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Cat Love Mugs

Do you just looooovvvveeeeeesssss CATS?!?!

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!”
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Flower Frogs

Flower Frogs

Have you been a Farmer’s Market this summer? I think I most enjoy all the flower sellers! They sell amazing bouquets of fresh flowers! Sometimes making a good arrangement in a vase is hard, but a Flower Frog can help! I have been making flower frogs this summer! They have also been a hit at the outdoor markets where I sell my paper, pottery and fused glass. You can find a variety of flower frogs in my Etsy shop! They sit on top of a jar or vase, some are curved and some are flat. They come in a variety of colors and styles.

Handmade flower frogs from Hyde Park Hill, LLC, available at hydeparkhill.etsy.com

How to make one:

Roll out a slab of clay, to about 3/8″ thick, roll in a design or a texture from lace, a doily or fresh leaves. Cut a 4.5″ circle. Cut out other shapes and styles of holes. If you want it curved, turn it upside down and gently press into a dish to dry. If you want it flat, leave it on a board to dry. I fire mine in a kiln. Since I use stoneware porcelain mix clay it will bisque fire to cone 04. Glaze your piece, fire to cone 5. If you don’t have a kiln and you want to make one, you can make one with air dry clay or oven dry clay, then paint with acrylics and seal with a water based clear sealant.

Enjoy a flower frog today for all your farmer’s market fresh flowers, they are available in my Etsy shop!

Happy Creating!

Eileen

Check my most recent paper, pottery and fused glass on my instagram feed link below

https://www.instagram.com/hydeparkhill

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Table Settings

I’ve wanted to make a set of dishes for a long time. I finally did it! I hosted a table at a “Date Night” event. Hosting included making the menu and setting the table, contacting the other 3 couples at my table and request they bring items from the menu. Easy, peasy, right?!!! So, I set the table and make the main dish, everyone else brings the side dishes or dessert! Only, I had this “Amelia Bedelia” moment (a funny children’s book series where the main character, Amelia, takes everything her boss says literally) I thought, oh, I could “make the dishes” like all…make all the actual the plates we will put our food on.  I will preference this by saying, some hosts were going to use paper plates for the event. I thought, oh, I will make this extra special, I will make the main dish AND the dishes we eat from. ahahahhahha!!! Three weeks of insanity of planning and making, and continual use my pottery and glass kilns and woo hooo done! I completed a beautiful set of dishes for 8 people. Did I mention and ordering a tablecloth, napkins and fake succulents from Amazon.com helped. ahahahahah!!! 🙂 oh and Lindt Chocolate Truffles. Please, is there anything more delicious and readily available? Especially for Valentine’s?

Here is what I did!  I had a succulent texture tile and a fern texture tile from Creative Paradise Glass www.creativeparadiseglass.com and I was already making little succulent vases with my wild clay. I decided to making a theme of succulents and ferns and make dishes with glass and pottery. Using wood forms my husband made for me, I hand-built 9 12″ x 12″ wood grain texture hand-built plates. (always make an extra….) I used float glass from shelving I purchased from a department store that closed for the glassware. Wild clay from my property was used to make little vases. Yes, I used imitation succulents from Amazon, because it was winter. My die cut ferns were made with an older die cut from Spellbinders. The green and copper paper is from Recollections by Michaels.com. My color scheme as you can see was turquoise, wood, copper and white linens, turquoise napkins, turquoise organza overlay on a white tablecloth. The colors worked great because the chairs were a deep green.

Make every meal special! and invite friends to a pot luck date night dinner!

If you have any questions, please leave a comment! I will get back to you!

Next post—- my menu! It was delicious!

Happy Creating!

Eileen

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12″ x 12″ wood grain texture clay plate, succulent texture 8 1/4″ x 8 1/4″ salad plate, succulent texture coaster for water glass, turquoise linen napkin, fern die cuts made from copper and green paper, wood grain and succulent name tags served for seating assignments, little trinket dishes for a sweet treat
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Dessert Plates were made with float glass and a fern texture tile from creativeparadiseglass
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Completed table setting
 

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The little wooden pottery dish was used for lemon slices
 

 

 

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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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Cherry Blossom Birdhouse

Well, spring is almost done and summer is almost here! I finally glazed up a birdhouse that has been bisque fired and waiting for glaze for almost a year! Sometimes I am just not brave enough. I love how it turned out! It was hand-built with coils in a style that reminds me of an old fashioned beehive. A jaunty  looking lid covers the top opening.  There is a drainage hole in the bottom. Trailing cherry blossoms and little blue butterflies wrap around. The red flower seems to sprout out from the 1 1/4″ hole in the middle giving the perfect size for a special backyard bird to make a home. It’s about 8″ tall and 7″ wide at the base.

Supply list and directions to make your own are below! If you are interested in purchasing this particular one, please go to my etsy shop, hydeparkhill.etsy.com where you can find this and many other lovely items to beautify your life!

