Blooms & Birds

FLOWERS & MORE FLOWERS & Bird warmups...

I began china painting for a commision project in addition to my preparations for the Raven show in the fall. They are turning out amazing! 
Anenomes, butterfly Ranunculus, forget me nots, lily of valley, rugosa roses and yes...Peonies!

BACK to the Testing...
I love NZ6 but continue to look for clays which might be better. This month I tried Seattle Pottery 'Freeze' cone 5 porcelain. A creamier porcelain and much different from the NZ....see the darker anenomes in upper left pic. It vitrifies at cone 5 but I pushed it up to a low cone 6. I still like the bright white of NZ6 and Freeze doesnt meet its promise of translucency.

To left is a Rusty blackbird out of eclipse clay. I have been testing new black clays: 
Eclipse/Seattle pottery
Beautiful but less black almost brown black with specks, so I think its better for larger work.
To bottom left is a white eyed blackbird in Obsidian/Aardvark
I love this one best. Satin black when sanded well and perfect for the ravens, but probably too fine to make big ones. The blackbird is so black! ...and has only been bisque fired.
Black Ice/Sio-2 (not shown)
I thought this one would be better than how it turned out. It was sticky and hard to sculpt AND it stays pretty grey instead of black ( until glazed?) .

​**FOR YOU CHINA PAINTERS....I have been battling the 'mildew' or black spots on my porcelain. What I mean is that I have tried many porcelain clays to find one that vitrifies at cone 6. I found New Zealand/cone 6 from Clayart Center does the trick. Unfortunately if it doesn't vitrify(as it occasionally doesn't)- as in fire to full maturity-then there is risk of black spots in the painting stages.

---

Resurrecting the leucanistic Pygmy owl!!!. Nothing a few flowers and epoxy putty couldn't correct. Her legs aren't painted yet and still more to do...