Alchemy of Clay

First of my mandalas has come out of the glaze kiln...
I will be getting backing for it, but I want you to see how it looks at this point. You've patiently gone through all the processes with me by now!




I am considering mounting it on fabric, either a neutral tone or perhaps black.

The 5 pieces seem to be pretty stable.  Next week I'll stain them, then probably put a clear matt glaze over them, which turns the black stain into the nice sepia tones that I'm sort of enjoying stuck on!

I'll try to remember to take some shots of the process of applying a stain.

How about a quote:

PATIENCE IS NOT JUST THE ABILITY TO WAIT, IT’S HOW WE BEHAVE WHILE WE’RE WAITING.

JOYCE MEYER

The back sides of puzzle pieces of the mandala which I just created.  Still has several more stages to go through...drying, bisque firing, staining, glaze firing and then assembling on a board.

The right side up version, drying slowly on newspaper, soon to be wrapped in plastic to let the air come in ever so gently to dry it.  i hope the edges don't lift up, which is a possibility since it's not being weighed down with a board on top of it.

fingers and toes crossed.

today's Quote:
(first, appologies because the shift key is out of whack so capital letters are somewhat arbitrary...as are 's' and 'l' with this keyboard!)

Four trees, representing 4 seasons.

Beauty from the waters, the ocean of Aphrodite, the rivers streams and lakes for Oshun.

Some beautiful women gathered to celebrate the Beltane festival of the beginning of May here in Black Mountain.  And we danced, and leaped a small bonfire, (indoor style in a cauldron) and sang songs, and made up our own rhythms while we worked on a flower mandala (a variation of a Peruvian Despacho.)

We had fun! But the ritual was a sacred dance so photos will not be posted of the participants.

we did each wear a crown of flowers!

The almost finished Mandala of flowers, sweets (that's the candy) and various herbs.

Thanks so much for the great sharing of skills and ideas, and participation of everyone in their chosen activities!

 The unfinished version of Aphrodite went to the ritual on Sunday.  She was glazed on Monday, so will go in the kiln sometime this week.

Here are a couple of shots as glaze was being applied. The whole reason for glaze being applied, is to hopefully diminish a crack in the base over on the side behind her foot.  So fingers and toes are crossed.  I usually prefer to just use a thin black stain to highlight the play of light on forms.



I added some white highlights to the waves as she rises from the ocean, and to her hair, so hopefully it won't been such dark brown.  The sand is Nutmeg colored, which will possibly hide the crack.  But even then, being sculptural, there's lots that can be done with acrylics...oh no, did I say that out loud!

Finally got everything to go right.  I'm so happy about the slip trailing.

Ran into Asheville last week and bought new slip trailing pens.  Then started slowly drawing the outlines for a tree woman, centered on a plate, with many little spaces.

Then I filled in the spaces with different color glazes.  Then I waited a while.


All that slip trailing gives me a lovely cramp in my hands, squeezing with my thumb every so gently.  I added my 1X magnifying glasses over my regular glasses so I could see where I was working.

I'm so happy.

Detail of sliptrail glazing

My girls thought "what's a plate good for unless it's full?"