Apothecary in miniature

Over the last week I've been working on miniature apothecary jars. The first picture shows how I lay out the design with pencil on the little unfired pots. (Click the pictures to see larger ones) The other two photos show the pots that I have finished so far. These are all painted with underglazes and they haven't been fired yet so the colors will be a bit more intense once they have been fired. These pots have been done for several people that have asked me to make some. I'm not sure how many they will want so there may be some extras.

Check the website in the apothecary category for available jars.

Murrini

For a long time I've wanted to do some murrini work with colored porcelains. This is a process similar to what many of the polymer clay artists do when they build canes. However, with porcelain it is a bit trickier. More attention has to be given to getting the various pieces to stick together and rolling the 'cane' to smaller and smaller forms doesn't really work. Some reduction can be done by careful pinching and pulling but in general the design must be built more or less the size you want it. You can enlarge it some by cutting thicker slices and rolling them to enlarge it but again care must be taken to avoid distorting the pattern. The accompanying photo shows the first murrini that I have done. The smaller slices shown are basically just cut from the piece and sanded a bit to smooth them out well. The larger ones were rolled to enlarge the design. There were several issues I encountered with this pattern that I think I can eliminate in future designs to make future ones better. However, for a first attempt I think this came out pretty good and for what I was making them for I think they will work out quite well. I will be using them for a component in some pendants that I will be working on in the next few weeks. When I get some done and fired I'll post the finished results as well.

Organic Dreams

Last fall when I created these organic pieces I didn't have the time to do up any examples of what could be done with them. Finally I've been taking some time to dress some things out. Here is one example of the sort of thing that can be done with the organics. For this one I've strung in some swarovski crystals, seed beads and some hematite stars. To see more of the 'blank canvasas' look under 'free forms' in my shop.