Snow Crystals Ceramic

I got to glaze the pots I made just before Christmas.  I tried three different glazes.  When you dip the pottery in the liquid glaze and pull the pieces out to dry before firing, they look rather similar.  All three of those colours looked like various shades of pale grey... but what a lovely surprise when they come out of the kiln!

If you remember from the previous post about this, I'd pressed one of my laser-cut snowflakes into the still soft clay.  The laser-cut snowflake was drawn from my Snow Crystal tatting pattern.  I like the thought of combining pottery and tatting.

And here's a close-up of the flower pot

glazed in "apple green":

This week I'm planning on making plaster moulds with some of my tatted lace so that I can make lace pieces out of clay which I'll then apply to the surface of the pots.  That's the plan anyway...  we'll see how that works out!

I've also had a go at throwing pots on the wheel... very unsuccessfully to begin with but I'm improving.  I have a few pieces waiting to be fired and can't wait to see how they come out.  My thrown pieces are still a bit too thick and chunky but I hope that with more experience I'll improve and be able to make better ones.  I didn't have much time to play with ceramics last term so I'm enjoying it now.  But it's also time for research and writing this term so I'll have to try to get the balance right.

Best wishes,
Frivole

Other Lace

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday and that 2019 is off to a great start for you.

I've been asked to do a presentation on my lace so as part of that, I've been digging out other types of laces I have made over the years.  This is just a small sample I'm taking with me tonight but I thought it might be interesting to show it here on my blog as well.

The little bits of tatting need no explanation but here are some close-ups of the other types of lace and what they are:

These are some Irish crochet flowers, leaves and scrolls.
These elements then need to be linked together with a background stitch...
but mine never made it to that stage!

This is some needle lace.
Experienced needle lace-makers would no doubt use much finer thread than what I used here
but these were some practice pieces.

The roll of lace you can see in the bottom of the photo is
a length of torchon lace which is the very first type of bobbin lace
I learned to make when I was a teenager.

This is Bucks Point lace (bobbin lace)
with a shadow-embroidered bow and little bullion knot rose on the fabric above.
This is the lace I used to hem the sleeves of a christening gown I made for our 4th child.

And finally the pieces on the right of the first photo
are Honiton lace (bobbin also)
This is definitely the finest lace I ever made
(fine in the meaning that the thread is the finest I have ever used to make lace).

I know many of you tatters, will also be other types of lace-makers too, I'd love to hear what other laces you make - please leave a comment!

Best wishes,

Frivole