Mushroom bowls in blue – reworked

Regular readers may well recall these bowls in their original form, you can see them here.  As then they were blue, and they are finished with varnish.  What is different is the depth of the ’sub-coat’ I apply to these pieces, the method in which the paint was applied and finally the varnish used is a much tougher and much higher gloss variety.

In all honesty I was never satisfied with the bowls, despite the compliments (thanks!), and when I brought them out at one of our recent craft fayres I was compelled to immediately re-wrap them and return them to the crate from whence they came!

With everything that’s been going on of late I struggled to get them finished, but the final coat of varnish is dry and we even managed a wee drop of winter sunshine to get some piccies taken … sunshine makes me happy!  Anyway, here are the bowls:

click the images for full-view

Mushroom bowls in red ~ the final set

This is the final set of mushroom inspired paper pottery bowls, the other sets can be seen here and here.

All three sets were made using the same set of moulds, although despite this I think they are all quite different in terms of shape, of course the variation in colour also helps to accentuate the differences.  Personally my favourite set is the brown/tan version, although I really like the this final set too for which I used a different varnish that has a subtle lilac hue to it which works really well with the reddy colour.

I’ll be making some more sets of bowls in due course, although I think I’ll aim for something quite different from these sets, maybe something a little larger, although equally as organic in feel … but more of that later. 

Coming in the more immediate future we have a sample or two from Jolene’s newly created ‘make-it-yourself’ bird hanger set which will be available at the forthcoming fairs we’re attending and we also have some more of her Sock Creatures.

Spring inspired bowls

I’ve been meaning to make these for an age and whilst the inspiration is very much borne of the spring time the design is based on an earlier bowl I made way back when, here. 

I don’t know about you, but as we prepare to plunge into the depths of winter (haven’t we already plunged?) it seems like a remarkably good idea to do everything we can to remind ourselves that the long dark nights and the miserable weather only last until spring … actually the weather never really improves beyond getting a mite warmer, it does at least get lighter though!

Mushroom bowls in blue ~ another set of three

This is the second set of bowls I’ve made along the mushroom lines, of course mushrooms don’t traditionally come in shades of blue, but then traditionally bowls don’t come in the form of mushrooms.  I have been keen to experiment with colour and whilst I was initially sceptical about making these blue they are beginning to grow on me … not that I have some sort of fungal infection you understand, it’s just that I’m coming to like the bowls!

These bowls are made on the same moulds as the previous set, and despite this you can readily see that the bowls themselves are rather different from one another not only in colour but also in shape and weight.  The bowls shown here have a much lighter or finer finish to them than their predecessors, although each is as robust as the other, I was mildly concerned that the blue bowls would be rather flimsy so I was pleased to discover that the finish I use gives a rigidity to the edges that you might not otherwise expect.

please click on images to see a larger image

I have one final set of these in the pipeline, in fact, I’ve already removed them from their moulds and the moulds are no more.

Mushroom bowls ~ a set of three

This is the first finished set of paper pottery bowls that I mentioned earlier (below) when I was showing the ‘little red bowl’.  The original inspiration for these bowls is obviously mushrooms, although the notion to create a set or two was borne of an earlier single bowl I made which is available in the shop, here.

I’m rather pleased with the outcome although with the weather being truely evil of late and in the absence of a light box I’ve really struggled to get any pictures.  I only managed to get  these photo’s during a very brief interlude in the weather that only really lasted long enough for me to set up my ’studio’.

More mushroom bowls coming soon, I’m experimenting a bit with alternative colours, so expect something a wee bit different.

Paper pottery – a little red bowl

It’s been quite some time since I did any paper pottery and it was something i was pleased to get back to a two or three weeks ago when I decided I needed a rest from the ‘plant pokes’ I’d been working on.  The piece shown here is the first of nine pieces I’ve been working on, this one is the most individual of the set and I’ll presenting a couple of simple ’spring bowls’ in a few days time as well and two sets of three ‘mushroom bowls’ … those however are for later.

