31 Days of DIY Halloween - Ceramic Black Cat - Trick or Treat

This sleek icon of the holiday is accented with Dark Black Concepts™® and Dark Purple highlights, and bright French Dimensions™ candy corn. What a treat!

Supplies:
– Duncan® Concepts® Underglazes for Bisque and Majolica
CN 253 Dark Black
CN 263 Dark Grape
– Signature Brushes
SB 807 No. 6 Fan Glaze
SB 808 No. 4 Round
– French Dimensions™
FD 258 Pure White
FD 265 French Straw
FD 266 French Papaya
FD 269 French Plum
– Clear Glazes
IN 1001 Envision Clear Glaze
– Sponge, dampened
– Duncan mold; A Cat DM 2304
– Scissors
– Pencil
– Carbon Paper
– Contact® Paper
– Foil Paper
– Patterns (click here for pattern)

Instructions:1. Clean greenware, using TL 401 Cleanup tool. Smooth ware with damp sponge. Fire to shelf cone 04.
2. Remove dust and condition ware, using dampened sponge.
3. Trace letters on Contact Paper, using carbon paper and pencil. Cut out with scissors.
4. Remove paper backing from Contact Paper. Press letters down on cat to avoid lifting.
5. Apply 3 coats of CN 253 Black to entire cat, using SB 807 #6 Fan Glaze, leaving spine of cat, inside of ears, eyes and all curves blank. Let dry between coats.
6. Apply 2 coats of CN 263 Dark Grape to all other areas that were left blank, using SB 808 #4 Round. Let dry.
7. Remove letters. Outline with FD 266 French Papaya.
8. Add candy corn using FD 266 French Papaya, FD 265 French Straw and FD 258 Pure White by squeezing out paint one color at a time in shape of candy. Refer to photo for placement. Let dry.
9. Add random dots on background, using FD 269 French Plum. Let dry completely.
10. Apply 2 coats of IN 1001 Clear Glaze to letters and 1 coat to remainder of cat, using SB 807 #6 Fan Glaze.
11. Let dry. Stilt and fire to shelf cone 06.

Craft on! Click here for today's daily giveaway!

It's Finished!

We finally started assembling the pieces to the fountain today. The top is just amazing with all 4 seasons painted on the ceramics. The water feature on top is just perfect, and worked beautifully.

Each side represents a season, and this is the summer side.

Everyone had a hard time deciding which side they liked the best.

I loved the fall colors myself.

Dean Saether, our Ceramic Arts Director at iLoveToCreate was so excited, and was happy to pause a moment for a photo opportunity before we lovingly placed it into a crate and sent it on it's merry way to Kansas City for the 2009 CCSA Convention and trade show on Friday.

I hope to have some better pics of the finished piece soon, and I'll post them for all to see.

Woooohoooo! Way to go, Design TEAM!

The Ceramic Fountain Saga continues....

The Duncan Ceramic Fountain is still being assembled in the iLoveToCreate design studios, and we are getting close to being finished. The four faces of the seasons were glued to the crown today. These plates are absolutely breathtaking and the artist who painted them is Suzie Shinseki. Her artistic designs never cease to amaze me.

Another of our designers, Cheryl Ball painted the fountain title, "For Everything There is a Season." Her skills as a decorative painter are fabulous, and she's fast, too!

The brains & brawn of the operation is Sam Carter, one of our talented graphics designers. He is also a skilled cabinet maker, and has built a beautiful column as the foundation and also assembled the ceramic pieces and fountain. Believe me, this has been a team effort.

Here are some more shots of the fountain in progress...




Tomorrow is the final day for the fountain to get ready and ship to the CCSA Convention in Kansas City. Sam will be building a crate to house the fountain, and the delicate packing will take place. But not before Scott has a chance to get some photography of our piece of art. I can't WAIT to see it all together!

And the saga continues....

Ceramic Fountain in progress

One of the most challenging and exciting things about the CCSA Convention is that Duncan Ceramics presents a huge ceramic showpiece for the charity auction every year.... and this year I get to be part of the iLoveToCreate team that's designing it!

It starts from a brainstorming sketch that the designers collaborate on, and then the ceramic artists get busy. This year we are building a humungus fountain that is covered with ceramic flowers.

I've been scared to death that I'm going to accidentally break a plate and have to start over because they are so delicate. The ceramic artists really came through on these as you can see, I have a flood of flowers covering my design area.

I've been selected to decoupage the column with handmade papers in the background. Some of the papers have teeny little ferns and leaves in them. I love all the saturation of colors.

Each of the 4 sides of the column will represent a different season. Here is the winter side, that will hold the christmas florals. The Collage Pauge has been perfect for placing a coat of glue on the column and then covering the paper with a coat of the matte finish. The empty spots were drawn with pencil around the ceramic pieces and marked with the same code on the bottom of the pieces. You have to be careful not to decoupage where the ceramics will be glued to the wood, otherwise the glue will not hold the heavy pieces. Huge project, huge fun, lots of Collage Pauge Instant Decoupage.

Allee Marderosian gave me a hand on the "Spring" side. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we painted the wood first so the sheer papers would be more vibrant.

I know, I know... it's not finished yet. I just left the studio where I glued hundreds of crystals on the ceramic flowers... whew!

You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the rest... yep, what a tease :-)

Inspiria- cirque du CCSA!

Our trade show team has been working their happy butts off this week to prepare for the largest convention of the year for the ceramic arts industry in Kansas City next week. Our booth will showcase the latest in bisque to the attendees of the Contemporary Ceramic Studios Association and also have some pretty snazzy make-it-take-it goodies, too. And the designers on hand will be our very own Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano-Murillo and Traci Bautista to kick things off to a crafty good time for everyone.

I took these snappy pics of just a teeny few of the massive amount of bisque from our Duncan Ceramics that will be shown in the booth. How exciting! If you own a ceramic arts studio, you won't want to miss it on September 11 - 14th.

Outrageous Ceramics!

My mouth flew open when I saw these outrageous ceramics. They are inspired by mathematical patterns and ratios found in nature, and created by Dutch artist, Anouk Omlo.

To read more about it, go to Inhabitat.com and get ready for your mouth to fly open, too!

More Ceramics...Boxes!

Tanya Moller Jensen's ceramic boxes are fabulous. Not to be missed; her wall pockets and votives. I simply love the simplicity of these. I keep saying I want to start learning how to do ceramics. Years ago, I made some fun things when I went to a ceramics class every Monday night with my mom. We made some of the most funky things, like an ice cream cone shaped cookie jar, and a life-sized kitty cat. Weird, and long lost in a garage sale somewhere.

On Location

We're busy as bees with our production company right now. Scott and I just finished shooting a ceramics instructional video for CCSA in Fresno. The talented artists in the ceramics community are so extreme in their techniques. It just blows me away! I saw everything from how to draw designs onto unfired bisque, to blowing bubbles of paint onto a plate. David and Kelly were the stars, and Angie Verburg, Executive Director for Contemporary Ceramic Studios Association put the whole thing together.




I love this piece I found Yessy.com of a male torso by Gino Dominic Nardo. If only I had time to learn EVERY kind of craft in the world. I think I'm well on my way, but ceramics sound so overwhelming. I wish I had a personal sized kiln. Then I could try my hand at glass fusion and ceramic jewelry.