Bling bling...

All that glitters...is bling. Which reminds me, I thought I would post some images of a small group of work I just finished up. A friend whom I worked with at Chautauqua this summer, Maria Mangano, will be getting married this coming weekend and she had asked me a while back to make mugs or something or other as gifts for her bridal party. I changed our plan a little and came up the idea for these small, sort of dainty but funky sophisticated cups. Well, there is nothing like dragging it out to the last minute...and boy, I'm good at that. But I am pleased with how they all came out...cone 10, reduction fired, celedon with an accent glaze down at the foot. Maria then provided me with the image of the tandem bike, the same image that appears on her invitations. Both she and her soon to be husband are avid cyclists. So, I turned that into a page full of tandem bike decals and fired 8 cups back to 04 with them on one side and finally finishing them off in another firing for the gold luster...BLING. Pretty fancy for a couple fingers of good whiskey, maybe they are better for the vino. Anyways, I wish she and Dave the best in their marriage and hope their brides/grooms peoples enjoy drinking from them.

Here are a couple other pieces I have finished off...the cups are from our recent soda firing and the other piece is from the wood kiln...all are smooth and satin-y. I have re-fired all these pieces to cone 018 in order to integrate the gold luster. Click on them to enlarge the image. I am in the process of making more and off to pick up some Jack Troy Stoneware down in Pittsburgh on Friday. I think we will be doing another big wood firing coming up soon...Studio tour in mid October!