I am getting pieces ready for the 1000 Springs art festival the last weekend in September. The process starts with making slabs of clay and texturing them. Then shapes are cut from patterns that are made from plastic containers.


The cut shapes are made three dimensional by joining the sides. For these conical shapes, a circle was cut, then in half. Joining the sides gives the pieces strength to stand up. In this position the pieces can dry a little before putting two pieces together.


When the pieces are pretty firm, but not quite "leather hard," I cut a hole in the top and bottom of each piece, and I adjust the top and bottom where it was cut, to make it level so the pieces will stack straight.

When the pieces are dry, they are loaded into the kiln. The purple flower you see is a white clay that has a lavender underglaze on it.


These pieces have been bisque fired already. The final phase is glazing the pieces and putting them in the kiln for the final fire. Then the pieces will be packed up and set up at the art fest in September!