Earlier this year a lovely customer asked me if I’d consider designing a travel palette. It sounded like a fun challenge and a nice addition to the other items in my line of painting tools.
The theme of the first travel palette I made was a Palm Springs inspired streetscape. We drove through the city after a visit to Joshua Tree National Park. There were so many cool midcentury modern buildings that finding an appropriate pattern for the wells was easy.
The second design, the sardines, was a response to seeing these little tin cans of fish everywhere. While I must admit I’m not a big fan of the oily little fish, I appreciate that they’re a sustainable way to get one’s omega 3s, hence their popularity.
The third travel palette is my smallest palette yet. I wanted to make another animal palette and the shape of the spider is so efficient for dividing wells that it was an obvious choice. I think it’s an elegant little piece so I wanted to accentuate the form with a touch of gold luster. These mini spider palettes will be available in the fall.
“Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind; large ones weaken it.” – Leonardo da Vinci
I set up my studio in unused strip of space in the basement about ten years ago. At the time, I thought it would be temporary. Eventually I’d rent a space or build an addition. As it turns out, I like the space as it is. This long narrow room has evolved into a pretty efficient setup. For the most part, clay work is done on one end and plaster work (and mold storage) on the other. It’s good to keep the two materials separate when possible. A small space also means I need to purge regularly and that keeps things fresh. What makes a good work space for you?
Despite my best intentions, this blog has fallen by the wayside again. Like a lot of people who enjoy making things, I’d rather spend time in the studio than on the computer. That said, I do enjoy looking at this blog as a digital diary so I really want to post more regularly. It’s true that Instagram also serves a similar purpose but this blog goes back so much further than my IG account.
Above are some images from things I’ve created in the past few months.
I had a lot of success with my octopus palette last year. People seemed to really enjoy it and I made quite a few. What’s interesting to me is how durable the round shape is. I sometimes get cracks in my rectangular palettes. It usually happens during the glaze firings and, after all the steps that go into making a palette, it’s very disappointing. Interestingly, I very rarely get cracks with the octopus palettes. Because of this, I was excited to try a couple of additional round designs.
The Ferris wheel was a fun, but challenging, design. Because of all the little car bumps along the perimeter’s edge this one takes a lot of time and patience to trim. For this reason, it’s a palette that I enjoy using more than making.
The whale palette was a design requested by a woman named Cayleena. While I prefer not to do custom designs, sometimes people throw out ideas for things that they’d love to see in my shop. I often sketch these up. If I come up with a sketch I like, it may turn into a tile or palette.
The last images are brush rest designs. The first is the chillin’ chimp. It was just a doodle-inspired design. The second is the turtles on a log brush rest. It was inspired by some photos I took at Green Lake here in Seattle.
Right now I’m in the early stages of a couple of new palette designs. They’re a bit of a departure for me but I’m excited about them. I’ll try to document the process for a future post.
I’m so excited that this beautiful laundry room designed by Susan Yeley Homes featuring my jade green monkey tiles has been published in Architectural Digest!
It took a couple of months to press, glaze, pack, and ship the 720 tiles for this installation so to see the project so well received is very satisfying. I’m very grateful that Susan Yeley and her associate Keri Jean Miksza trusted me with this project. They were great to work with.
Unlike most of my posts, this one is going to be pretty long-winded without a lot of pretty pictures but I hope it’s useful. Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about ways to conserve resources in my studio and I wanted to share some of the methods I’ve been using. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have additional ideas.
1. Three Buckets of Water
I installed a clay trap on my sink awhile back to avoid plumbing problems while working with clay. However, I rarely use the sink. Instead, I use (3) 5 gallon plastic buckets. One for clean water, one for somewhat dirty water, and one for very dirty water. Working with clay is a water intensive activity and this saves a lot of water.
2. Recycle Early in the Process
The best time to cast off a piece is early in the process, specifically during the greenware stage. An undesirable piece can be tossed into the clay recycling bin anytime before the first firing. Once a piece has been fired, it can no longer be recycled. It makes no sense to try and salvage a piece; just remake it.
3. Only Fire Full Kilns
This one seems obvious but I’m guilty of not doing this in the past. I used to fire smaller loads if I had a deadline. These days, the full load takes priority. I’d rather communicate with a customer about a delay than fire a half full kiln. So far, no one has complained about having to wait an extra week for their piece.
4. Refire Glazed Pieces
Some people sell items with glaze imperfections as “seconds” but I’ve never been comfortable with the concept of seconds for a few reasons (that topic should probably be a separate post). Instead, I’ve found that most glaze defects like crawling, pinholes, or debris stuck to the glaze surface can be repaired quite easily with a dremel tool and a dab of glaze. It’s a little tricky with colored glazes but when using clear glaze it’s very straightforward.
