Flowerpots and an octopus

            I unloaded the kiln this morning. As always, I'm too excited to pull out the pots to get pictures of the whole kiln full of work. But I've been taking pictures of individual pots, so I do have something to share!
            A flower pot with two sea monsters chasing each other around the rim:

            A flower pot with walnut texture around the rim:

            The two flowerpots above are 8 inches wide and about 6.5 inches tall. I enjoyed making them. The clay is very rough, and that seems to fit well with flowerpots.
            I mentioned yesterday some of my glaze experiments with this firing. A particularly successful experiment is this octopus cup:

 

            I'm very happy with that octopus. The thing that makes the octopus work so well is that I painted him/her directly on the bare clay, rather than over another glaze. So the edges are sharp and clean, which I think is good for the tentacles. If the tentacles were smudgy, it wouldn't look as good. 

            My light box setup leaves something to be desired, I think. It's hard to get the colors right, and that bothers me a lot. I don't like my white background, but I'm having some success with a pale blue background and a black background. Also my camera is old, and often doesn't respond correctly to lighting conditions. Perhaps when I sell enough pots, I'll get a new camera.