Behind the scene. Watch the creation of these magical sculptural vessels!

My guest blogger is Antonina. She is a pottery artist. I was so happy when she agreed to show how she creates her vessels! They are magical!

Enjoy!

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Hello to all who stopped by to see what is happening in my workshop! I am going to show you how I create my vessels. Let's start with a teapot. I use clay that is quite plastic. There are large pieces of grog in it, though. Grog is the particles of the clay that has been baked already. They are added to the raw clay to increase the traction. This clay mixture is perfect for my pottery designs.

I had two pieces of clay. The bigger piece is already made into the teapot's bottom half. The smaller piece is about to become the teapot's top half.

Here are both halves of the future teapot. You can see my finger imprints on them for now. Later they are going to be carefully smoothed out. Sometimes it is worth it to keep them, as this is how the vessels made by hand can be distinguished from those that have been made on a wheel.

Here you can see that both halves are attached together with the slurry (Slurry is a thin sloppy clay mud) and the teapot's shape has been modified by now. You can see that the teapot's lid has been cut off too. I got carried away with the process and forgot to take more pictures while I was doing that. 

Here you can see the holes for the tea laves and the attached handle.

I added an inside barrier inside the lid:

And here it is, brand new raw hero of my story. It is only half way done! Now it needs to dry thoroughly. Then I will paint it, bake it twice in a kiln... if I am lucky and do not brake it... and if it does not crack while being baked at 1900 degrees... it will be all finished!

The teapot is in the kiln, so let's make a mushroom jewellery box!

It all starts just like this:

I start kneading it. This is the grog clay again. I love it as it keeps the shape well. 

Continue to knead and stretch it to get the desired shape. Many vessels look pretty much the same at this stage.

The desired shape has been achieved. Now I need to do some work on the inner and the outer surface.

The lid is ready. I have all the parts for the mushroom stems (wire and the clay rolls)

I cut out the mushroom caps from a rolled piece of clay.

The mushroom's cup is ready:

Here is one mushroom:

And here is the whole composition:

This is how it looks after it has been baked in the kiln (nice and white): 

It is all finished:

Wishing a nice day to all!

Antonina
Online shop (Russian)
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Throwback Thursday

Sydney Maritime Museum. 

James Cook's ship.

(2011)

Jewellery jokes

(Click to enlarge)

(No, not all women chose a ring first! :)

Anna's Christmas cake

This is a guest post by Anna. She is my most active guest blogger. This is not her first recipe here. You can see her other guest posts in her page.

The ingredients' amounts are enough to make 3-6 layers that are 16-18 cm (6,2" to 7 ") in diameter with the thickness is 1,5 to 2,5 cm (0,5" to 1"):

375 g (13,2 oz) of flour 

90 g (3 oz) of cacao

10 g (1/3 oz) of baking powder 

7 g (1/4 oz) of baking soda 

150 g (5,3 oz) of olive oil (or another scentless oil, such as sunflower or grape seed oil)

450 g (16 oz) of sugar

3 eggs

5 g (1/5 oz) of vanilla extract

150 g (5,3 oz) of milk

340 g (12 oz) of hot coffee 

75 g (2,5 oz) of alcohol (whiskey, brandy or liqueur). You can use juice or even water instead.

Make any dense icing for this cake, as the cake layers are heavy. You will need about 500 g of the icing and 150 g of the powdered sugar (if you like it). 

1. Sift the following ingredients into a large bowl: flour, cacao, baking powder, baking soda. Mix everything thoroughly with a whisk. Leave it aside for now.

2. Beat the oil and the sugar well with a mixer on a high speed. Then use the low speed while adding the eggs and the vanilla extract. Beat your mixture for about 2 minutes.

3. Add one half of your dry mixture and beat up everything again, then add the milk and beat the mixture again.  

4. Make hot coffee (you can use boiling water if you do not like coffee) and add it to your dough. Add the alcohol (or juice). Beat your dough on a low speed. Add the second half of your dry mixture that you made at the beginning and mix everything thoroughly again. 

5. The dough will turn out very thin, that is usually not typical for the cake dough, but this is how it is supposed to be in this case. 

I baked my 6 layers in an 18 cm baking tray at 180 degrees for 25 minutes each. I lubricated my tray with the butter and sprinkled it with the flour every time before pouring the dough for the next layer.

6. Let each cake layer to cool down on a grate (flip it over during the cooling process, so it does not deform), then wrap it with the plastic wrap and put it into fridge for at least two hours (preferably over night) for a richer chocolate taste.

7. I used 500 g of mascarpone mixed with 150 g of powdered sugar for my icing. 

8. Put your cake together. Make sure all the layers are flat. Cut them if necessary. The cake is tall, so make sure it is all straight.  

9. Make sure you do not taste the cake until it is put together or this might not ever happen! :)

Beautiful nature

Autumn in Melbourne's rhododendron garden (April)

Jewellery masterpieces

BR Designs
Surat

Behind the scene. Elena Larina the tatting artist shows how the custom orders inspire new designs

This is a guest post by Elena Larina, a jewellery artist working in the tatting technique. You can find her first guest post here.
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Hello all! My name is Elena. In this post I am going to share a story about how a simple custom order has given a birth to a new necklace design and has helped me to come up with a few ideas that I would probably make later this year. 

A customer has found me in October and asked me to make her the earrings just like those that I had in my web-site. She only hoped I could use brown or orange stones instead of the green stones that I had in the earrings originally. That surprised me as the original stones were brown (tiger's eye)! It was not what she saw on her screen!

She decided to go for the corals. The lace was going to be gray with the black seed beads. I ordered the coral beads that I needed to complete the order, then sketched four lace patterns while we were waiting for the beads:

My customer took part in the creative process and sketched her own pattern:

So, I chose my customer's pattern to follow. This is what I have made for her:

The pendant (that my customer sketched) is on the left

She ended up not liking that pendant. I've made a pendant that was the exact copy of the earrings. I wove a lace chain that she was not excited about.

So I wove another chain with the beads in between the elements. (Did I mention that the lace chains could not be un-done?) Finally she liked everything. Here is the jewelry set that she has approved:

I had that extra pendant and the lace chain. I also had a few extra coral beads. What did I need to do with them? I wove two more "earrings" to sew them together with the pendant:

Then I attached the chain... Here is a new necklace! 

What an awesome every-day necklace! The central element was designed by my customer, so I gave her name to the necklace. She was my co-author! 

I also have gotten four patterns that I can use in my future creations! I still might modify them, though...  

I hope you enjoyed my behind-the-scene story :)

Elena Larina

Web-site

E-mail: larina-elena@mail.ru

Skype: ogonek1965

Party nails

Love this ornament that Roza chose for this week!

Inspirational quote

Quote to live by :)

Christmas Home Decoration ideas

This collection of home decoration ideas curated by Anna has reminded me that Christmas is just a few weeks away. I keep forgetting that it is December already! Love that cute fox tree decoration! And that big golden ball beside it too!  And other little items that one could place around the house for the Christmas mood :) 

Find all the featured shops in this collection as well as the featured shops from the previously published collections in our growing guide of great items for the house decor here.