Iris Bowl

[liralen]

Post-firing Iris Bowl
Originally uploaded by Liralen Li.

So, just by chance, my husband and his parents were working at the OUR Center today, and Elaine Klotz, who does all the fundraising for the center for feeding folks was there. And she had all the bowls for the auction in her office.

I hadn't seen this since I painted it, and the glazes dry differently than they come out when they're fired. I'd blindly done the extra lines on all the petals because as soon as the glaze dried they disappeared into the background tone of purple. Also one coat looks just like two when it's being painted on, so I while I had some idea that I'd put two coats on most of the areas that I wanted darker, I couldn't actually keep track...

Kinda did it by guess and by golly and if you look at the previous picture where it's just dry... you'll notice it's very different now that it's actually fired.

Pre-firing Bearded Iris interior
Originally uploaded by Liralen Li.

Peers at it with bemusement. Even the leaves look cooler, because they show all the brush lines now. I really love how the butterflies turned out as well. You can click either picture and it'll take you to where the butterflies and flowers on the outside of the bowl show up.

I love my in-laws. This morning, they went with John to the OUR center in order to just wander about town, see the library and stuff in order to give me time alone with my computer. *laughs* They are so very cool.

And George took all these pictures for me, if you click on either picture you can see all seven he took. And the lady in charge of the fundraiser actually rushed out and grabbed John to say, "You wife is such an artist!" *rolls eyes*... okay, okay... maybe I'll get it someday...

Comments

[grey-lady.livejournal.com]

Truly, I admire your artistic talents.

And next trip to the USA I *will* remind you of the "English tea for artwork" swap we discussed a while back. :)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'll be very, very happy if you do! Especially if you throw in a roll or two of plain chocolate Hobnobs as well. Both Jet and I have gained an addiction for those. *laughs*

[crimini.livejournal.com]

Those are lovely!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! The picture with the flat colors is actually the same bowl just pre-firing...

[incandescens]

That is absolutely gorgeous.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*smiles* Thank you, very much!

Given that they'd given us a palette of just six colors, I kind of had to figure out what to do... *laughs*

[rasetsunyo.livejournal.com]

Oh it's stunning glazed!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! I am really happy with how it turned out as well. Whew.

[bluelang.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love the iris bowl.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!

[archangelbeth]

That is impressive.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*beams* Thanks!!

[akuni.livejournal.com]

Ohh it turned out so well! Whoever gets this bowl is getting a lovely piece of art.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It will go up for auction... so it'll definitely make the center more money that way. *grins* I'm halfway tempted to bid on it myself... but I'm also contemplating the possibility that I could also just paint one for myself for far less. *laughs*

[nikita-cheri111.livejournal.com]

that is gorgeous. Glazes are really hard to work with for that very reason, they dry so far off from what they fire. I've never been very good with it, then again I only got to dabble with it a little bit in high school. I am impressed with how well that turned out.

It looks like it all came out pretty smooth when it was fired, was there a second layer of clear fired over the color? Usually clear is blue and your dry bowl doesn't look like it has that. I have some pieces that I want to try that with (we have a kiln) but I'm not 100% sure how that works. Do you know what cone the glazes you used were?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out...

... and, yeah, they put a coat of clear over the painted colors in order to keep the items food-safe. It's a relatively low temp firing process, as it's cheaper, and there are more bright colors available at the lower cones.

[nikita-cheri111.livejournal.com]

mmkay... I think everything we have is cone 6 or higher. I'll have to hunt down some lower cone ones to do the boxes we have. I wish I had your ability to do such elegant and simple designs. *shrug* I will have to do a few dozen practice runs before I haul out the glaze. Thanks!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I got this pretty much from Chi of the Brush by Nan Rae (http://www.amazon.com/Chi-Brush-Capturing-Painting-Techniques/dp/0823006190/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235797952&sr=8-2). She gives a really great introduction on how to just do some really simple stuff, and I took this, as directly as I could, from one of her paintings. It's still different, of course, as I had to adapt it to the different medium and had to work with something with really different consistency than ink... *laughs*

But if you're looking for design help, that's a great book, and it's in a lot of libraries as well.

[nikita-cheri111.livejournal.com]

Awesome... I'll have to have the roomie look into that. I have a book on brush painting... I just have to get the supplies for it. I'm used to working with acrylics so...

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's interesting... as acrylics have the same consistency as the glazes. You might have an easier time. *grins*

[summer-queen.livejournal.com]

That turned out quite lovely -- rich colours and great detail!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*smiles* Thank you! They'd given us a palette of just six colors. Most years it's all primaries and brights. For some reason they gave us olive and gold and blue and lavender and burgundy and a deeper orange gold, so I was kind of reaching with this one, but the blended colors did much better than I'd hoped.

[aruarian-dancer.livejournal.com]

It's always fun to wait and see how the whole thing turns out. I've had some delightful surprises as well as 'WTF!?!?!?'... XD

The bowl turned out beautifully!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It is pretty amazing, sometimes. *laughs*

It did! It did! I'm bemused and happy about that. And all the detailing that I thought got lost when I put it on, all stayed on there and showed through with the firing! I'm pleased.

*dances about*

[xshelaghx.livejournal.com]

what pretty pretty bowls! And what a wonderful excuse you have to keep on painting them :D

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Very much so. *laughs* It's really fun to make them money with these. Since it's not-for-profit, it's really funny to see folks basically doing fanart (of Pooh bear or Disney characters and such) on the bowls. *grins*

So I have fun doing them and it's for a good cause...

[annieroo2.livejournal.com]

You are a beautiful artist sweetie. The bowl is just gorgeous. It's amazing how different if turned out after the fire.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*beams* *blushes* Thank you... The difference firing makes is a lot like magic...

[tallcedars.livejournal.com]

Wow! The lady in charge has it exactly right!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*blushes* Thank you!! *giggles*