Little Houses Quilt Block Bowl

I've called this one 'Little Houses' but it is adapted from this pattern which I saw a few weeks ago on Rachaeldaisy's Blue Mountain Daisy blogspot.  She lives in the Blue Mountains about an hour outside Sydney, Australia - so you see how far this little bit of inspiration has come!

All the way to Norfolk, England - which has no mountains whatsoever  -  of any colour! 

Obviously this is a pattern meant for quilts, but ... you know me!  I loved the little houses round the edges, and got to work measuring out my own version onto a slab of wet clay.

Once the design is marked out, I flip the whole thing over (tricky!) to put my potter's mark and stamp and date on the underside of the piece.  My potter's mark is a 'C' and a 'D' overlapping and was one of the first homemade stamps I ever made.

Then I pushed the piece into a lined mould and worked on the edges.

Then, once the clay is bone dry, it goes into a bisque firing kiln - you can just see it underneath all the other bits sitting on top of it.

 Twenty four hours later - out it comes, ready to glaze.

Once glazed, below, it is ready to go back for a second firing.  The raw glaze colours do not reflect the finished colours - thankfully!

And then another 24 hours, until it's completely cooked, and out comes the final piece.

I am really pleased with it. I decided to make the pointy bits look like a sunburst, as I think it's a lovely, sunny, cheery design.

Thanks to Rachaledaisy and to the inspiration to be found in all corners of Blogland!

x Cathy

Wood Block Printing

I have been having the most fun recently with all my wooden textile printing blocks - obviously not to print textiles with, though that looks like fun too actually! These are a few I have collected and use the most often.

To press into wet clay to make patterns, like these.

adding surface pattern and loads of texture at the same time.

To avoid the block sticking in the clay, I rub a bit of olive oil over it first - it all burns off in the kiln, so no matter. 

And then I just choose which aspects of the pattern I will pick out, and in which glaze colours.  Orange and brown is not my colour scheme of choice, but I have to keep in mind that I am not the buyer!

If I were, I think something blue and yellow is more me, but we're all different...

The ruler below the pics is meant to show their size - this one below is only 6 inches diameter.

And this tiny one fits into my hand.

Not quilt-based this time, but still textile inspired. I think if you love pattern, you just notice it everywhere. 

I am seriously thinking of impressing the gorgeous pattern from the soles of my slippers into a clay piece - or is that going too far??

x Cathy