Well, I meant to post on the 1st

..but technically it's the 2nd now. Meh. And one of my goals for 2009 is to stop procrastinating, go figure.
Also I had a couple of pictures to post but can't find my camera cord, so I guess there's my motivation to finish unpacking my stuff tomorrow. :9
But anyways! I finally graduated college with a BFA in ceramics. Yay! Now the plan is to save up money so that I can afford to move to wherever grad school may be. I still have to narrow down where I want to apply, and i won't be applying until Fall 2010. Right now my biggest goal is to get my Etsy going enough to be able to sell my items full time. And if I can just get a small kiln, that would help sooo much. But until then I have to make do with what I have. So I guess now this will sort of be a journal of that goal. Scary! haha. But thanks to having an awesome boyfriend that can allow me to try this Etsy thing head on for a while, I'll have all the time in the world to work on my Etsy and this journal and some other things. :) So wish me luck! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a more substantial post to type up, haha.

What's Tab Making??

It's about time I showed some of what I have been working on in my final ceramics class before I graduate this December. Before I do that though, I want to show a couple of finished things from my metals class. Earlier in the semester we learned granulation (a process used by goldsmiths or silversmiths to decorate precious metals with small spheres fused to a base piece.) We also learned to make a chain with fine silver (fine silver is what we were also using to granulate). We had to do a practice piece first, which I ended up using as the focal point to this bracelet. It also uses the chain I made (which is kind of a pain in the ass since you have to fuse every jumpring by hand before linking together)







I'm really happy with it, and wear it most days. :) It's not supposed to have a face, it just ended up looking that way. But I like it.

Once I got the hang of granulation with my practice piece, I made the main project. These are a pair of 8 gauge earrings. The granulated part is of course *fine silver, and the hook and rivet is sterling silver. These were not meant to look like purses, but they just ended up that way. *shrug* That's ok with me though, I am really happy with them. I wear them almost daily.






*As far as I understand from my class, you must granulate with pure metals, not alloys. Only pure metals will fuse together when heated. This is why you can not granulate with sterling silver. Sterling is 7.5% copper, which is added for strength (silver is pretty soft). Fine silver is something like 99.999% silver, nothing added whatsoever.



Ok, back to ceramics. These pieces are all unfinished, either still being sculpted, or still in need of being glazed, etc... They are for my BFA senior exhibition that will be December 7th. So close! So stressful! Haha.

This is a sort of terrarium, so to speak. Tiny plant life (muchly made up from my brain) in what could be a split nut shell, or maybe some driftwood, who knows. :) It is dry, but still needs to be bisque fired. It will be really tricky to glaze!









A work in progress which is now finished, waiting to be bisque fired.



Bottom of this still waiting to be carved, and the top waiting to be put on.






Here it is with the top finished. The bottom still needed to be carved, but it has since been finished and is also waiting to be bisque fired.





Here are some bisque fired pieces on my shelf, ready to be glazed. :)







One of several small 'studies' of mine. They'll make good glaze testers. :)





This is my work space in the advanced studio. I have since cleaned and organized it so it looks much better now. :9





And that's all for now! I can't wait to have the finished pieces to show. :D