying to decide which letters to start off with, Wheel of Fortune pops in my head: RSTLNE ... so I'll make about 5 of each of those, plus five of each the vowels, and three of the rest of the consonants. Happy Clay Day!

Egg or Teardrop Shape Porcelain Beads

Dangling opportunities abound with this shape of a bead. These are pierced from top to bottom, but I have some that are pierced through on the side, too.

I first started making this bead for a fellow crafter's Etsy store. I've been making them ever since in different sizes, shapes, and glaze combinations. This particular glaze may or may not be a fluke. It's the first time I've used this glaze combination and I really do like it so I'm going to try for more. I wrote down all the specifics in the glaze notebook I started keeping a while back. We'll see if it is a fluke or not.

Click Here to see more egg and/or teardrop shape beads.

Ceramic Bead Bone

I rolled a slab of stoneware clay and then used a small bone shaped 'cookie cutter' to get this shape. I smoothed around the corners, then pierced with a hole fired and glazed it and refired it to maturity. It is 30 mm long and 18 mm wide and 7 mm thick. The hole is 1 mm.

I think this would be fun addition to a doggie collar or a focal point on a necklace for a doggie lover. Click here to view it in my Etsy store.

Ceramic Pendant Heart for Wirewrapping

I have made more round beads than pendants and for some reason this particular day I was in the mood to make pendants. I used a pair of plastic scissors that is normally used in scrapbook making to cut these strips of clay. I lightly dusted the clay with baby powder so that the clay did not stick to the scissors. I used a small amount of water on a Q-tip to moisten the clay shaped heart in order that the zigzag strips of clay with adhere properly. Then I dried and fired this with several more heart shaped pendants

Click here to see this particular pendant

Ceramic Bead Sculpture - Elephant

I have been trying my hand with small sculptures ever since the Etsy Mud Team Challenge a year or so ago. The sculpture challenge was a blast and I never would have tried any kind of sculpture without that challenge.

I started with dogs, then birds, then fish, now I'm getting braver with elephants. This particular elephant was made with soldate 60 clay from Laguna Clay Company and glazed with a cone 6 shino glaze. It is 31 mm from nose to tail and 24 mm wide from ear to ear and 25 mm from top of the ear to bottom of the foot. The hole (2 mm) goes through its back to its stomach.

The ears were very fun to make. I pressed them flat with my thumb on the palm of my hand. The small ball was perfectly shaped in that fashion into an elephant's ear!

I have this one in my etsy store. Click here if you're interested.

Bead Naming Contest

Apologies for not having written anything in a while, a long while. I've been on vacation. I've started firing beads again only the last few days. I've come up with a few bead combinations. I am planning on making this one a permanent part of my glaze collection that I'm slowly putting together.

However, I am at a loss for what to call this glaze and thought I would hold a small contest and ask for help in naming this particular glaze.

So this contest is going to continue until I see something that I really like, and if I like YOUR suggestion, I will contact you and send you some thank you beads (at no cost to you of course) ... so leave an email addy in your comment.

This glaze is brushed over a terracotta clay, and goes transparent in spots, though the bead is completely covered with glaze. Have fun! And hey, thanks!