I denne smukke juletid, hvor sneen falder smukt og julelysene tændes i Sønderborg, har jeg besluttet at lave en ny tradition.
Der er intet galt med gamle traditioner - jeg elsker dem alle, men engang imellem er en ny tradition også dejlig.
Så jeg har lavet en julekugle i limited edition, som kun produceres i begrænset antal.
Der kommer en ny kugle hvert år.
So these days I am super busy. I am working with some of the safe stuff, like jesmonite and standard glazed for my ceramic pieces. These pieces are fairly easy to make and to ensure consistant results so that I have items for my webshop amd the markets.
BUT… I need to find my own signature style that represents me. That is a lot easier said then done. Goid thing that I am a structured person. So this picture is from late nights testing fun
So the way I test new styles is that I take the standard glaze, either from a recipe or store bought, and then I add stains, flux or other additives to make it my own.
So up here I took small amounts of glaze and added stains in 0,5%, 1% and 3%. I do that to see what happens with it, when fired. Now the tricky part is that each stains coloring abilities differs. Take for example these two blue are very different so I will test them and see.
Apart from that I also test what happens ehen adding flux and crystals. So flux is different additives that will blend with your glaze color and add life to the piece. Let me show you
Its really hard to explain what it does, it makes the glaze come alive, changes the look and adds the color play to a piece.
So on a test piece it looks like this
I made a whole bunch of tests and I can’t wait until they are fired. Now a little prep went into this test, as I cannot just mix any glazes just like that. I use Mayco brush and stroke and a transparent glaze from Cerama 2209 and fire to cone 6. These go together in firing schedule as they can react quite a lot if fired to high.
All there is left now is to wait and let the kiln cool off.
I will add the test results to the blog when Ready. Crossing my fingers 🙏🏻
Have a great day ahead ☺️
Sussie Spize (my nickname in Dar when I used to live there)
Its been two turbulent days since I quit my very well paid full time teamlead IT job. Yesterday I had to tell my team the news and it was one of the hardest things to do. why did I do that? Because I had to. Simple as that. I just had to slow down, feel my own thoughts and body and just step out of the game.
As many others, during covid lockdown, I had the chance to take a closer look at my life, my routines and habits, and I also realised that I really missed being creative. I have been sewing and crafting most of my life and loving it, but somewhere in the middle of my career I lost the energy to do something creative, which actually gave me energy to keep up with the pace. Ironic right?
In 2021 I decided to take a ceramics weekend course that ended up changing my life. I met Thora Finnsdottir and we hit it off right away. She invited me into her world of creativeness and world, without teams meetings, computers and everything else I was so used to. I found love of creativity instantly and shortly after I asked my boss to have a weekly day off to pursue this ceramic adventure. He agreed and its now been more than 6 months of having perfect thursdays off and learning soooo much from Thora.
So life was good right? Not really because in IT the pace is crazy and instead of being busy 5 days a week, I was now insanely busy 4 days a week, trying to keep up with a job that required more of me than I had to give
On the 4th of july I went to my boss and said it out loud “I quit” – and I felt 10 kg lighter instantly. I must admit that it felt like standing on a cliff, stepping off with no safety net except the belief that there has to be a way to combine my creativity and making a living without feeling left without energy to be anything to anyone.
In a year from now, I want to be the person who call my friends, see them and ask how they are doing, instead of the other way around. I want to be the sister who has time for my brothers and their families. I want to be the wife that cooks dinner for my husband and has the energy to ask about his day. I want to be the daughter that spends more time with her parents while they are still here. Thats the person I want to be…
So here I sit on the train, commuting to work like normally for 6 years, but now it is different because in about two months my mornings will not be commuting. It will be yoga, podcasts, audio books and creating, getting energy to be that person.
So what is the plan? Well, take some time off to find myself and then make a new plan.
Its been two turbulent days since I quit my very well paid full time teamlead IT job. Yesterday I had to tell my team the news and it was one of the hardest things to do. why did I do that? Because I had to. Simple as that. I just had to slow down, feel my own thoughts and body and just step out of the game.
As many others, during covid lockdown, I had the chance to take a closer look at my life, my routines and habits, and I also realised that I really missed being creative. I have been sewing and crafting most of my life and loving it, but somewhere in the middle of my career I lost the energy to do something creative, which actually gave me energy to keep up with the pace. Ironic right?
In 2021 I decided to take a ceramics weekend course that ended up changing my life. I met Thora Finnsdottir and we hit it off right away. She invited me into her world of creativeness and world, without teams meetings, computers and everything else I was so used to. I found love of creativity instantly and shortly after I asked my boss to have a weekly day off to pursue this ceramic adventure. He agreed and its now been more than 6 months of having perfect thursdays off and learning soooo much from Thora.
So life was good right? Not really because in IT the pace is crazy and instead of being busy 5 days a week, I was now insanely busy 4 days a week, trying to keep up with a job that required more of me than I had to give
On the 4th of july I went to my boss and said it out loud “I quit” – and I felt 10 kg lighter instantly. I must admit that it felt like standing on a cliff, stepping off with no safety net except the belief that there has to be a way to combine my creativity and making a living without feeling left without energy to be anything to anyone.
In a year from now, I want to be the person who call my friends, see them and ask how they are doing, instead of the other way around. I want to be the sister who has time for my brothers and their families. I want to be the wife that cooks dinner for my husband and has the energy to ask about his day. I want to be the daughter that spends more time with her parents while they are still here. Thats the person I want to be…
So here I sit on the train, commuting to work like normally for 6 years, but now it is different because in about two months my mornings will not be commuting. It will be yoga, podcasts, audio books and creating, getting energy to be that person.
So what is the plan? Well, take some time off to find myself and then make a new plan.
Love and peace out to the world, we need it!
I just finished my second day of my internship with Thora Finnsdottir. 12 hours flew by like nothing.
Im covered in dust and clay and my back is sore.
But I’m also smiling, having lots of happy creative ideas and feel like I could go back and do it all again tomorrow.
I am practicing and producing lots of vases, trays and figurines and loving the whole process.
Ceramic work is no joke. There is so much knowledge to learn about. We made ceramic glaze and worked with all the techniques required to get the items ready for the first burn in the kiln.
Thora has a lot of spring markets to attend so we are helping her get ready. In that process my IT skills come in handy, as they are nowhere to be found as a skillset for Thora 😂
So falling asleep 💤 happy, but dog tired.
Do what you love /Sys