Raku fired faces and cabochonsDuring the fall, winter and spring months, I get to stay warm and toasty at school–having the ceramics kilns running and getting up over 1800 degrees insures that the art room stays cozy many days!

Now that the spring semester at school is over, I’ve brought my load of goodies home and taken a few pictures.

Next it’s time to glue on pendant bails, pin backs, button backs, and stick pin findings. And to start a new Spirit Doll or two, of course…and then move on to warm weather arts. Time for polymer clay, and fabric painting and dyeing!

So many projects, so little time….

But today, here are some pictures of ceramic hands, faces, and cabochons. I used my own silicon molds and rubber stamps, and also made slip molds for casting the hands.

ceramic hands raku firesI made around a hundred hands in different sizes so as to be able to experiment with different glazing and decorative techniques.

I’ll be adding tops of etched metal to some, making some into necklace pendants and some into ornaments that can be hung on a tree–perhaps with  a gift certificate or a nice crisp ten dollar bill inside!

For some of the hands, I used cotton lace dipped in ceramic slip (liquid clay) and then fired. Some are raku fired, some are done with clear glazes, and I’ve just started to experiment with other low and highfire glazes–more to come later!

I think my faves so far are the raku and the clear glaze stained first with iron oxide.

Those look a lot like black lace, and I’ll be playing around with that effect more for sure.

ceramic hands