Ready for Christmas

This summer I decided that I wanted to get my daughter a set of kitchen chairs. Hers belonged to her husband before marriage, and they were in awful shape. I thought if I found a few odd chairs that I would paint each one a different color and present them to the couple. I saw these at an estate sale 2 weeks ago.

The chairs were grimey and I cleaned them up. That is when I realized that these chairs must have fallen off a pick up truck, at a high rate of speed, like on the freeway. We took them apart and added missing spindles and glued them back together.

We sanded all the varnish off of them and applied a new coat of color and shine. Here they are waiting for their beauty treatment.

When they were dry, we put foam in the holes for the seat and covered them with faux leather (vinyl).


They were pretty different looking when we started, but we tried to add enough detail to make them look like a set. We think they turned out pretty nice!

Mantel piece

If you remember in the previous post, these are the unglazed pieces for the mantel pieces. The bottoms where in the kiln, so I used other pieces that I had on hand, to get an idea of the arrangement.

The colors that I used are taken from the fabric that is part of the decor in the room with the mantel.

Finished product! Some of the glazes are glossy and some are not, which is interesting. Gives the pieces a less predictable look. It has taken me a while to be comfortable mixing the matte and glossy finishes. Sizes 21" height, 28" height, with a base that is 7" diameter.

Mantel Design

This is a new design for a fireplace mantel. The request was for two pieces to set on the mantel. They are to differ in height. Glazes are already chosen. Pink, gold, dark blue, berry wine, and speckled white.

The colors are chosen from decorative fabric used in the draperies. Next post will show finished pieces.

Getting ready for Thousand Springs this weekend at Hagerman Idaho. I thought it would be fun to make pieces that denote the address number of a house. Of course, it would be customized!
This is a free form sculpture of flowers.

New Sculpture

A new sculpture that I made to be ready for our next show. I am an alternate for vender space in Boise Art in the Park.

Finished Shaving Skuttle

The finished skuttle, glazed. Made of red clay, the glaze is a beautiful black as it breaks over the ridges of the texture.

The bowl that sits inside. I decided to use a green matte glaze to contrast with the shiny blue.

The holes in the bowl allows water to enter the bowl to make foam with the soap.

Shaving Scuttle

I was contacted to make a shaving shuttle. It is a two piece set. The bottom cup is filled with hot water. The top cup holds the shave cream and it gets frothy as it is warmed up. It is stirred with a thick bristled brush. Then the cream is applied to the face of the shavee.

Goblets for Earth Day

These are goblets that I made and showed at the Ogden Nature Center Earth Day Celebration. The weather was very good, cloudy and warm when the sun could pass between the clouds that scudded across the sky. Snow was thick on the mountains around us. It was a great day!

Tripod bowl

This is a salad/pasta bowl I made. It sits on 3 cones.

Coffee Urn

This is a coffee urn that was a special order. It features under glaze decoration. The customer has several mugs with similar design patterns and colors.

Coffee Mugs

The year 2010 was a good year for mug sales. This tripod mug was made from slab construction.



The mugs I have at the Jolts and Juice Co. store in Caldwell Idaho are a way to bring interested viewers to my web site, tmbceramics.com.

Some of the mugs are small, holding about 8 ounces of coffee or tea. I prefer to use small mugs. The beverage tends to be warmer, since it is refilled more often, and I like the light weight feel in my hands.



I like the texture on the mugs. I like to feature fun shapes that breaks up the texture with under glaze decoration.

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