It’s been so long since posting anything here – seems like time for an update.
It’s been a beautiful, but unusually dry summer here in Seattle. I stepped away from clay for a few weeks but have been busy with a number of things since then. Most notably, I’ve designed three brand new tiles and made some modifications/variations to a few previous designs. These tiles are still in development so I’ll post more about them, with hopefully good photos, next time.
I’ve also been working on a set of trim tile templates for all of my animal tiles. These are intended to allow individual and pairs of animal tiles to easily be set into standard square and subway tile patterns. Next step is glazing and photographing these in some type of context. Maybe boards or instructional videos, not quite sure yet.
I’ve also been starting to work my way through several bags of hard clay. A hard bag of clay isn’t great for tile making or wheel throwing but it’s fine for making slabs so I’ve been using it for slab built sgraffito pieces for serving ware. Stuff gets broken around here a lot, especially serving plates. Hand building with porcelain is challenging (warping and cracking) but if the piece makes it to the leather hard stage, I get to enjoy the relaxing task of carving fruits and vegetables into it!