Combining my love of paper craft and my love of pottery, I made these super fun and fabulous CAT LOVE mugs! They feature silhouettes of cats that I die cut from my paper crafting dies. I used removable contact paper to die cut a variety of cat shapes, then put them on bisque mugs I made a week earlier. I then glazed the mugs, removed the die cut shapes and fired them in my kiln. They each hold about 16 oz to 20 oz of coffee or whatever other beverage you enjoy!
If you are interested in purchasing a cat love mug or a licking cat spoon rest, please see my Etsy page! There are a few available! hydeparkhill.etsy.com
Cat themes also make a fantastic spoon rests, “yummmmm….whatever was on that spoon was delicious!”
A fun project for a special event! I was recently asked to teach a craft at a women’s fall retreat. Having recently set up craft for my family’s 100 year anniversary of the homestead & family reunion, I thought a similiar craft would be a great idea! I was glad when the retreat leaders also thought the tile idea was a fun one!
For the homestead project, I created a silkscreen with the family reunion theme/logo and purchased Laguana Clay lowfire 4″ x 4″ bisque tiles from Blick.com. Each tile was silkscreened with underglaze, then coated with clear glaze and fired in a kiln to cone 05. At the reunion, each family member could create their own design on the tiles using alcohol ink and take them home. It’s important to know— the tiles fire a creamy white, not a bright white. If you want plain bright white tiles, pick some up at your local Habitat Restore or a home building supply store, they are super inexpensive!
For the women’s event, I did the same thing. I created a silkscreen with the retreat theme/logo using their clip art, then my husband silkscreened the tiles and I put clear glaze on them. We fired them in our largest kiln– it took 3 full kilns to get them all done! We packed them up with a bunch of other supplies for the workshop— canned air, alcohol ink, 99% isopropyl alcohol and lots of paper towels, cork bottoms and ziplocks. A quart size ziplock is great for transfering a tile home after its finished. Oh, yes, and sealant spray– two kinds both by Krylon, Kamar Varnish to seal the tiles and UV Resistant Clear Acrylic Glossy to prevent sunlight from fading the tiles. I should warn you, only spray the sealants outside, in low humidity and wear a heavy duty gas mask. The fumes are terrible and seriously bad for your brain cells. The sealants will make them water resistant, but not water proof. They must be sealed with Krylon Triple Thick Clear Spray glossy to make them water proof. The Varnish and UV spray really need multiple coats. for the sake of time, at the retreat they only got one coat each. Hopefully they will seal them with the triple thick and they will not chip.
The canned air worked great for making the tiles. We also had straws at the tables to use. The ladies at the retreat had so much fun and I did too! I did lots of demos and totally enjoyed it! It was a bit of work but so worth it! They were beautiful! And a wonderful keepsake of our time together! There were some leftover tiles at the end of class, but they were sold to ladies who wanted to do the project with their kids or grand kids! Look out Tim Holtz! There maybe a run on your ink!
One of the best things about this project is you are not stuck with your ink design if you hate it. You are able to spritz the rubbing alcohol on it and wipe it off with a paper towel and start again. It was an encouraging aspect of the project, especially because there was a bit of a learning curve with the ink and cans of air. I found lots of helpful videos on youtube to learn more about this process.
Below are some sample tiles I made to inspire the ladies! I hope they inspire you to pick up some tiles, some ink, and get making! You can use them for your coffee or for trivets or to frame in a shadow box for your wall to cheer you up during the long winter days ahead.
“Choose Joy” Alcohol Ink Tile made by Eileen Boomgaarden“Live Amazed” Alcohol Ink Tile made by Eileen BoomgaardenDemo tile done at the craft workshop
I thought I would do a post about how we process our wild after we dig it up. We have it stored in our backyard under a tarp until we are ready to process it. We process it in small batches of about 100 lbs. which seems like a huge amount, but it really isn’t.
Here is what we do:
We wet the clay and let all the particles absorb water for a couple weeks. While it’s soaking, we screen it through a series of screens with smaller and smaller mesh size. This helps remove organic matter like leaves and small twigs that might be in it, but it also screens out small rocks and particles that we don’t want in it. Eventually, it makes a thick soup like mixture of pure clay.
As it settles, the water floats on top and the clay goes to the bottom of our mixing bin. From there, we pour the water off as it settles, this takes another week. When the visible water is poured off the top, we now have a sludge like mixture, we pour it into a wooden box with an old sheet and a screen. This way, the water continues to be drained from the clay, but not on by floating to the top, instead it goes out the bottom. It sets for a couple more weeks to dry out more. When it’s ready, we cut it into blocks of about 25-30 lbs. and put into plastic bags to store it until I am ready to throw it on the wheel or hand-build with it.
When I am ready to throw, I wedge it a bit on my wedging table, this removes some more of the water and makes it easier to throw. If its too wet, it shrinks more 14% which is a huge percentage for pottery.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, below are the pictures of our process.
soaking the clay for a few weeksthe screened bottom for the boxthe open bottom box sets on the screenfinal water drains out the bottom of box through the sheet and the screenfinal clay ready to cut and put in bags
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