Category: wildflowers

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Wild Clay Pottery

We are digging our own clay now! It’s been an interesting adventure! I have thrown a few things with it! The clay when raw looks like a yellow-y brown color. When we bisque fire it takes on a burnt orange hue, but glazed and fired, oh wow, it turns a dark chocolate color with a bit of a purple undertone. It’s amazing to throw! But it has a hard time being bent- needs more plasticity, so we are working on that. We tested it with a soil testing kit and are slowly altering it a bit to balance the ph . Meanwhile, it vitrifies to less than 2% which makes it fully vitrified when its fired to cone 5.5. This is an exciting development in our creative adventure of Hyde Park Hill!

Here are some of my pieces! More to come in the future!

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My new Wisconsin Wild Clay from my backyard became the perfect vase for some coneflowers from my front yard. 
wildclay planter no 2 large
Large Carved Wild Clay Planter! Available on hydeparkhill.etsy.com
small wildclay planter front view2
a small carved planter 

Look for future posts about how we are processing our new found clay! Meanwhile, if you are interested in a piece, I have some available at my Etsy shop, hydeparkhill.etsy.com! or contact me on Instagram #hydeparkhill !

Keep creating!

Eileen

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Carving Clay

It’s been a busy few months, OK, 6 months! :O since I last wrote here. Time flies! My husband finished building me a pottery studio complete with a tiled floor, electrical, a beautiful farmhouse sink and a 1/4 bathroom (just a toilet in a small closet) lol. My studio is amazing!  He also built me an electric slab roller from parts from here and there which I will feature in a future post. It’s not pretty, I should call it “franken-slabb” but it works amazingly well!

But the most amazing thing in these past few months is —–We found clay in our yard while digging for another project! My husband processed the clay and I threw some this week on the wheel and have been carving it. It’s beautiful! It’s a deep chocolate- (at least the test tiles before we really processed it were dark chocolate) I hope it stayed chocolate. It throws amazingly well! There is some in the bisque kiln at the moment. Stay tuned for an update and to see pics of that clay– or visit and follow my semi-new Instagram account, hydeparkhill and see current pics for my wild clay!

In more update news: Yes, I am still making cards! And new glass studio is now being built, near my pottery studio. It’s slow going getting everything set up, but it’s coming along.  So many fun things coming up! Here are some projects I have been working on!

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Wheel thrown heart bowl, hand-carved, stoneware clay
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seashore mug, wheel thrown and altered, stoneware clay
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wheel thrown, hand-carved, beeswax candles available in my etsy shop, hydeparkhill.etsy.com or at claysharemarket.com
IMG_2025[1]Here is a new wedding card I created this spring! I love the lace, flowers and die cuts! But adding the vellum just makes it glow!!

Have a beautiful weekend! And keep Crafting Art!!

Eileen

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Wildflowers

It’s a cold, dark January folks! brrrr….. but my garage is warm with my glass kiln going! Here’s hoping spring is here soon!

Supplies: White opal glass, icicle clear glass, silver foil, Tim Holtz wildflowers dies, Justrite paper craft butterfly die, die cutting machine – I used the Grand Calibur- and a glass kiln 🙂

Directions: Cut your white opal glass into 5.5″ square, icicle clear 5.75″ square. Cut your wildflowers from silver foil (NOT silver leaf). Layer your project- white opal glass, wildflowers, arrange your flowers in a pleasing design. Cap with clear and full fuse. Once it has cooled, slump into a dish form. Enjoy!

If you don’t like wildflowers, use a heart, or any other paper crafting die that will fit on your silver foil page. Experiment. 🙂 Silver reacts differently with different colors of glass. With the white glass it turned a pale yellow gold color. With blue glass it turns a pinkish iridescent color. Some samples of mine are below.  They are available for purchase on my etsy shop, hydeparkhill.etsy.com

Happy Crafting!

Eileen