Herbie Part Two

Herbie Part Two

Herbie's smelly fleece. First I sorted the fleece, taking all of the horrible bits out.

Herbie's fleece was cleaned by soaking it in well water (we have a real well in our garden) and washing up liquid and to make it and soft and smell nice, the final wash was in Woolite.

After lots of soaking and rinsing in well water, Herbie's fleece was laid out to dry.

Nice clean fleece ready to be dyed.

Herbie Part One

Herbie Part One

This is Herbie; he is a Poll Dorset cross and is having his fleece sheared next week, and is giving it to me to be spun into yarn. I'm so excited as I have seen Herbie wearing his fleece and will be able to make something from start to finish. Sort the wool, wash the wool, dye the wool, spin the wool and then make something spectacular. The other sheep with Herbie are pure bred Poll Dorset, they have wooly faces, whereas, Herbie's face is nice and smooth.

Watch this space!

Glaze

Garden Art

I'm keeping a note of how different glazes turn out so that I can see which ones I want to use in future projects. Here are pictures of some      that I have used so far.

   I need to look at what colour clay has been used as a background, as      the clay colour will effect how the glaze turns out.

Garden Bugs

Garden Bug: Botz Chameleon (Body) and Mayco Leapin Lizard (Teeth)

Garden Bug: Fantasy Nebula (Body) and Mayco The Blues (Teeth)

Hedgehogs

Hedgehog: Botz Gold Aventurine (Body), Botz Blue Effect (Face), Botz Black Gold (Nose, Eyes and End of Spikes)

Hedgehoge: Botz Mirror glaze (Face), Botz Waterfall (Body)

Hedgehoge: Botz Mirror glaze (Face), Botz Waterfall (Body)

Snail

Snail: Botz Chameleon (Body), Botz Blue Effect, Botz Lavender and Botz Anemone (Shell)

Rabbits (Garland)

Rabbit: Fantasy Chromium

Rabbit: Fantasy Murano

Rabbit: Fantasy Renaissance

Rabbit: Botz Peacock Butterfly

Next Experiment with Clay

My next experiment is to achieve some different effects when glazing. For this, i'm going to layer different colours on top of each other to see what I get, and use some wax to try and make crisp patterns. I'm also going to incorporate some glass frit to see how this works with clay.

Watch this space!!!!!

Clay Garden Girls

Finished Garden Girls

I do need to write up all of my notes on the clay and which clays I liked the most, and how the colours of the glazes worked on the different clays.

One thing I did find; when I applied the glaze, I applied two to three coats, which looked like a pretty thick layer of glaze, but once the garden girls had been kilned, there were some thin and patchy areas of glaze. This did not ruin the overall effect of the Garden Girls, but when I make the next batch I will apply another layer (4 layers) of glaze.

Experimenting with different types of clay

I am new to pottery/ceramics and am experimenting with different types of clay and glazes.  I've been having a play with different textures and colours of clay to see which ones I liked the best. I bought a number of 1kg sample packs, and made lots of yummy Garden Girls and Funky Flowers.  All in all their were 16 different types of clay and they varied in texture, colour and firing temperature.

The garden girls before their first firing.

Despite some of the clays having different firing temperature, I used the same temperature and schedule to bisque fire them all.  On the whole I was pleased with the results.  There were only a few of the garden girls that broke during the bisque firing.

Here are the funky art flowers 

My Spinning Wheel Journey

Here is my lovely spinning wheel. This is a second hand spinning wheel from a supplier who restores and reconditions spinning wheels.  I've never had one before and did not have any idea about using it, but luckily I was given a couple of spinning books for Christmas so have been able to work out what to do.

My lovely husband gave me five different hand dyed spinning wools that he picked up on a visit to Canada. I've started spinning these wools and am knitting an afgan to see what the hand spun wool looks like.  So far so good, I am please with how the wool has spun up, both thick and thin and how it looks when knitted.

My next project is to spin fleece. 

I managed to get hold of a Jacob sheep fleece, which is white, brown, grey and black wool, but have not unpacked it yet as it smells a bit like a farmyard. As soon as the weather is better I will unpack, wash and prepare the sheep fleece.

Also had great fun when I visited a local Alpaca farm and managed to get a variety of different colour Alpaca fleece.  I'm now busy preparing and spinning the Alpaca fleece. Unlike sheep fleece, which needs to be washed before preparing and spinning, Alpaca fleece can be spun straight from the fleece.