Packing pots

Here is a selection of pots which I am arranging to put in a couple of exhibitions. When I send work off to galleries, I try and give them a balance of work height wise and price wise. I like to have matching patterns in different sized pots, and patterns which compliment each other; some bold patterns, and some delicate patterns. I can fiddle about for ages doing this, and when I'm done they all get packed up in a big box and sent off. The group on the left is going to The Pyramid Gallery and the group on the right is going to Leeds Craft Centre and Design Gallery

Etsy Treasury

Illusio has very kindly featured one of my vases in her lovely treasury.

mydeco.com

The nice people at mydeco.com have asked me to sell my vases through their design boutique, the 'unique place to shop online if you're looking for something special'. It's a massive site with loads of articles and other things to keep you busy, you can even design your own virtual room.
Have a look at my profile page....


and products for sale.....

My Etsy Shop

I have recently set up an etsy shop, selling some of my tiny vases.

Visit www.BryonyBurnCeramics.etsy.com

or click on these pictures.....

Christmas markets

It has been so long since I did a post I've forgotten how to do it, but I've finally managed to remember how to put these pictures up.
The first picture is a new pattern called lozenge. When I was at school we had to fill in a careers questionnaire that had questions on like FILL IN THE LOZENGE.... Would you rather work with people or help sick animals?
At the end it tells you if you are more suitable to be a nurse or a vet.
I think mine came out with interior designer. Anyway these are the lozenges. Who knows what the questions are, some are filled in and some are blank. Hmm!

Picture 2 is me selling lozenge and others at a Christmas market in Malvern. I have done the last of these markets now, and I'm quite glad about it they were too cold!

cupola gallery

It is my friend Mari's opening night of her solo exhibition at Cupola Gallery in Sheffield.
Mari only ever works in white so it's very nice to see some colours in her work.

It's the last day of my open studios today, and I'm putting all the pots in the back of the car ready to do a craft market in Hereford tomorrow. It's 9am until 5pm, and should be busy. I'm hoping for some early Christmas shoppers!

open studios

Open studios has come around again and as part of H-art I have opened my doors to anyone that wants to come and see how I make my work. There is also lots of work for sale including 2nds, and examples of all the work my students have done. All the brio traintrack was moved out of the living room and it is now my gallery(for one week only)

All the pots are in little families around the place.
I have met some very nice people this week but also managed to make lots of pots as I have been demonstrating to all my visitors. One lady documented her trip to put on her blog, so you can see me making a vase.

symbol

This pattern is called symbol. The vase has been painted in underglaze and then scratched into with a clear glaze on top. The green and pink one is a screen print.

lime and turquoise

Here are some close ups of a couple of the lime green vases I have been doing recently. I have to call all my vases names to identify them to myself, and galleries. I have to name them the first thing that comes into my head or I can spend far too long thinking about it. The top one is 'Eyes' and the bottom one is 'Atom'

Eiffel Tower

While I make and paint my vases, I look at my little Eiffel Tower which i love and I think it looks lonely and it needs some bigger Eiffel Tower friends. Why I waste time thinking about groups of Eiffel Towers I don't know.

patterns

Here is a metropolis of pots waiting to be fired. They will be black and white and turquoise and brown when they come out. I've had fun doing some new patterns.

wavy prints and wavy pots

Here are some recent screen prints of mine, and an example of how I have used the designs on my vases.
The vases haven't been fired yet, they will be black and white but a bit glossier.

The tiny spots were done with a spotty screen , and the big spots and waves with paper stencils.
I just painted the pots freehand.

inspiration

I thought for ages about how to catalogue all the snippets of things that I like. I have got loads of cuttings from magazines, postcards, colour ideas etc, but they were lying all over the place until I stuck them all onto A4 bits of paper and put them into clear wallets. I can put them in an order like textiles, prints, chinz, and then swap them about if I need to. It's a great way of spending time cutting up bits of paper, and it makes me feel very organised. The next kiln load of pots aren't getting painted though!

decorating a vase

Here's me decorating the vase. I pour a layer of coloured slip into the vase first and then a layer of clear glaze. I paint the vase in it's base colour. I put the designs onto newspaper first and then transfer onto the vase. The designs are painted in clear glaze and fired to 1200 degrees centigrade in my electric kiln.

waterlily

I am doing some designs with waterlillies in them. My current floral vases are of a Japanese Anenome and a Clematis, but i'm going to leave them for a while. I find it good to choose a flower and spend a while drawing it on paper so that I get a bit more familiar with it before going into any designs on pots.

making a vase

Here's a slideshow of me making a vase.
I use Earthstone Original clay and do all my rolling out by hand. When the clay has gone leather hard, I use newspaper templates to cut out the shape of the vase . I scratch and score the edges of the clay, curve the pieces around a rolling pin to shape them, and then stick them together with a mixture of water and clay.
I tidy up the top and edges, and put a base on.

paper pots

The screen printing looks much improved in 3D. I've ordered my own screen now so hopefully I can try some of these effects out on clay with slips and glazes. I will have to do it onto flat sheets of wet clay, so have no idea how I will make them into a vase shape without ruining the decoration.

christmas

Some ceramic bunting I made for this years tree.

old friends

I've just finished all my shows and exhibitions and there's only a couple of things for orders left to do. I've been having an early studio spring clean, but it didn't go that well I was just hanging on to lots of things 'for the archives', and didn't manage to get rid of anything much. Here are some pots from the bottom of the box!

These ones are based on textile prints and dressmaking patterns

I haven't done yellow for ages, these are some early pieces. I'm glad to be reviving my lemon yellow with turquoise!

before and after

Here is my kiln before firing..........

and here it is after. It's not a very full load this one, my controller's been playing up recently so I'm spreading firings out. I've got some test tiles on the top shelf that didn't come out very well, but there are some new designs on the pots that I'm pleased with.