5. Grinding Wheel
A grinding wheel can salvage a piece whose only failing is an uneven bottom. They come in a wide range of grades from coarse to super fine. Smoothing the bottom of a piece with a very fine sanding disk gives it a nice professional feel. Always use lots of water when grinding or sanding to avoid breathing in dangerous particles.
6. Kintsugi
Learn and practice the ancient art of kintsugi. This is one I haven’t actually done but it’s a great way to save a piece that’s made it all the way through the lengthy ceramic process only to break during the glaze firing or during use.
Kintsugi is the process of repairing a broken piece of pottery with lacquer and often gold powder. As I understand it, it’s a process that celebrates the events of the piece and is analogous to the changes that take place in our lives.
I have a bin full of broken pieces just waiting for their next chapter.
It’s been a busy few weeks here. The best part of March was seeing my kids while they were on their respective spring breaks. Before, after, and in between, I did some clay work.
I’ve been back in design mode with a few new pieces. The pig face tile was in need of some companion tiles so I added a couple of wings and some legs to make a set. I liked the way the set came out so I used the flying pig as a feature for a new palette design.
The pig palette has presented some construction challenges. First, it’s the largest palette I’ve designed so there are issues like warping and weight to consider. It’s also thick due to the high relief carving of the snout. I’ve tried both pressing and slip casting but neither has been a complete success. I prefer the pressing approach for two reasons. First, porcelain slip is not always available locally. Secondly, the plaster molds are very large and slip casting is rough on plaster (it breaks it down quickly). The biggest problem with pressing palettes is the weight of the piece, especially with the pig’s thickness. The best solution I’ve come up with is hollowing out the back of the pressed palette at the thickest point. It’s relatively labor intensive but I don’t plan to make too many of these. I’m also in the process of experimenting with three new porcelains clay bodies to see if one is less prone to warping.
This past month, I’ve also designed the spring palette of my seasonal palette series. I tried a few designs and the house finch in a rose bush was the one I liked best.
Most recently, I designed a new sea otter brush rest. I’ve been thinking about this design for awhile and finally put it to paper (and subsequently clay). I think these will be especially cute paired with the octopus palette.
The next step will be to make finished pieces from each of these new designs. So far, just the pigs tiles have been glazed but I hope to be listing the palettes and sea otters in my Etsy shop very soon.
This blog hasn’t been getting a lot of love from me lately but I really want to be better about posting more regularly in 2024. It’s been a creative diary for me for a long time and I enjoy looking at old posts from time to time to bring back memories and revisit ideas.
I’m still designing paint palettes but I took a break from the seasonal palette series to design this Octopus Palette. I’ve been wanting to design another octopus tile for a long time. My original octopus is very “reserved” with his simple figure 8 shape and prayer like pose. This octopus, while contained in a simple circle, is more active than his predecessor. His long expressive arms spread out to create a variety of wells for separating and mixing colors.
The octopus’s two front arms meet to form a heart. A notch beneath the heart provides a place to rest one’s brush.
It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything – time for a little recap.
I’ve been spending a lot of time making new paint palettes. After the honey bee and dragonfly palettes, I designed a few simpler ones based on patterns in nature, specifically animal patterns. These patterns were inspired by fish scales, snakeskin, and armadillo bands.
Most recently, I’ve been working on a series of seasonal palettes. First came the “cloud” palette for fall. It features a cluster of interlocking rain clouds hovering over a large rectangular well where an abandoned umbrella sits surrounded by puddles. More recently, I’ve been working on the winter themed “polar bear” palette. It features a bear emerging from a forest of tessellating pine trees as he trudges through the snow.
While I’ve been super busy with these projects, there have been a number of setbacks, mostly due to my aging kiln. I finally bit the bullet and ordered a new one several weeks ago. As I eagerly await its arrival, I’m going to shift gears and spend more time painting. Honestly, not having to think about the technical aspects of ceramics for a little while will be refreshing.
I’ve been really busy making palettes this summer. A big thank you to Amber Lane who has kindly included my Honey Bee Palette in many of her photos and videos on Instagram.
I love making the white porcelain palettes but I’ve also missed playing with colorful ceramics. This past weekend’s weather was beautiful so I set aside the time to layout my latest tile table top. The idea for the design came from walking my dogs along the path at Golden Gardens beach.
This patio table is one of the first pieces of furniture James and I bought together. It’s over 20 years old and a little rusted and banged up so it’s more than ready for a makeover. The mesh top is a good substrate for adhering the tiles with thinset. In order to grout the tiles, I’ll tape the underside of the table, apply the grout and remove it when the grout has hardened a bit.
I started making tiled tables as a way to use clay that is too hard to press into molds but is soft enough to roll into slabs and then cut into tiles. They’re also a great way to use up clay bodies and glazes that have been sitting around the studio for a long time.
Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from the more physical routine of tile pressing and work at a slower pace on something. These sgraffito bowls take a fair amount of time to carve but it’s a relaxing, almost meditative, process that yields a very useful item.
