Pottery in the works

In my last post I mentioned the trays I am making. Well, here they are in their current state!

The top tray has been bisque fired, waiting to be glazed. Dominic has suggested rubbing one glaze into the leaves and then over glazing with another. The result should be a deep color in all the veins and details of the leaves! I used various oak leaves I collected at Starved Rock State Park.

That tray inpsired me to create the bottom tray. This tray will be a birthday gift for my friend Marcia who I was visiting up in Denmark, WI a weekend back. She loves her garden, loves pottery, so what better gift to make her for her birthday! I often send her ceamic bowls or pitchers as gifts and they typically have some sort of plant theme to them. I collected lots of materials from her garden. Her tray has in it branches off her Russian Olive, White Pine, Cedar, and ornamental grass!

Mama Potter says this aint pottery and that "throwing clay on the floor (which is part of how you make these trays) is not the same as throwing clay on a wheel!"