Works In Progress Aug 9, 2015, whale mugs, relief carved vases, lobsters and more

At long last here are some progress pics of work about to go into the kiln.  For a change I thought I'd photograph things in progress after I was done underglazing.  Underglazing can be as time consuming as carving I've realized!

All of the pieces in these pics are still "greenware", not yet fired.  As soon as it stops pouring rain I'll be able to start shuttling things across the yard to the kiln shed for the bisque firing.  Then, all the pieces will get dunked into studio glazes and fired again (all the pieces in this firing are cone 6 stoneware).  The super painterly pieces here will get a clear glaze, the animal bowls will be glazed various colours.  I took lots of photos for my own reference as I'm not sure how everything will turn out - we'll see!

A lot of these pieces will be going to the supremely wonderful Jenny Jib shop in the beautiful town of Lunenburg.  As always these are all hand sculpted, I don't use any types of molds.

First up, who doesn't need a butter dish with a lobster on it?  Jenny always has cool Jonathan Adler pieces in her shop and this piece came out of having fun asking myself "What would Jonathan Adler do if he was designing things especially for Jenny Jib?".  Probably not this.  But it was fun to pretend.  These are all different views of the same butter dish, which is made from slabs for a change - usually all my sculptural-functional pieces start on the wheel.

 Next up, Whale Mugs! I'm excited about these, there are two humpbacks, a fin whale and a sperm whale

Next, what visitor to Lunenburg hasn't wished they had a mug with the Bluenose II on it, and a lobster for a handle?  There's just one mug and 3 pics of it:

 Making a mug with the Peggy's Cove Lighthouse on the front and a lobster for a handle also seemed like a good idea:

Next up are two largish flounder platters that will get dunked in studio glazes, much faster than painting underglazes.  I left my feet in the pic for scale.  They'll be foodsafe, dishwasher safe, and also able to hang on the wall.

When I started art school I loved making relief carved vases.  I haven't tried any for awhile as the ones I've made in the past were red clay with black stain.  Adding colour makes things more tricky, so we'll see how these turn out.  First here's one with a fox on one side and a heron on the other.  

This next vase is larger, with a rabbit on one side, an owl with mousie on the other, and birch tree trunks all around.  Back when I started it fiddleheads were just coming out...

Here's a kraken mug:

 And a fox mug:

A rabbit bowl:

Two black bear bowls:

Moose bowl:

Chicken bowl:

Skunk bowl:

A flock of six sheep bowls which will be glazed white with black legs and heads (Suffolk Sheep)

And finally a batch of figurines.  My figurines started getting bigger, more time consuming and the prices started creeping up, so these ones are smaller than most of the ones in my last firings.