Enjoy your cheery, cherry blossom spring morning!

Eileen

Supplies: Clay: speckled cone 5 clay for main body, b-mix 5 for flowers, leaves and butterflies, Other supplies: cherry blossom fondant mold, leaf shape cookie cutter, 5 petal flower cookie cutter, leaf or petal vein press mold (I used Wilton’s fondant flower molds & vein mold), parachute cord for hanging it up.

Glaze: Laguna White, Yellow, Clear Bright, Amaco Celebration Pink, Potter’s Choice Seaweed; Velvet Underglaze: electric blue, black, bright red, orange

Directions: Roll out a 1/4″ thick slab and cut your circle shaped base and cut an uneven wavy shape for the top- curve the sides with your fingers and use newsprint or paper towels to help the up and down curves to keep their shape, cut two holes for the cord about an inch or two apart. Set the top aside to be soft leather hard. Cut a hole in the bottom slab with a 1/4″ hole cutter for drainage, slip and score around the edge and roll out your first coil. Attach your coil and continue to roll and attach coils all the way up to the top- slowly bringing in shape to be more narrow at the top. Let it firm up a bit. Cut a hole 1 1/2″ in the middle of the side of your birdhouse. Cut two holes- one on each side at the top for the cord to be strung through and then through the lid- make sure everything lines up well. Roll a small slab and cut a 5 petal flower, cut the petals apart and give the petals veins with a texture tool or a leaf vein tool. Slip and score and attach your petals around the entrance hole. Using your flower mold and cornstarch, make flowers, branches and leaves attaching them wherever you want all the way around the birdhouse and on the lid. Slip and score and attach butterflies. Cover with plastic and let it sit for a few days. Slowly dry. Bisque fire to cone 05, glaze and fire to cone 5. I used black parachute cord for hanging it up!

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Let’s Celebrate!

Let’s Celebrate! There are so many things to celebrate in life! Birthdays are one of my favorite things. Lately, I have been combining all my hobbies into one project. (see last week’s post: Morning has Broken Petunia Canvas Project) This new project combines two hobbies–paper crafting and pottery. In a future post, I will show how I use paper crafting stamps and fusing glass together.  In this birthday card, a hand-stamped, handmade ceramic piece was added to layers of die cuts makes for a uniquely rustic and beautiful card!

Supplies and directions below!

Lets celebrate front view2

 

Products Used: HFC Classic Petunia Stamp and Die sets, HFC Petunia Paper Pad, Designer Dries Clear Adhesive, Stamp Mat Pad, 6”x6” white card base, dark brown cardstock, candlelight cardstock, white cardstock, vellum, 140# watercolor paper, Staz-on Timber brown, Distress ink: Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade, Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn, Forest Moss, faux pearls, Spellbinders Fleur de Elegance, Spellbinders Victorian Medallion 2, water brush, hot glue gun, “Let’s Celebrate” sign (see special note at the end of directions)

Instructions: Cut a 6”x 6” white card base, cut brown cardstock 5.75” x 5.75”, cut a paper pad paper 5.5” x 5.5”, cut one Victorian Medallion 2 out of the vellum- cut in half. Cut a Fleur de Elegance from candlelight paper and cut 3 more times from white cardstock and layer and adhere them together to make a stiff background piece. Cut the middle die from the Fleur set from watercolor paper 2 times- stamp one with the “It’s your Birthday” stamp in Staz-on Timber Brown ink. Stamp the petunia bouquet 3 times on watercolor paper with Staz-on Timber Brown. Color with Distress Ink colors, let dry, die cut and layer the 3 pieces with dimensional foam adhesive. Stamp the petunia corner stamp 4 times on watercolor paper with timber brown, color with distress inks and die cut. Stamp the petunia vine 1 time on watercolor paper with timber brown and color with distress inks, and die cut. Layer all your pieces starting with the brown, pink, medallion (cut in half so it sticks out from the sides of the frame) put the corner petunia pieces in, the middle piece, the side vine, the large bouquet. Adhere the piece to the card base. Assemble the inside of the card: Cut 1 piece of petunia paper pad 5.5” x 5.5”, put two corner petunia vines in opposite corners. Put the Fleur middle piece that was stamped with “It’s your Birthday” in the middle. Decorate front and inside with faux pearls. Give to a friend!

Special Note: The “Let’s Celebrate” sign was made with the HFC stamp and stoneware clay. I rolled out a piece of clay, stamped it, cut it out to look like a rustic woodland sign and gave it some wood texture with a carving tool. It was dried flat for a week, then bisque fired, then stained with iron oxide and fired to cone 5 in a kiln. If you don’t have access to pottery kiln, you can use polymer clay or layer 3 pieces of chipboard. There are always creative ways to achieve a similar look!

Let’s Celebrate!

Eileen

Lets celebrate front viewLets celebrate close up2Lets celebrate sideviewLets celebrate inside