Bark Carved Pottery Pot

I have a few pots drying before the first fire. Many of these have carving, some are plain.

I used a veining tool from a wood carving set to incise this pattern which reminds me of tree bark. You could probably do something similar with the tip of a vegetable peeler.

Carved Pottery Bowl With Stone Like Pattern

This pot was was so thick I wanted it to resemble a boulder, so using the loop tool, I randomly cut chunks off. 

I enjoy the smooth interior with the hewn exterior. It's pleasant to touch.

Deeply Carved Pottery Bowl

This pot was very chunky so I took the loop tool and carved into very deeply. The edges were a bit too sharp so I used the loop tool to smooth it a bit after it was drier but not totally dry.

Carved Clay Rose Petal Plate

This design was so much fun to do.  I started in the center, bent the flexible metal tool, and gently flicked out chunks of clay.  I think the pattern resembles an open rose. I used kiln space at my daughter's school so my glaze choices were limited, I basically did everything in blue or celedon.

Carved Pottery Plate

 I've become quite enamored with carving clay pieces. I throw the pots on my daughter's wheel, let them dry to leather hard and carve them with simple tools.

The silver one is a flexible piece of metal that you can bend to cut shapes. The yellow one is a plastic cake decorator.

Carving suits me well since unlike Nissa, my pots are on the sturdy side. I can carve away a lot of clay to try to achieve a more elegant shape.

The leaf shape was created by heavily bending the flexible metal and you use a slight twisting motion to cut out shapes.

Here is the plate glazed. The blue glaze has a left an interesting color variation that gives it lots of depth.

The World Can Be Amazing When You're Slightly Strange Poster

This would be strange.

The image is a digital collage, of sorts using separate vintage images. I processed the images in Illustrator to make them vectors (this allows me to make the images any size I choose), re-sized them, and colored the former white backgrounds. The exception is the monocle, which was made in Illustrator. I have the entire Adobe Suite but Illustrator is my favorite. Photoshop is wonderful but I like the freedom to change sizes and text works much better in Illustrator.

Available on Etsy

California Typography Map Poster

Like many children, my first big trip was to California and it deserves the motto the Golden State. The map is filled with California phrases and landmarks.

Silicone Valley, pacific coast highway, Hollywood, death valley, traffic report, valley girl, Sacramento, grizzly bear, Disneyland, the golden state, sequoia national forest. Napa Valley, wine, sigalert, eureka, LA, actor, rodeo drive, San Francisco, organic, west coast, earthquakes, the strand, santa ana winds, golden gate bridge, Venice Beach, grapes, San Diego, Beverly Hills, palm trees, Beach Boys.


Available on Etsy

Get A Life Mario Power Up Mushroom 8 Bit Gamer Poster

I went old school while watching 12-12-12: The Concert For Sandy Relief on Hulu.

It's been awhile since I played the old games so it was a good thing my kids let me know which color mushroom to use.

The 8 bit look can be done pretty easily in Illustrator.
* You make a frame using the rectangle tool.
* object->path->split into grid
* choose the number of rows and columns and make the gutter 0.
* click on a square with the selection tool (black arrow) and fill it with color. If you hold down the shift key as you select the squares, you can color multiple squares at one time.
* You are left with faint lines after you remove the lines by making them transparent so I go to window->pathfinder->unite and combine the shapes as I color them them.

Available on Etsy

Star Wars Word Search Puzzle Wrapping Paper

Now I know where the scrolling words on the opening screen for Star Wars movies go; they float freely throughout the universe until captured.

I made this for my hubby, a huge word search and Star Wars fan. The puzzle contains 40 Star Wars related words and phrases. I'm such a geek, the font family is the same one used in the rolling opening credits.

 Available on Etsy

The things to search for:
death star, lea organa, ewoks, chewbacca, wookiee, tie fighter, star wars, sith, sand people, tatooine, endor, dagobah, padawan, padme, kessel, droid, jedi, palpatine, yoda, the force, R2D2, C3P0, luke skywalker, laser brain, aunt beru, bobbafett, echobase, alderaan, may the force be with you, light saber, lando calrissian, mellenium falcon, clone wars, darth vader, obi wan kenobi, bantha breath, rebel alliance, moseisley, anakin, skywalker, space station