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Marian Williams Pottery
Marian Williams Pottery

Be Sweet! Jam Jars

CreationJam Jars for Tanzania
I saw these condiment jars on Judy Abdelaziz’s blog –  New Day Pottery.  Really great-I love ’em!
So I checked out Jake Johnson’s website to see more of his work – great stuff!

My particular interest in these jars is that I have an idea!

Wendy Watson and Narelle Higgins are two lovely ladies in Murwillumbah that are involved in raising money to help build schools in Tanzania.  They are doing this by making jam and then selling it at the Murwillumbah Market.

Courtesy Wendy Watson
 This is a photo of the kiln they are using in Tanzania to make the bricks for the school buildings that are going up.
Courtesy Wendy Watson
 Here the fired bricks have been built into the girls’ loo – the latest building finished.

I thought that I might be able to help out by making some jam jars for them to sell along with the jam.  So I’m in the process of making jam jars.

Here are some photos of my work in progress!

At the end of the day, it’s not only our pots that will last into the future, but also our actions.

Pottery Envy: Danko

Amazing Potters
Click here for image information
OMG!!! Check out this teapot!  Just gorgeous! I also have a Colour Crush on this teapot – Love the colours!  Talk about envious…if only…someday…WOW!
This brilliant teapot was made by a Bulgarian potter by the name, Danko.

Tom Coleman

Amazing Potters
 
Source
 
Tom Coleman’s work is stunning and I just love colour!  I know that is wrong…as a potter…I should love the browns and subtle colours – but I LOVE colour on pottery.  So here’s to some fabulous colour!

Mike Grafa

Amazing Potters
 
 
 
Mike Grafa
Mike is a Texas potter and that’s where I will be next week! So I hope to see some of his work in person!  I really like his glaze application – lots of colour, overlays, and really magical!
 
The Texas Clay Festival website and gallery are worth a look too.  Lots of talented people in that state!

 

Oh Baby! Convert me!

Setting Up A StudioStudio and EquipmentTools and Equipment
In Australia, a couple of times a year, you can put out “large rubbish” for collection.  These rubbish piles at the side of the road tend to become a never-ending garage sale and even the repentant garage sale shopper can be lured to the roadside castaways – or treasures as it were! My husband, Ronnie, is no exception!  When he came home with this “perfectly good baby stroller/pram”, I was a bit surprised and wondered “what the heck!?” as I am well-past needing a pram!
Ever the inventor for my pottery studio, Ronnie came up with a plan to convert the stroller (which by the way, was in excellent condition and one of those really expensive jogging strollers with the really nice wheels!) into a pottery tools cart.
If you have seen the posts of my studio, you would have seen the studio is located in a huge barn and to move things from one place to another can be annoying.  So, this was the perfect idea.
After stripping off the fabric and a few of the structural pieces, he added a “hour-glass shaped” piece of plywood.
I painted the plywood a lovely blue.
Added velcro strips – the heavy duty kind –  to the painted plywood and to the bottoms of all the containers and dividers.  Easy peasy!
I used some IKEA drawer dividers.
Added some styrofoam inserts from an appliance purchase box to hold tools.
Here it is! The finished tool cart!
All in all, it is a great conversion and allows me to keep my tools in one place, while wheeling the cart to the table that I’m using at that time.
Brilliant!

You light up my life! Luminaries!

CreationLuminaries
Aren’t these awesome!  These Porcelain lamps by Jane Thelwell at Anglin Bay Pottery in Kingston, Ontario are engrained with rice which burns out during the firing, leaving the small indentations and holes in the clay for light to come through.
Anglin Bay Pottery
Lantern Festival blog
Here is her blog post on the how and why of making the lamps: Post
I decided to try to make a luminary – how hard could it be?
First, I did a bit of research about the other types of luminaries that potters are making.
These luminaries by Arryn are so fun!  The colours, shapes, and attitude of these pieces are just  wonderful.
  Saw these and had to add them to my favourites!  Great idea-very unique-from Prague!
After doing a bit more recon on Google images for luminaries, I decided to use Southern Ice Porcelain as it is available here in Australia, was created in Australia, and is super transparent.  Several of the sites that I looked at are here:
Click to see Danica Wichtermann’s beautiful luminaries from Southern Ice Porcelain.
Kanimbla Clay
Very, very cool!
Petra Meinking
Love ’em!!!!

Since I had decided to use Southern Ice Porcelain, I decided to a little research on the clay.

Les Blakebrough
Southern Ice Porcelain was created by Les Blakebrough and is distributed through Clayworks Australia.  The information Is provided on the Clayworks Australia website for the specs on this amazing clay.  Here is the description on the Clayworks website:
“Truly magnificent, translucent, white porcelain. While it is one of the best porcelains available it is also surprisingly easy to work. For best whiteness and translucency fire in reduction. SOUTHERN ICE has received international recognition as one the world’s best porcelain bodies and is now sold in Europe, UK, USA, NZ, Switzerland, France and Singapore.”
Well…the rice luminaries all fell apart before they were even fired!  Back to the drawing board on that one!  So I decided to throw the Southern Ice Porcelain and OMG! it is fantastic!  The thrown Southern Ice Porcelain luminaries that I carved came out great!  I’ve got more on the way!

Wheels!

Setting Up A StudioStudio and EquipmentTools and Equipment

The older I get, the more in love I fall with wheels!  So my sweet husband, Ronnie, has made sure that almost everything in my studio has wheels!  Sweet!  Here are a few examples of the wheels in my studio!

Wheels on plywood bases for my chemicals
This, I like to call, my “Bat Mobile”! Ha!!!
I use this to go to classes, workshops, guilds.  It fits the clay, aprons, etc inside and a paint bucket attachment (the cloth thingy) from the local hardware store (slit at the side with scissors) serves as a place to put my tools.
This was an old golf bag caddy! So my husband took off a couple of pieces, added a plywood base and now I have a great little cart for moving heavy buckets!  (See below)
This is the golf caddy/bucket mover in action!
This was found by a friend and will the newest addition to the studio when it has wooden shelves added to make a ware cart!
All in all, as potters, we must protect our health – our backs – as best we can!  So a few wheels added to our daily used equipment will only improve the odds!  Most of the wheels are recycled off other items (old office chairs, etc), but the cost of a few wheels is far cheaper than a hospital bill!
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