It’s another month… and we’re rushing to the “end of the month deadline.”
Another month means another ornament. Metalsmith Sarah Chapman and I have been doing this monthly ornament challenge for ten months now – only two more to go! She’s been making metal ornaments, and I of course have been using clay.

Sarah’s October entry is a curved brass ornament etched with an Art Nouveau feather design. I don’t know a lot about metalsmithing, but I’m pretty sure there was a hydraulic press in there somewhere. Beautiful…

For my October ornament, I started by texturing some thin slabs and then cut out some holiday pieces & parts.

I assembled the pieces so the star “floats” over the rounded backside of the ornament.
Score, slip, attach, smooth. Repeat. Score, slip, attach, smooth. Repeat.

I slip painted the back side of the ornaments… a couple different clay bodies and a couple different flashing slips.

So now they’re drying and ready to go into the bisque kiln. My plan is to fill in the texture pattern with temoku glaze and fire them in the soda kiln so the flashing slips on the backside can do their magic. After firing, I think I’m going to paint the inside of the star with a shiny gold paint before I string them with ribbon. One more month “done”… two more to go!

Nothing like waiting for the last minute… err, day of the month.
That’s my Sarah. Waiting to the last minute to finish her ornament for the month. But once again, it was definitely worth the wait. Here’s Sarah Chapman‘s entry in our monthly Holiday Ornament Challenge. With just two hours left of September, she made it in “just” in time!!!

According to Sarah, “It’s a fringy bell for September!
Polished copper ribbons curled and held together with a wee bit of sterling silver.”

Meanwhile, back in my studio, I’ve been making a lot of gingerbread men for my September entry on the Holiday Ornament Challenge. They’re made out of terra cotta with some white underglaze & low-fire glazes. They’re pretty thin so I dried them on plastic grid so they would be less likely to warp.

And for the first time, my ornaments are actually DONE & FIRED before the end of the month!!! In fact, those of you who made it out to “Art In The Barn” have already seen them… and had a chance to purchase them already!!!

One of the nice things about “Art In The Barn” is that they set a great Fall atmosphere. Bales of hay. Potted mums. Pumpkins. Gourds… and more! Just a quick glance at the mums around us… and a mum visitor!

Fresh out of the kiln… some of August’s entry in the Ornament Challenge, but this time made with terra cotta clay. The original batch that I made was in stoneware for the soda kiln. I had a little extra time, and a little extra space in my kiln, so I made a few more in terra cotta. So I kind of think these “extra” ornaments should count as bonus points in the Challenge!

But don’t think that’ s it… there are still a LOT of August’s original stoneware stars. Just waiting to be fired in my next soda kiln. If all goes well, this batch will be fired and ready for my Holiday Home Show on November 23rd & 24th. Mark your calendars now!

And

You know I love kiln filler…
so I last night I made another batch of Christmas ornaments.
More of August’s entry in the Holiday Ornament Challenge.
Tonight there were glazed and now they’re already in the kiln!

Yep… a day late…
But still she made an ornament for the August Ornament Challenge!
She’s been so busy taking care of everything… this ornament just slipped away.
But lucky for us, she got one made “kind of” in time for the August deadline.
It’s a twisted and hammered recycled copper wire ornament!

So, another month has come to an end. Which also means that another “deadline” for the monthly Holiday Ornament Challenge has come as well. I know I put off making mine until the very last moment. But being in the studio all day long today while firing the soda kiln turned out to be the perfect opportunity to get my ornaments made! So I started by making some textured stars… some outlines, some solids… well okay, the solids are really just the cut-out form the outline ones!

And then I did a little assembling & “bulging” of the solid star to make it them even more dimensional. I’m thinking that they might still get a coat of white slip on the center star to help them “pop” from the other one. We’ll see…

And what about Sarah Chapman’s ornament you may ask?… well, it seems as though another month has passed that Sarah didn’t have time to make her entry. I know she’s been busy with last weekend’s Bucktown Arts Fest, and dealing with a lot of family issues since the passing of her mother. So maybe we need to give her a pass?… or not. Maybe we just call her a slacker?!!!

And speaking of filler pieces… I’m spending a few extra hours glazing up my spiral holiday ornaments. I had made plans with a friend of mine who was going to come over Thursday night to be my “glazing assistant” and these ornaments were going to be her job. I was really looking forward to spending time with her, chatting & glazing, and getting them done at the same time. However, Nancy got stuck late at work and couldn’t make it. So… I’m glazing them tonight – pushing my glaze & loading time back a couple hours!!! I think I need to find a more reliable assistant… I’m just sayin’.

And now that they’re all glazed, now I need to go back to wipe the glaze off the top surfaces to leave the glaze only in the stamped indentations. This might take awhile. I guess I made more of these than I thought?!…

Sarah Chapman is back!!!
She’s had a rough go of it over the past few months. A lot of personal things to deal with, the passing of her mother, as well as moving her studio space to a new location. But now she’s slowly getting settled in again and back to making stuff. Including her July entry in the Holiday Ornament Challenge. She may have missed June, but she back with July’s entry… on the very last day of July!!! Just under the wire!

For July’s ornament, Sarah’s been playing with a new technique in her studio. Experimenting with a knot design embossed in copper sheet using the hydraulic press and finished with a black cotton cord.

Meanwhile, I was having a little trouble getting my mind wrapped around the July ornament. So I literally wrapped them around! I went with twisted spirals with stamped textures. They’re assorted styles, sizes & patterns. Each one fo them different form the next. My plan is to fire them in the soda kiln for some earthy-naturally-random flashing marks.

After stamping all of them, and letting them dry up a bit to make them more manageable, I added some colored flashing slip details. Hopefully that little dab of color in each stamp will give them each a festive little pop of color!

And you know I can’t make just ONE of anything… so I made a few…

A few days later… I made even more. So much fun to stamp & twist. The more the merrier!!!

This month has been a tough month for both me and Sarah Chapman.
More so for Sarah than me. I was out of town for three weeks working the Firefly Music Festival. Long days of putting everything together. Lots of rain, mud, mulch & sweat. Getting everything ready for the onslaught of 65,000 concert-goers. Very little time to work in the pottery studio.

Meanwhile, Sarah’s Mom lost her battle with cancer. Always smiling, always chatting, Nancy was known to many of Sarah’s customers who met her on the art fair circuit. Our thoughts & well-wishes go out to Sarah, Julie and their family on their loss. And to remembering better times. Like this wonderful portrait of Sarah, her brother and her mom Nancy.

Cherishing the memories… remembering the good times… reflecting on the past… and giving Sarah a well-deserved “pass” on her June ornament entry. She’s been understandably distracted. And suddenly, a little holiday ornament challenge is not quite so important.

My ornament for June is a small porcelain fortune cookie. I’ve been making a lot of textured fortune cookie rattles over the past few months, and I decided to try a smaller ornament version. I’m not quite sure yet how I’m going to finish them. I’m leaning towards a light iron oxide wash to “toast” them a bit and help accent the textures. But then again, pure white porcelain is pretty darn sweet too?! Maybe a few of each…