A Step Forward

I have been working on this line of pendants for a few weeks now and I am beginning to get the results I had originally hoped for. While I did toss a whole batch in the trash the other day, over all, I think they are beautiful. Now that I have a line of small items, I am struggling with photographing them. I have photgraphed them indoors and out. I have used a flash and I have tried without. I have used flourescent light, incandescent, and sunlight, both glaring and diffused. And most of the photos go straight into the trash!


Since we had a break from the cold yesterday, Alex and I decided to take the boys to the park. They were suffering terribly of cabin fever. I always take my camera, but as we walked out of the door, I turned back and grabbed a bag full of pendants. I hoped that along with shots of the kids feeding the geese with their hair on end from the static electricity in the slides, I might get a shot or two of the pendants.

The sun was low and the light was really harsh. Everything was making long, hard, shadows. While Alex played with the boys, I crawled around on my hands and knees propping pendants on tree roots, stumps, and park benches. Finally, I got some good shots and now, FINALLY, I can add some pendants to my etsy store, www.intothefire.etsy.com.

Pendants and More Pendants

The pendants are piling up around here. I have 45 earthenware pendants in various stages of completion and about 40 stoneware pendants waiting to be fired. Some of the earthenware pendants are in the kiln now. Seven are being coated with glaze now. A few are still waiting for me to decide how to glaze them.

After thinking about the stoneware pendant problem, I think I've come up with a solution. I made a few and I've been burnishing the backs of them. When I finish burnishing, the backs are shiny and silky smooth. They should feel nice against bare skin. Now it won't matter that only the fronts are glazed. I'm so glad and I hope I'll get results more like the glaze test tiles from an earlier post.

Somethings Just Don't Work Out Like You Plan

I had such a clear vision for my ceramic pendants. I knew EXACTLY how I wanted them to look. I wanted them to have the same characteristics as our glaze test tiles. I wanted that variation of color, the drips, everything. I wanted spectacular.

The first thing I did wrong was make them from earthenware. I LOVE my stoneware glazes,but I was thinking I could get similar results from the earthenware glazes if I was careful. I chose earthenware because I can glaze the backs and stilt the pieces in a low fire kiln. That way the side against your skin would be cool and smooth. I also do far more earthenware firings and I didn't want to wait until the next stoneware firing.

I'm not saying I don't like them at all - I'm just not exactly thrilled with the results. I still have 40 more to glaze so surely I'll get it right before they are all done! And, probably, these will grow on me. Sometimes it is harder than others to let go of my vision.