New projects...

Winter is well and truly here in Adelaide South Australia. The trees have lost all of their gorgeous brightly coloured leaves and the blue skies have been more grey than blue of late, and the rain has been falling and adding to those cold and dreary colourless days. And with this it has had me craving the beautiful bright colours of Spring and Summer.... Colour makes me smile, lifts my spirit and brightens my day... Colour makes me Happy.... So my new project begins with a little, No, No, No! let's make it a Big splash of COLOUR!!!!

Recently I was admiring another Potters
work by the name of Mark Campbell. He was creating bowls and
decorating them with a graded colour effect which looked like the sunset. Just gorgeous, and this led me to try something similar but with a twist of my own... Grading the other above bowl with a centre of yellow and then a lime to pale blue as the internal of the bowl and then....

The outside was decorated with a stripe and tulip design.
This being step one of the outside painted process....              

The next step was the basic outline of the tulips and leaves,
and then the tulips were painted and the colour gradually is layered with slightly varied tones of similar shades of red and orange to create the dimensions of the tulips in the below photo...

                                                

                                          

        

The leaves in the above photo were next and below the outline in a fine line of black is added to finish off the design...

                                                 

                                          

        

And here it is turned up the right way and completed...

                                          

This next bowl was painted with the yellow, orange and red colours depicting a sunset...

                                          

So that the feature design is not hindered in any way by the background, I draw and cut out a basic stencil of what ever I am to be painting on. a spray of water fixes it to the piece prior to starting the graded colour effect. Then when the colour is painted I remove the stencil and start the painting of the feature....

                                           

And here he is here nearly complete...

Finished...

And the bottom...

And here is another....

                                                                                         

   So there you go, my Big splash of colour. Now just to get them through bisque firing and onto their final clear glaze firing. I so can not wait to see how much the colour will Pop when they are clear glazed...

I would like to give a big thank you to my Dear brother Dale for the photos of me painting. Dale is intellectually impaired and I have had the pleasure of having him stay with me for the last three weeks. We have had a great time together, and I think he did an awesome job taking these photos...

Here he is with his bowl that we worked on together, what fun we had making it! :)

 And here it is painted... Love it.... 

                        

And here we are together on our day out, with a visit
to Adelaide's Mt Lofty Look out...
We had a wonderful time together...
Love you Dale... xoxo

                                 
Thank you for stopping by. I'm heading over to Mudcolony  to see what everyone else has been up to this week in their studios, come on over and visit too.... Have a great week ... :)

My Facebook Link.... Annie-Jeans Pottery

     

Busy, Busy, Busy....

       For the past 3 or 4 weeks I have been madly making, decorating and glazing my work for a gorgeous little shop in Stirling Adelaide Hills and I have loved every bit of it... below is my large dinning table with half of my work on it and it is all packed and now at it's destination .... 

                    Milan Rouge Contemporary Craft and Design

Rose and Alison of Milan rouge Contemporary Craft and Design are bringing back an event from the Hills past called Mugs Day. Many of the locals remember it well and have very fond memories of it... So this Sunday it's back....

Milan Rouge Contemporary Craft and Design

Shop 2/11 Mount Barker Road, Stirling,

 South Australia 5152

Ph (08) 8339 4683

So if you are in Adelaide this weekend come and visit Rose and Alison at Milan Rouge Contemporary Craft and Design and support our local artists by purchasing one of the many hand made mugs and they will fill it with your choice of Mulled Wine, Hot Soup or Chai just perfect for a chilly winters day!

And then there is clean up... My dinning table is now a dinning table again phewwww...

And my Studio/workspace is back in order ready for when I get back from my holiday in 3 weeks....

                                    

                    Oh and we can't forget the lovely walk I went on with my boys when all the work was done where we got to meet some of the locals...

  

 They all loved their run just check out those smiles....

     

Oh and my hand has decided it needed a little break from all of it's hard work... Tendinitis and I'm already missing playing with my clay and my painting and it's only been a week... Oh well it's not forever... I hope you have all had a lovely week, I'm heading over to Mud Colony for a look see at what everyone else has been up too, come on over and have a look too....

And don't forget if your in Adelaide come to the Mugs day event in Stirling at Milan Rouge Contemporary Craft and Design....

Have a great week... :)

Facebook Link... https://www.facebook.com/anniejeanspottery

I took the step...

It has taken me a while to get the courage but with the unbeknownst help of a new friend I am finally putting my work into a shop. Up until now my work has been gifts or purchased by friends or friends of friends and it has been very exciting realising how much people like my work.

 So recently my husband introduced me to a work colleague and he asked if we could give her one of my pieces which I happily agreed to. My dear husband would show people my work via photos on his mobile phone. And this particular friend always took a keen interest in my work. When we presented the gift to her she was very complementary of it, which was lovely. But unbeknownst to me she took it to a gorgeous local artist run gallery gift shop in the Adelaide Hills Stirling by the name of Milan Rouge Contemporary Craft And Design - (This is a link to the Facebook page)  - where our friend knew the owner and showed her. Well the rest is history so to speak, she sent an email to my husband and told him that the owner really liked it and that they would like to meet me and see more... I went to the shop and was greeted by the lovely Rose and Alison. They informed me of a reinvention of an event Mugs Day that they were bringing back and that they would like to have my work involved in it... So over the last couple of weeks I madly have been making and decorating and over the last couple of days firing and glazing to get my work ready for delivery... So needless to say I am a little excited and nervous as this is my first time having my work in a shop... Below are some photos of what I have been doing for the Mugs Day event and the shop.... There is still more in my little kiln waiting to cool and one more glaze firing to do of the teapots. Fingers are crossed for good results....

