Another Big Catch Up:Pottery Painted In September

I have been ignoring this blog in favour of the ever popular Facebook updates. Naturally, there are plenty of folks who prefer not to use Facebook, and so its quite unfair of me. In the next few posts I will attempt to get this worthy blog updated and current for Blog followers. My apologies!

 Here you see part of the big push for winter/Xmas inventory. Lots of pottery. I also have painted a large selection of cotton shawls, coming in the next post!

 All of this pottery is available at the upcoming Atomic Holiday Bazaar, December 10-11th, at the Sarasota municipal Auditorium.

Painted Table

Next Project is a small dining table. Here is the sketch on paper... Birds, water, tropical, stylised....all good fun.

I taped under the edges, and the centre area, especially. I don't want thick areas of paint gluing it together, or preventing me from getting the table closed later!

It was important to get the birds in the right places, and for them to be the right size, so I decided right away where to put them...maybe a little too soon...

I painted them out, to do more background work; go figure....however, since I still wanted to make sure they were positioned correctly, and that there was enough room for the clumps of flowers to come later, I then went ahead and painted in the birds just about the way I want them, but didn't finish them. They will get all messed up anyhow, as I do the leaves and flowers around and behind them. However, they'll be easy to fix andperfect later, last thing.

With this project, there are lots of layers. I have to decide what gets painted first. If I dont take the time to think ahead, I will end up repainting a lot of areas, as they get stepped on by the adjoining bits that should have been painted first....

Painted Planters

Here is an interesting project :paint up these terracotta planter pots to give them a little pizazz. I used paint for painting cement, which should offer some extra adhering qualities.I also used some cool metalic in the recessed areas of the pots, to add to the sense that these are now objects of great antiquity, made of fantastic enamels, glazes and precious metals(!) You can see many of these pictures larger by clicking on them.

It was a lot of fun working with the bas-relief areas, layering a lot of paint, and making it look like mineral build-up, and drips.

These pots will be outside, most of them under cover, on patios, but even the ones out in the weather should hold up fairly well...and as they endure the elements, further weathering will probably only make them look more interesting.

I was particularly pleased with this sideways leaning pot. It was more of a challenge, since it didn't have any raised areas, so I had to do much more to make it interesting. And it now has a lot of character.

Some of the pots had cement screed dropped on them, from construction on the site where they where kept before I got them to paint. I was able to knock some of it off, but the cement that would not knock off, I painted brilliant gold, and then "aged" it, so that it looks like real gold was carelessly dropped on them.

Back Pieces For New Bird Pillows

Here are the other 6 backs for the bird pillows shown in the previous posts.

Really nice colours.

Here the birds pillows await heat treatment, washing, rinsing and being made into PILLOWS!

Chinese Cloud Border

This dining room border is in the same home as the previous post's kitchen border.
The Chinese motif is in keeping with the oriental furnishings and decor .The ceiling light , with its alabaster shades, is on a dimmer switch, so when the lights are dimmed, the clouds look very mysterious and luminous. The whole thing is painted with metallic paints. A beautiful and exotic effect.