I’m relatively pleased with the way this has turned out, especially since it is the first I’ve done in some time, the simple colour scheme is probably borne of an abstract ‘ladybird bowl’ that sits in our window sill and was one of the first pieces I made a few years ago.  I suspect though that a more immediate influence has been the scenes of autumn that have been surrounding us for the last month or so, lots of reds, oranges, yellows and browns this year.  Very nice.

… and a couple of fun photo’s …

… obviously when i say, ‘fun’, I mean it in the, ‘I need to get out more’ sense!

In terms of uses for such a bowl, well it is largely decorative, although we use bowls like this for keeping nick-nacks and keys in and so on

Red bowl in Papier Mache

This bowl is actually more of a developmental piece and is the product of my initial moves to use handcrafted molds in forming the shape of the piece as well as the application of mix to both seal the mache and also to provide a different texture to the finished article.

It’s plain and under-developed finish is really due to a focus on achieving a form rather than a particular look … it was immediately after this that I began combining a more decorative finish with my ongoing obsession with circles, and yes there are more circles coming soon!

The curves and angles are achieved by forming the papier mache as it dries before painting it over with the texturing mix and using the general thickness and gloopiness to further sculpt the edges, that in itself takes a bit of time and a few coats.  Painting it in the end is the easy bit!

It’s been sat on a shelf in our living room for a while now and has proven that the finish is robust, having taken NO chips or scrapes or bashes I’m fairly pleased with it … although it still has a mortal fear of water!  I’ve put this item up for sale at the much reduced price of $19.99, which for those of us in the old world is just shy of £15.00, although that includes P&P.

As ever items that are for sale are available in our Etsy shop.

Coming soon …

demonic papier mache character sculpture

papier mache spring flower bowl

For one reason or another this bowl has taken me much longer to complete than I would have otherwise hoped, even trying to get the pictures for the blog was a bit hit and miss, it was either too gloomy outside or too bright and seemed to necessitate abandoning whatever I was doing to run outside and get a few quick snaps while the light was right.  Out of about 30 or 40 pics the ones here are the only two I was even marginally pleased with!

The bowl (above) itself is just short of 6 inches tall and has a diameter of about 6 inches, it was constructed after my usual fashion using paper strips to build up the basic shape around a couple of strategically placed balloons, which I was using for armature on this occasion.  I also gave the bowl a lip initially although it was proving to irritating to keep so I used some pulp to bulk it out, removing the lip, before sanding the whole thing down.

The bud feet are essentially just shaped pulp which were again overlaid with paper strips before being sanded.

The whole pot was primed with emulsion before I added the various layers of colour to give the background green, I used kids poster paint for this, although I don’t recommend it as secondary coats tend to lift the first coats which can be hugely annoying and it can take a long time to get the effect you’re looking for … I think it worked in the end although my frustration at the time may explain my receding hairline!

Acrylics were used to paint on the flower design (see detail photo below), these were loosely based on a design Jolene has been using in her embroidery.  I also used acrylics to provide the block of colour for the earth and to build up the slightly dappled effect for the sky.  The whole bowl was finished with a few coats of varnish.

I had considered offering the bowl for sale, however, a radiator leak upstairs and my subsequent irritation while trying to fix and finish the bowl kind of ruined the finish in some small areas and to be honest they are beyond my will to repair…

… aside from the trauma of this bowl though I’m also working on a small ( 7-8 inches tall ) character piece that I should finish in the next few weeks.

funky green bowl

Following something of a crafting break I finally finished this project, one of many ‘on-going’ projects that was gradually forgotten about over a period of time.  This particular bowl has been about a year in the making, I know, I’m a veritable speed demon!

Most of what I’m making now are based on molds made of Plasticine, however this one predates my ‘discovery’ of the Plasticine method and has a wire frame onto which paper strips were stretched – after a manner of speaking.   I’ve been experimenting with finishes and am currently using an emulsion/flour mix which has given it that cracked pottery effect (which is clearer if you click on the image to see it full sized).

Anyway I glazed it with PVA, which is why it has that almost varnish shine to it.  I found that the varnish I had been using was discolouring my more recent pieces thanks to the lighter tone of paint being used.