                        

                     

     

Below is a photo of the teapots prior to dipping in glaze. As I have a different inside colour to the outside I use this little technique where after glazing the inside I blow a balloon up inside the teapot and then I can place my finger in the spout and proceed to dip glaze the teapot... Only minimal clean up is required and the inside colour stays free of the outside colour... 

                         

                      

Thanks for popping by I hope you enjoyed my post...

I'm heading over to Mudcolony to see what everyone else has been up to in their studios.... Come and join me and have a look... 

 Annie-Jeans Pottery Facebook link

Photographing my work...

Do you take photos of your family, your holidays or your hobbies?  I do, I don't go anywhere without my camera. And yes I'm sure I drive everyone nuts snap, snap, snapping away lol. But for me it is so important to help me hold onto my memories. And it also helps me follow my progress in my art. So today's blog is about how I am trying to experiment taking photos of my work with my new graduated backdrops. I don't have all the bells and whistles just the back drop papers that are graduated in colour.  I'm amazed at how it makes my work look. I will eventually work towards the lights etc.. but its all money and one step at a time and I'll make do with what I have...
So here is a few photos of some new under glazed mugs, teacups and saucers that I've been working on this week that are ready for a bisque firing and then onto a glaze firing. And they have been taken with the graduated backdrop.....

All of the mugs/ teacups and saucers in these photos 

are in a green state (unfired) and decorated with under glaze. 

So a bisque firing and then a clear glaze firing to finish and the colours will

All pop much brighter... The owl tea pot is finished with its final glaze coat.

So this is just the start of my experimenting with taking photos of my work and I will have to look into the lighting Side of things next. But I'm finding it very exciting trying new things out, there is always something new to learn....

Thanks for dropping in to see what I've been up to...Mudcolony is my next stop. That's where we all share our studio happenings, come on over and say hi....

Facebook Link - https://www.facebook.com/anniejeanspottery 

Oh Yeah.... :)

Have you ever had one of those years where you wish you could start all over again? Hmm well it' s been a little bit like that for me this year. Don't get me wrong there has been some memorable moments in between but those curve balls come at you from left, right and centre. But amongst all of it I kept potting. It sure is my therapy/sanity saver. I can sit and just drift off into another world and create, make and decorate to my hearts content and it just feels so damn good....

So I want to share with you my latest firing that has me grinning from ear to ear. The bright colours and the quirky designs just make me smile and the fact that they turned out with no issues has me jumping with excitement.... So here they are, I hope you like them as much as I did making them...

Owls are just a Hoot to paint...

The Owl pendant I hand carved and I am going to make a mould out of.
A wee little owl dish and a few stamped pendants...

My brightly coloured tapestry teapot...

And finally my white picket fence and garden tea pot....

Thank you for stopping by. I'm heading over to pop into Mudcolony  to see what all the other muddies have been up to... why don't you come over to....
Facebook Link - Annie-Jeans Pottery


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I got mail....

New toys and more underglazing...

Wow I think I blinked... This week has just flown by.... But it has been a good week, so I'm happy with that....

So in my studio this week I got mail :)...... I made a decision to renew my trimming tools. My old favourite one had been over sharpened with the file and well it was just time. Online I went and placed an order for some new underglaze for painting and a couple of new trimming tools. Then while on there I started gazing at books, and one book I have been wanting for quite some time came up. It is The Ceramic Spectrum by Robbin Hopper. It's been out for a while but I was pretty impressed to find The book Depository in the UK had free shipping world wide. So, you got it, I ordered it and I am now a happy owner of the book and looking forward to sitting down with a cuppa to immerse myself in all of it's contents on glazes... 

 

 

Also on the bottom left of the above picture you will see the blue bulb. Something else I have been wanting since I did a workshop in Perth two years ago. It's the Xiem Studio Tools Presicion applicator. We used it in the workshop with underglazes and it can be used with a very smooth slip. Have you got one or ever used one? I would love to hear from you if you have any tips on using one...Time to have a play and experiment I feel with my new toys... :)

I am still painting my teapots that I posted in last weeks blog. Three down two to go... and a little splash of coloured underglazes on some mugs... So that is what I've been up to this week in my studio. What have you been up to?

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by, I'm popping over to Mudcolony to see what everyone else has been doing. Why don't you click on the link and drop by too.... Have a great week!!

 

My Facebook Link : https://www.facebook.com/anniejeanspottery

Handpainted Tea Cups.....

Happy Thursday everyone!!

I have had a very happy week this last week. Firstly my little kiln was fixed by her original maker and she fired up to bisque and a glaze firing like a dream. And my Dear Husband came home after 3 long weeks away in the UK... and prior to that I think he has only been home for two weeks since the start of January with multiple work trips that take him everywhere, so it is very nice to have him home...

With my little kiln back up and running her first load was the Tea cups that I had handpainted with nature and animal designs with underglaze...

 

I used a pale turquoise translucent glaze for inside and a clear glaze over the outside....

 

Below are the results and I'm pretty happy with them.

 

Below is the full set of twelve which are an order about to head to their new home in Queensland....

 

This one is a spare, a little smaller in size to the other twelve but I do like the design...

 

So that's it from me this week. I'm off to get onto my next project painting these Teapots .... Happy Easter everyone, stay safe and eat lots of chocolate!! :) God Bless!

 

 

 Mudcolony is open and ready for your studio news for this week.... So if you've been busy making and creating hop on over and share what you have been up to and check out what everyone else has been up too......

My Facebook Link  :  https://www.facebook.com/anniejeanspottery?ref=hl