I came across the Belgian design studio Unfold last week on the blog Musing About Mud. This is some crazy cool futuristic pottery! They are using 3D printers to extrude coils on a set path, creating some pretty amazing pieces.
While I love things that are handmade, there is also something really intriguing about this process, too.
Check out their work here and watch the 3D printer in action in the video below. (Photos by Kristof Vrancken.)
Here are a few of the things that came out of the kiln today. I sure wish they weren’t covered with a crazy amount of crazing (tiny cracks all over the glaze). They are sitting on my work table, and every once in a while I hear another little “ting” as they continue to crackle. So I still have not found my ideal combination of clay and transparent glaze. This clay had crazing problems with multiple commercial clear glazes. Unfortunately, I threw a number of things with this clay on Wednesday, so those pieces will be getting teal and green glazes for sure — no more crazing clear!
I think I am going to try an Aardvark clay next — either Nara Porcelain or Bee Mix 5. I think my heart is in porcelain though. I just like throwing it. I do like Laguna Frost if neither of the Aardvarks work out. Frost just cracks on me occasionally, so if I can avoid that I will. But Frost sure is pretty. It’s so, well, frosty!
One of these days I will finally have a batch of pots that looks the way I want it to and is functional! It just takes so long to experiment with the limited work time I have. This is a test of my patience for sure.
This is what four tons of gravel looks like. It looks like a sore back to me.
I have been working all spring on creating and leveling a few paths in our yard. It has been a lot of work, and putting down the landscape fabric and gravel is the last step. We also have a few areas that were already covered in gravel, but they have gotten thin. (They get a lot of play. Gravel is a toy, you know.) I’ve been avoiding this last step because, hello — 8,000 pounds of gravel.
The girls were pretty excited when the gravel truck pulled up. How much of an angle does the dump truck need to make before the gravel starts rolling?? Oh the dramatic tension.
I guess it is time to buy a wheel barrow.
Elise had a birthday party for her seventh birthday yesterday. We put together a premiere party for her first short film “The Mommy, The Daddy, and The Baby,” complete with a red-carpet entrance and popcorn. It’s short, so there were several encore presentations. Chris helped Elise out with the technical parts of this — she wrote it and really made all of the directorial decisions herself! I didn’t get to see it until the day of the premiere. What fun!
One of the cool things about living in the city where I grew up is being able to take my kids to some of the same places I loved as a child. Some places aren’t the same. Leawood City Park used to be so much more awesome. Today’s playgrounds can’t hold a candle to the playgrounds of the ’70s. What, no giant mountain with a volcano ladder coming up the middle and slide down the side? No, just the same old playground equipment you find at every playground. Boo. But some places are just as fun as I remember, like Antioch Park.
I remember how fun it was — but also a little bit scary — to walk over the stepping stones across the pond. I watch the girls hesitate and start to walk a little more slowly across the stones, and I know just what they are feeling. I watch them run through the little old western town buildings, and I know what games they are playing.
The giant rocket ship slide may be gone, but most of the park is still intact, and I love taking them there. I’m glad they love it, too.
Last weekend, Chris and I got to spend a night away from the kids (only our third night away in seven years of parenthood). We didn’t go anyplace crazy, but it was good to have a whole quiet evening to ourselves — well, not so quiet considering we went to a music festival. Somehow my children manage to make more noise than a stadium full of speakers.
On the way to the Beach Ball, we stopped to check out Chris’s (not husband Chris, friend Chris) new space, Pemberlie, at Brocante Bliss. Her space looked amazing, and you should check it out if you can. Chris (husband Chris) had to restrain me from purchasing everything in the neighboring booth, reminding me of the reality of our Honda Civic. Good stuff though. I will be back with a van and without a husband. You didn’t hear that, Chris (husband Chris).
The concert was a lot of fun, too. I went there mainly to hear The Shins and Kimbra. I think The Joy Formidable took the prize for most entertaining performance though. (It’s always fun to see the lead singer destroy the stage, right?) I’ve also had a Metric song stuck in my head since then. I kind of would have liked to have seen The Shins in a smaller setting with a more attentive audience, but still, I really enjoyed it. I didn’t feel as old as I was afraid I would, and it was quite entertaining to people-watch with all the youth reverting back to ’80s fashions.
Thank you, Gram, for watching the girls. They had so much fun with you. And thanks for coming with me, Chris (husband Chris), even though you didn’t know any of the bands. You did take an awesome spacey photo of Foster the People though.
Here a few things I was working on during my weekly work night (the night Chris puts the kids to bed so I can work from dinner until the wee hours). My hands are still not healed from last month’s allergic reaction, so I’m avoiding throwing. I figured buttons would be a good way to test some glazes. On the mug, I’m trying to give my underglaze more of a watercolor look, with gradient edges. We’ll see how that fires.
Glazing, firing and finishing up a quilt I’m working on should keep my hands busy until they heal. My new approach: slathering them in various oils and wearing gloves overnight. This photo does not show you the ugly cracks I have going on on my right hand. No one wants to see that! I’m off allergy meds right now so I can have some testing done soon, so I’ve been feeling pretty out of sorts today. Off to bed I go!
Here are a few songs that represent what’s on my shuffle at the moment when I go for walks. All good stuff. I think I discovered a couple of these artists through the blog Black Eiffel. Rachel has great taste in music, or at least, similar taste to mine, so I always find something good to listen to there.
Here’s a single from the latest Santigold album. (Yes, I still say “album.” I’m old. My sister Angie tells me this is the right word. So I’m not old. Ha!) The whole album is really excellent, all the way through.
Kimbra …
Porcelain Raft …
Polica ….
Gotye …
The Shins …
And who doesn’t like a little Black Keys?
Yesterday was our 11th anniversary, so Mom and Lloyd offered to watch the kids while Chris and I went out to dinner. The girls were so excited, they started packing giant suitcases of random stuff as soon as they woke up in the morning. Chris and I went for coffee, did some shop wandering and went out for sushi. I got a girly drink: vodka, sake and juice. The girls played with the water and ate fluorescent cupcakes as the sun set. Isn’t the evening light pretty at my mom’s house?
I’m having a little trouble getting back into blogging when nothing all that interesting is going on. So today I just took photos. Yesterday was all dead car batteries, toddler tantrums, headaches and sunburn. Today was better. Today was …
one of my pots full of hydrangea blossoms rescued by Chris after one of the girls went after the bushes …
a completed quilt back, folded next to my newly serviced sewing machine (what a difference) …
and hair long enough for a new haircut.
Tomorrow will be cake-baking, gift-wrapping and teriyaki chicken. (Chris’s birthday!)