Summer Ceramics

I had such a good time making pottery this summer.
For the 3rd year in a row I have borrowed a potters wheel for the  summer.
It's a cute little Shimpo and I adore it.
I also adore that I only have it for about 6 weeks and have to plan accordingly.
I got a pretty good rhythm going. I injured my knee so I was home bound anyway and at first I had to use crutches to get out to the studio and sit down at the wheel. I have a small kiln, so I planned a kiln load at a time and got cone 6 glazes. I ordered last years Celadon and 5 lbs each of a Gold glaze from a place in the East Coast that mailed them out to me dry, so I mixed them up in 5lb yogurt containers. I went out to Aardvarks in Santa Anna midway to get more Steve's White Cone 6 clay but at first used what I had from last year which was Steve's White, another grainier white and a stainy Mesa Red.

So last year's work was mostly Celadon Green with incised drawings on vessels, telling stories and just loving the drawing into the set up clay. I would throw in the morning, let them set open air and draw in the afternoon. I added a Sienna to the Celadon to get some more variety in the color. A lot of the imagery was about bunnies, Redheads and a man with a hat.

This summer, I started where I had left off using poppy pink, frosted melon and Celadon glazes.

Poppy and Celadon Rumtopf

Then I started the incising imagery, more birds because from where I sat, I had left out parrot food in a bowl that was lifted off the ground by a plaster Putti sculpture and I was enchanted by the birds feasting.

And then I got going, sometimes I worked when I didn't even want to. I was on a schedule. I quietly imagined kiln loads and drying times and sections of work to do daily. I wanted to make plates,but pulling outward was challenging so I made flatter bowls. I came up with a design I wanted to repeat, poppy pink flowers with gold in between. So lovely!  Bowls, bowls ,bowls.

When I went out to Aardvarks, I was going to buy more Amoco Cone 6 Glazes, but then I noticed for a lot less $$$, they had 5 lb Aardvark simple glazes in powder form, I could mix myself. I wanted a Tan base, boring by itself, but it would be a warmer light tone than Frosted Melon and I also picked up Black.

So Now I have a new palette of four glazes, Black,Tan, Green and Gold. I start to layer them and use accents of the Sienna Rust, Frosted Melon and Poppy from Amoco. Now I am finished making them for the summer and sit around in a delirium enjoying the effects from a cleaned up position.

Beautiful Bowl by Joyce Lieberman

Gorgeous Golden Bowl with bits of all the other colors

Heroine's Journey Article Just Published

https://theheroinejourney2016.wordpress.com/2018/07/29/the-heroines-journey-of-joyce-lieberman/
They wanted a selfie, that is harder than I thought.

NEW Skirt from VIDA and "Zeitgeist " Painting the image comes from

VIDA has new formats, skirts and bags and many other things. This took a long time to receive from the moment I ordered it, maybe 6 weeks to 2 months, but here it is , My "Zeitgeist" Cupro skirt and me modelling it in front of the painting from whence it came. What do you think? 

VIDA scarf and New fabric and wallpaper from Spoonflower

Michelle in my "ANEMONE" scarf by VIDA

 A yard of my "Celestial Doodling" fabric in mirror repeat from Spoonflower.
You should see the dress that got designed from this fabric.

A roll of my "Tic Toc" wallpaper from Spoonflower

Home Goods Printed with Joyce Lieberman Painting Imagery

I am creating home goods on several sites that have my

 paintings imagery on them.  Click the links to see! 

Products

Fabrics with Joyce Lieberman Paintings I love the wallpaper as much as the fabrics.
https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/joyce_lieberman

Scarves, skirts and over the shoulder handbags by 

VIDA with Joyce Lieberman Paintings https://shopvida.com/collections/joyce-lieberman,

Prints on canvas, metal, tote bags, greeting cards, shower curtains,etc.of Joyce Lieberman paintings.
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/joyce-lieberman.html?tab=artwork

Calendars of paintings and children's books with illustrations by Joyce Lieberman https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=joyce+lieberman&type

New Celadon Hareware

This summer I threw some cups, pitchers  and vases. 

I incised drawings into them.

Here are a few of the pieces from 2 months of work.

I have posted both sides of the Hareware vase with a postcard size drawing on Masonite with a bit of watercolor. The summer drawings on the clay  are a continuation of my watercolor drawings from the winter.

Below the  Bunny Vase is a vase with nudes based on the classic antiquity of "Lotus Eater" laziness. I include a couple of acrylic paintings that were done after the  drawing on the vessel with 2 sides of the bowl form.

 

Here are a few of the watercolor drawings from this past winter.

I used the same drawing style on both.

Here is a bunny lid on a floral bowl.

And the bevy of beauties with my new tiled fountain.

My Fountain

Voila! Here is my fountain in it's completed state.

Last year I created a new set of tiles.

I thought I would simply put them on a wall like the tiles I created for this wall in 2015. 

Then it occurred to me to make  them into a fountain.

 I made a simple unfired clay maquette of my thought.

I didn't know how to make this happen. 

A friend gave me his used pump. yay!

Another friend suggested I build it out with a planter box 

and line it with backer board.

 My husband and I found a shapely half of a table in the street and took it home to use as the main tiled back.

 I made a paper pattern of the shape to make the tiles to fit last December for the back of the fountain.

Our neighbor, who is magnificent with tools said he could build the planter type box in the front of the half table and seal it with backer board.

It started to rain in Los Angeles for months and the project went on hold.

Then last month, July 2017, he did the construction. It was great. 

I was in the midst of two months of joy throwing pots with a (borrowed for the summer) potters wheel. I had to make several more batches of tiles to fit the entire project.

These tiles are the interior front wall of the basin batch, the last batch.

These tiles are one of 4 bunny end tile groups in their beginning clay state. 

I roll out the clay into slabs and cut the tiles, line them up together and then I draw with a chopstick to get the incised lines. I letter and number them in their grid on the back so I don't get confused because they go through  two firings and get mixed.

You can see the interior glazed and installed end bunny in the photo above this one.

 There are bunnies on both ends, inside and out.

For the bottom tiles and the bunny tiles, I used Cone 6 instead of Cone 06 Lowfire because I was making HAREWARE, my functional Celadon Summer Pottery and it was on my mind and something I was working with.

I toyed with the idea of irregular tiles for the bottom, even bisque fired a few but instead I used their curvilinear shapes as drawing templates onto the regular square format tiles I started with.

The last bits of tiles are for the edges. 

This is the small Cress kiln I have been working with.

We got it all together, yay! But then it leaked, Argh! 

 A few more sealing steps later, We are overjoyed that it works. 

And another shot with my Summer Celadon HAREWARE and my Fountain project. Did I mention that we have a bunny? She's a great studio bunny, loves to nibble on cardboard and grass and run around.