i thought with all the interest in vintage vans right now i would post some pics of ours…

we think she is gorgeous : )

and here it is… ichimu – porcelain, jewellery and love – thought i might send you here to see the final product and hit the online shop! ichimu.com.au

x

finished vessels

put to the test sipping on a light fruity infusion with a friend in the garden… so lovely with the sun peeking through the trees – very enjoyable x

ready for bisque firing… small hand built vessels. more to come on the process…

it is on again!

we are heading up today to drop off our new venture…

ichimu.com.au unique jewellery hand crafted using porcelain, semi precious stones, sterling silver and freshwater pearls. there are also beautiful vessels yet to be uploaded but they will be at the market tomorrow

there is a great line-up of artisians so come along and peruse the wares

xx

ah ha

a great gift for a new baby… two squares (7 rounds on a 5.5 guage hook), sewn together, add some interesting sprouts on the corners and voila! x

another poor shrunken jumper… that has a new life and will probably stay cleaner than it ever was on the little body it used to keep warm! now it is keeping our tea cosy - too easy. an extremely customised cosy (i’m not sure it would fit another) with a little bit of flair on the side - good grief is that my dodgy overlocking and untrimmed thread? what would the queen say?

and a bale of woolen blankets - some opp-shopped and some just collected. not sure if i can cut these up really but time will tell

xx

we have been collecting old woolen jumpers and blankets and scarves and even socks - my crafty friends and i - and we have been putting them through the ‘felting process’. ie purposely shrinking them on a hot wash as opposed to those heart stopping times when the favourite jumper has slipped into the machine by mistake and come out just the right size for a doll : ( or perhaps a chiwawa

and then we have been getting a bit creative with them. i must admit i find it really hard to make that first cut - how to improve on that gorgeous blanket (that sits in the cupboard never seeing the couch at all! never being wrapped around anyone’s shoulders on a cold winter’s night). anyway, i digress, the images above are of the hot water bottle cover made last monday night. anita made one and i have the matching pair. two hotties for two hotties i hear you say. well indeed

chopped and blanket stitched and decorated - a fine result and it has inspired more thinking - a hat next!

now i had better get my new tea cosy on that pot to keep me up a bit longer tonight…

xx

i had a lot of fun with this one, wrapping the clay around a rolling pin to get the shape and then attaching the base… the paper clay seems to have greater shrinkage than the usual southern ice clay as it seems much tinier than when it first went into the kiln. probably 20-25% shrinkage. good for a small tea soiree

i have my saucers ready to go but need to perfect the cups so that is what i will concentrate on in the next couple of months - yes, could take a while. in fact it could be the end of the year before i have an entire tea set including the sugar bowl unless i get a week to myself (hmmm tell her she’s dreaming!)

so here are the results… the testing phase has given some interesting results. some are good and some look like cake mixture has been stuck onto the clay - not so pretty. all a good learning curve though : )

i think i will re-glaze some and see what happens and i think what i have learned from this is that the porcelain really doesn’t need much to enhance it at all

some of these will be utilised as jewelry and some mounted as wall pieces

oh, shots taken on iphone, not new camera

these are the stained porcelain beads. some of which then have a stained glaze (actually an extender with a powder stain mixed through it) and some have a clear gloss glaze and some are the stained clay fired to the higher temperature. you can see on the tulip in the middle that the stained extender is quite lumpy and flat. i may fire these again with a clear glaze over the top…

some of the tiles warped in the kiln as they were not flat but stacked sideways… they make for some interesting shapes and ideas for the future!

the linework was created by making my own tissue transfers. i generated a design on the computer, had it made up into a screen and then printed onto tissue paper and  applied the dried transfer to the clay (i did it with wet and dry clay to see what happened). so far they are not as clean as the commercial transfers but perhaps that is my doing

gluggy stain : ( and washed back glaze which looks a bit dirty on the white

rings - these i love because the porcelain is gorgeous. the detail it holds is lovely and a clear glaze on the unimpressed areas really highlights the patterns as well

xx

ps this was the really garish one that looks like green cake mixture and very bright pink icing - good for testing a few other things on!