I’m so excited to share that I’ve been featured on ‘Mitten Talk’, a blog series featuring various makers, hosted by Samantha of Creating In The Mitten. If you would like to read it, follow the link here! In this feature, I share a bit about where my cozy name came from, a bit about my process, tips for making amigurumi, and more! While you’re visiting Samantha’s website, I highly recommend taking a look at her other posts and patterns. She has so many gorgeous patterns for when it’s cold outside. We may be heading into warmer days now, but as the Starks of Winterfell say… ‘winter is coming’.
What else is new?
While I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog and on social media, I’ve been keeping busy! I am working on several new patterns that I hope to get tested and released soon. They’re taking a little longer than I had planned, but all in good time. Creativity and timelines rarely go together.
If you can believe it, Christmas in July will be here soon! For those who haven’t heard of this before, Christmas in July is when many pattern designers release some of their new Christmas patterns, so people have enough time to work on their projects before Christmas arrives! If you have followed my blog for a while, you’ll know that last year I started a project called The Twelve Bunnies of Christmas. I released six patterns last year, and have plans to release the final six before Christmas this year . As part of Christmas in July, I plan to release at least two of these patterns- Angel Bunny and Gingerbread Bunny. These two patterns are in various stages right now, but keep an eye out for their release in July!
And on the Pottery Front..
I’ve been finding a lot of good challenge and ‘joy’ in pottery the last few months. If you’ve ever thrown on the wheel, you’ll know how challenging it can be. After quite a few set backs, I feel like I’m finally throwing well again, larger, and thinner.
One of many benefits of throwing more consistently is that I feel more confident in trying new styles and techniques. I’ve been quite interested in trying to incorporate more carving into my work, and have been experimenting a bit. There are many types of tools available, but I’ve been really enjoying the ones I got from Diamond Core Tools . Along the same vein, I’ve also been trying my hand at sgraffito, a carving technique where you carve on top of underglaze or coloured slip to show the clay colour underneath.
I have not have much chance for hand-building with all of the wheel throwing, but I did try my hand at a hand built teapot! I got the template for the teapot displayed below from a book called Making Pottery You Can Use. This teapot has been drying very, very slowly the last little while to prevent any cracks from forming. Fingers crossed that it survives bisque firing!
If you are looking for a solid pottery guide for functional pieces, I HIGHLY recommend the book I’ve linked to above. It was recommended to me by a more experienced potter, and I’ve been utilizing it regularly every since. In addition to several templates, it has lots of great info on everything from bisque and kiln firing, types of clay, a variety of techniques, and many, many examples of both hand-built and wheel thrown functional pottery.
-Cozy Out
