ceramics

Dec 23 2022

Faye and the Fox

Ella has been up to a whole bunch of interesting stuff recently. She works such long hours in the pottery studio and results of her work are just stunning. She’s been making some amazing, sculpted ceramic foxes and unique ceramic jewellery that she sells mostly through her Etsy store called Faye And The Fox.

The detail Ella adds to these sculptures is incredible. Based on their size, these fox sculptures would be called small, or even miniature. The detail Ella puts into the scarves and Christmas jumpers that the foxes are wearing requires a very steady hand, a very fine brush and abundant patience. When I see what she can do, I’m just dumbfounded – it’s amazing that she can do these so precisely (you couldn’t believe how much time she puts into each one and, if there are any imperfections, they are ruthlessly discarded). The results are just spectacular, especially after adding the clear, glossy glaze. These beautiful, ceramic foxes are so much fun, they just make everyone smile.

On top of the foxes, Ella also has some stunning ceramic jewellery available on Faye and the Fox. You can see some of her latest examples below. Go to Faye and the Fox is you’d like to see more. Ella has been working on ceramic jewellery for a while now and I’m always interested to see how her style progresses.

a ceramic jewellery piece from Faye and the Fox

You can find some of Ella’s work here on fabhappy.com and you can also see her work on Etsy at Faye and the Fox. There’s no doubting her artistic ability and I’m very interested to see where her instinct takes her next. No doubt, she’ll be in the pottery studio every day and maybe there will be more cute foxes, more beautiful jewellery or even something unexpected! Can’t wait.

Until next time – Peter.

Apr 10 2020

Amazing Glazing Day

Gloria has been very prolific in the pottery studio recently. I guess it’s probably related to being locked-down at home during the Covid-19 pandemic here in the UK, along with the fact that all her markets and exhibitions are now off (she’s sad about that, of course). Yesterday, it was glazing day – time to glaze a lot of Gloria’s pieces that have recently been bisque fired.

All of these pieces of Gloria’s are ready to glaze, but their upside down – why? Any parts of a piece that we don’t want glazed (often the base) have to be cover in a thing called “wax resist”, so that when the piece is dipped in the glaze, the glaze actually doesn’t attach where the wax is. The wax eventually just burns away during the glaze firing, so that waxed area is just left unglazed.

While I was preparing to do the glazing, Gloria was still beavering away to create more pieces.

Some of the large bowls that Gloria made were too large to fit in my glaze bucket in one go, so I had to dip them in two parts. This bowl has had the first dipping and once the glaze (the white part) is dry, I can grab hold of that part and dip the other half. The photo shows what happens when a bisque fired piece is dipped in glaze – it just turns white. A piece that has some of Gloria’s beautiful decoration on it turns completely white. It’s just covered in glaze. However, when it’s then glaze fired, the glaze becomes transparent (it’s glass really) and interacts with the colours and usually makes them more vibrant? It’s a fun process to watch unfold.

There’s my glaze bucket and a few of the tools I use to help with glazing. By the way, Gloria is still focussed on making more pieces.

Eventually, I’ve got the kiln loaded with all the strange, purely white pieces (just because they’re all covered in glaze). What an amazing glazing day. They’ll look a lot different after the firing. We’ll be able to open the kiln tomorrow and see how they all come out. Many of Gloria’s pieces will be posted here at fabhappy.com/gloriawhiting as all markets and exhibitions are currently not possible. We’re still shipping, if you’d like anything.
Best wishes.

Jul 07 2019

Ceramic House Sign

Today, Gloria created a Ceramic House Sign as a birthday gift for a friend. It was a request from her friend who lives in Portugal and Gloria was happy to oblige. She started with six bisque fired white square (6×6 inches) tiles and decorated them with coloured glazes.

See more of the story in pictures below…

Applying a clear top glaze over everything. It looks blue, but it will be clear after firing…

All glazing done and just waiting to dry for a bit…

Two to the ceramic house sign tiles made in onto this shelf of the kiln…

The other four tiles had to be put on two, stacked half-shelves…

So now the kiln is running and the firing is underway. It will be about 36 to 48 hours before we can open it and see how the ceramic house sign has turned out.

We’ll post an update with the results, which will hopefully be good (fingers crossed!).

The final tiles will have to be packed safely and hand-carried to Portugal for delivery at Gloria’s friend’s birthday party.

If you go online, it looks like everyone makes ceramic house signs. You can order them from all sorts of people (for example, Pottery House Signs) with what appears to be all sorts of quality levels, however, it’s something special for a friend to hand-make a ceramic house sign specially for an occasion. It’s also pretty cool to know that some of Gloria’s work has been requested from yet another country, Portugal, and it’s a real pleasure to be able to do something so personal for such a good friend. We’re very much looking forward to the celebrations!

May 26 2019

Recent Ceramic Creations – May 2019

As always, Gloria has been very active in the pottery studio and below are some photos of some of her latest ceramic creations. Some of these will be appearing in her store soon.

Click on the images below to see the full-size picture.

These pieces have been made through hand-building with white earthenware clay. Gloria mostly uses coloured slips and sgraffito to decorate them before bisque firing. After this they are glazed with a clear, glossy glaze and glaze fired to make a lovely finish. After this process, the ceramic creations are fully functional and dishwasher safe, so you can keep them as an interesting piece of art, or use them as a functional piece in your home.

Notice on some of the pieces Gloria has used a feather design that she really likes, and on others she uses leaf motifs that feature a lot in her work lately. One of the platters has an interesting texture that Gloria has incorporated into the piece while the clay was soft. Also, another of the platters has a significant curved shape which is very eye catching.

I hope you like some of Gloria’s recent ceramic creations. Feel free to Contact Us if you have any questions or comments. Stay tuned as some of these will be appearing in Gloria’s store soon.

All the best! – Peter – on behalf of Gloria.