First Ever Item-of-the-Blog: Gear Bowls!

Hello, friends!

I know, it's been a while.  My college program and work have both kept me pretty busy!  But it's okay, because I have some news to report!

I have finished a batch of some raku tester bowls.

I just put a gear on it and called it Steampunk.

And now that song is in your head.

Do you like them?  Let me describe what I did here.  If you look closely, all three of the bowls have a lip which was shaped in order to look like gears.  Then all of these bowls were bisqued fired and covered in two of CCSU's house glazes (dipped, one after the other) to get the varying effects after the fire.  My aim here was to design a steampunk-inspired bowl that was simple enough to create yet interesting enough to fit the genre.  As you can see, the combination of glazes gave each piece a certain degree of texture while still giving off a metalic feel.  And what better way to introduce the ceramic medium to the Steampunk genre than making them look like gears?

I'll show you a bit of detail on each.

This piece has the obvious stand-out finish, yet I cannot decide if it is my favorite one.  As you can see, it's much shinier and smoother than the other ones, with more muted tones.  This one is definitely the 'clearer' of the three, if not the most distinguishable.

I feel as if the finish on this piece has achieved the perfect balance between texture and the color of the metalics.  I love the variety of color I got in this one.  Blues, greens, reds, and purples, and even some gold-ish looking yellow tones make this piece look really interesting to me, so needless to say I was really satisfied with the way it came out.

This one came out pretty interesting.  This one had the most texture of all, and reminded me of molten lava.  I still have some pretty good colors in this one, too.  Next time, I plan on spraying on the second glaze rather than dipping it, because (and you can tell) the application was pretty thick dipping it in.

I tested these bowls in order to see the finish because, if I have achieved a desired or at least interesting effect, I would like to sell them.  Which makes these little guys the first ever ITEM OF THE BLOG POST!  These are NOT food safe.  I plan on uploading these guys onto an account on Etsy once I get better photographs.  But until then, if you would like a bowl, you are definitely welcome to email me with an offer!  You see, I have only shared my blog with my Facebook and a few other people.  So consider this an 'Offer of Aquaintance.'  Yes, my friends: YOU have first choice!  Whether you know me or not, whether you are friends with me on Facebook or not, if you can see this post, this offer is for you!  Yay you!

Email: kellyr@my.ccsu.edu

(*^Keep in mind I am majoring in Art Education, and not Advertising.)

Anyway, I think this Item of the Blog Post thing may just inspire me to keep making interesting steampunk-ish items that can be used around the house.  I plan on keeping one and using it to store loose change!  So, keep your eyes peeled for another one!

Also, next time on the blog (Next time on: The Blog! Sounds like a television show to me!) I'll be uploading some pictures of my past work.  Pictures that have been saved thanks to Facebook, pictures that I end up taking because of the computer crash that happened a while back.  You can tell me what objects to keep making and what objects I should just forget about!  And then I'll consider it.

See you all later!  As always, thanks for reading!