Blue Thursday

This week, I finally received the abaca paper yarn AND abaca paper I ordered, from Australia, and England, respectively.  What's so special about abaca?  It's made from a relative of the edible banana plant, and has very strong fibers.  This what your tea bag paper is made from.

The yarn comes in skeins.  It is extremely fine, much finer that I would ever be able to cut for paper cord. 

I dyed part of one skein-

I also dyed the abaca paper, (which only comes in white) painted on gold swishes, and used a sharpie for the quote. This will get folded and cut up later for more paper cord.

Some ceramic dishes I made came out of the kiln, so I added some gold touches and glaze.  I really liked the areas of crazing.  Each dish is only about 3-4" across.  I think I'm going to start selling these little guys.

Ceramic influence

I saw some pieces by Anne Fallis-Elliott, and loved her style. Her work is so refined, unlike my beginner's pieces.  (Google her name, and look at photos.)

So, I made a few small bowls. I did contact her, to  see if she was o.k. with me making more, and she was fine with it.  It's good to ask! You don't want to be browsing around the internet, and see things that look like your artwork, without permission. 

I'm thinking about expanding on the rim sticks, and adding some weaving.  One of the many projects in the future.

This is a terra cotta color clay w/ a clear glaze.  The stick going around is red osier dogwood. I got the design from an old Japanese plastic tray.

(Yes, I know I need a smaller brush for the center.) 

I figure mine looks more like a slice of lotus root.  In any case, I'm o.k. with it.

Here's a small bowl, same clay, with black glaze. That's a cedar root going around the edge.

Clay Play

This ceramic basket started out as a twined paper rush basket-

Cleaned cedar roots, gathered last month

The netting is done in looping technique.  I used  shredded leaves from a plant in the yucca family.  (I don't know the name of the plant.  Do you?)

Coiled Snake Basket

A few months ago, my friend Sally had these old silk and silamide thread packages up for grabs.
So, I went for it, not knowing exactly what I'd be doing. I did  a bit of research and found that these types of packages were sold in the 1930's.

 

I've been playing with clay lately, and made some bases with holes, with the idea of adding on some coiling, or twining on top.  So I combined the base with the silk and silamide threads, and coiled them with wire.

I finished it with beeswax, and still need to another melting session.  See the little bits of wax? Thanks for the inspiration, Sally!