This process starts out with around 3.5 lbs of stoneware clay for the large Model L. The clay was wedged ( this resembles kneading dough ) to expel any air and to homogenize the clay body providing a consistent working material. To hasten the making, a heat gun ( not pictured ) is used to dry the work after it has been formed on the wheel. Care must be taken to not overdry the work or the pieces can not be joined together. Part 1 shows the manufacturing of the bowl up to before it goes in a kiln for its first firing called a "bisque firing" in which temperatures reach around 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. All of the chemical water is removed from the form here and renders the work more stone-like. Click on each image for a description. Part 2 will show the glazing, loading ( the big kiln ) and firing process. Stay tuned and thanks for looking. http://www.lgpotter.com/personalized-pet-bowls.html
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Here's an order of nine personalized pet bowls that I recently finished. The turn-around from order placement to completion of order was only two weeks. That's actually a week faster than what I quote customers. This order was for 6 dogs ( 5 Pugs, 1 French Bulldog ) & 3 cats ( 1 Main Coon, 1 Ragdoll and 1 Domestic Short Hair ). They should be arriving in their new home Feb 7, traveling from St. Louis to North Carolina. Crossing my fingers that they all make it intact. I'd had enough breakage with the USPS, so I switched to FedEx and haven't had an issue yet. These are my clay babies after all, so I tend to worry a little still. Pictured are small and mediums of the Model L and Model LG. The ones with the hump in the middle are for chow hounds ( Model LG ). All of the color choices I offer were ordered too. Would be nice to get images of these with their new owners to share with people. Stay tuned. http://www.lgpotter.com/personalized-pet-bowls.html
http://www.dogtipper.com/products/2012/06/review-l-g-potter-personalized-pet-bowls.html Thanks to Paris and John of Dogtipper.com for their product review of my handmade ceramic pet bowls. Here's a link to the review: Here is a link to Jennifer's review that she did on my bowls she got for her cats Bubbie and Chiggie. Thanks Jennifer ! If you have a Ragdoll, This is the site to visit. This classic bottle shape was made on the potter's wheel. It measures 9" by 6.5". It has 20 different glazes used in its decoration. 17 are high fire glazes while the other 3 are low fire glazes. They were painstakingly put on in a spray booth, one color at a time. So it was, stir a glaze until ready, spray it on the bottle in various places, clean air brush and then stir the next glaze until ready, etc. This took quite some time. After a about a dozen glazes had been applied, it was getting hard to tell the glazed from the unglazed areas. After I got to my magic number of 17, the bottle got high fired and I was fairly pleased with the results. I decided to go back in with low fire glazes and fill in some of the bare spots. The effect is a patchwork look. Click on each for a larger image. This piece is available here.
I took the plunge into the video media world. It was fun to experiment with some of the options in editing. I know there's much more that I'm missing but you got to start somewhere. AVS Video Editor was the program of choice. Just did a little compare and contrasting with other software and read reviews. Free isn't too bad but to produce your file without the AVS watermark, you will have to pay for that. I'm overall pleased with the result. Take a look see and leave a comment. Thanks. http://youtu.be/elmeiTTe8E4 It would have helped to upload the images that I needed to in the previous post. Der? Here they go...
A few of months ago Jennifer Woodall, a producer from local TV "Show Me St. Louis" saw my first efforts at the pet bowl business on Etsy. I had made those listings inactive before Jennifer contacted me about using those as a segment on the show. The format offered by Etsy didn't allow me a way to offer all the options in a cohesive way, so I ventured into the DIY website realm. However, I was "discovered" by Jennifer there. The show is about local businesses and what they offer. There's a little background discussed and the process that goes into their product or service. So it's an awesome way to promote locally. So after I commited to doing the show, Jennifer gave me an assignment of creating a couple more types of bowls for pets to show a variety within the discussion. I did a little homework and added two new models ( with a third coming soon) to my original model. One is for long eared dogs that keeps their ears out of the bowls and the other is for dogs that inhale their food. These can be seen here. I would like to thank Jennifer for the opportunity to promote my business and I'm going to drop a link to her personalized sterling silver jewelry business that she does during her free time here. Thanks Jennifer!
So my sales for the holidays weren't where I needed them to be but on Christmas Eve, I checked my email to see that I'd gotten a PayPal payment and it was one of my trompe l'oeil teapots that had sold. Awesome! I then looked to see who purchased it and it was The Kamm Teapot Foundation. I thought that was pretty cool until I Googled the name and found out they had the worlds largest teapot collection. I was and still am floored that my work will mingle with work that is centuries older than me. Too cool! This surely motivates me to create more and gives me belief in working hard pays off. Thanks Mr. Sonny Kamm, you took some of the scrooge out of my holiday.
I've recently finished shooting images of my work with my new camera. It sure helps to have the right equipment for the job. Thanks to Dan Barnett for hooking me up with a place to get the job done.
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AuthorHello all. Welcome to the blog page. I hope you enjoyed your time on the site. I will be doing giveaways from time to time via contest. Please pass the link along to someone else you might think would like my content. Categories
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