Bad Start to a good week - painting engobes Music Monday

I've been up since 3 am.  What follows is sometimes incoherent blather... be warned.

The dog, who is usually a good kid, has been waking me up with his whining and cries in the middle of the night.  Since I don't get to sleep until after midnight and rarely before 1 am, this is a big problem!  Today I'm exhausted and will miss my workout at the gym.  I have such a good time there, pushing my arms to the limit and learning to stand and sit up straight to the point that I've regained some of my height!  My trainer, who looks like a Buddhist monk, is really good at this training thing, and has helped me so much.  I just adore him. 

Now, onto work!  I mixed up my own colors for this green out of four commercial engobes.  Hopefully, because the few companies still in hobby ceramics have standardized their clay bodies to the point that you can use their glazes and under-glazes virtually interchangeably, it's taken the guess work out of throwing three colors of half jars together with one full one, to make enough of a new color to paint a big piece.  The clay body, in this case, slip, has to match the shrinkage of the clay underglaze that is mixed into engobes.  This is so that they don't pop off of it in the kiln due to unequal shrinkage. 

I also made a custom colors for the browns, so we will see what we will see!   I still have another coat of green to add to the top leaves.  The roof and base (foundation)of the birdhouse has to be painted, and the backside of the base where the tree grows out of the rock.  Being a rock hound you would think I could decide what sort of rock, but I am stymied!  (I decided on a gray granite effect)

Three coats are now all finished,

I still have another coat of green to add to the top leaves, roof, and the base where the tree trunk comes out of the rock.  You would think that my being a rock hound would help me to decide what sort of rock, but I am stymied!  The pumpkins are bare as they will receive glaze coats after bisque fire and in the final fire. 
The pumpkins are left white so that a glaze can be put on them after the bisque fire.

UPDATE:  I plugged in the finished pictures.  This goes into the kiln tomorrow or I quit ceramics.

I decided to make the rock and foundation gray granite 

The colors will be much more vibrant once they are fired and a the final clear glaze fired over all.  I think it's time to re-acquaint myself to the air brush.  An airbrush helps to add dimension to what otherwise would be a flat looking surface, except for delicate shadows formed by the shaping.
 
 If I were a young person, I'd have made my own mold designs by now.  It's very easy to do but hard on a scatty old woman who mumbles to herself - since she has no cat - and has been mistaken for a witch at times.

Yes, this happened in the heady days of rock radio and being up all night talking to DJs.  Well, it's Monday and I'll go look for a Music Video.  That little confession does not count as Music Monday.

 
I am not knitting.  I have second sock syndrome.  What can I say?  I'm gritting my teeth when I think of knitting.  It's a very sad case of knitter's block.

More Marc Scibilia



For the loving people in the world whom others look down upon.   Love is the closest thing we have to magic.  It's a movie line, but it's a lovely line.  Danny D, I love you, you funny little man!  Jesse, my beautiful green eyed cousin, I will love you forever, too!