The process

I said I needed to take new photos of my Ebonyware. Well, I have some new photos (taken yesterday) of the process.

If I had been thinking about it sooner, I'd have photographed them full of the porcelain slip.

The photo shows the molds after they have been opened, but the porcelain is still drying a bit before handling to remove to dry.

Now there are still a lot of 'ceramic studios' out there that mold items and allow people to come in and do the trimming and decorating (for a fee of course) and take them home. This is the same concept except for the fact that they purchase their molds from 'Hobby Ceramic' mold companies. These molds were made by my ex and myself from models we designed and made ourselves. Nobody else has them but me. So, from an artists perspective, although I have not hand thrown or sculpted each individual piece, I am the designer and have had my hands on every single step of their formation. Even when my ex was making the models, I was there for consultation and assistance. He made some of the molds and I made others. And in the 17 or 18 years since beginning production, I have made 95% of the porcelain pieces myself. And in the last 14 years I have made 100% of it.

I know, I sound like I am defending myself, well, I am, sort-of. Some shows do not accept molded items. But they are referring to items from commercial molds, mine are not in that category.

Oh, if you go to the Celebrate Clayton web site, you can click on the 2008 Artist Award Winners and see a listing of the winners this year (including me!!!). Still no photos from this year's event there, and still none of my samples on the Washi Quilted card site. I'll keep you posted.