happy christmas, happy new year, happy everything! god jul, gott nytt år, gott allting!

(en levande julgris means a living christmas pig - in Sweden there's a tradition of eating ham for christmas. i think it's alot better to let the pigs live, and eat other things instead!)

more glaze results on the quartzpaste body, mer resultat på kvartzpasta massan

yesterday i fired up the little kiln again with the glazes that worked out best from my tests, and got results that made me happy. i fired alot higher than i did in Glasgow, to 1060 degrees C, which is a wee bit too high for this body i think, but look at the transparency! and the glaze-fit was really good, no cracks or crazes in sight. (so far!)
igår brände jag den lilla ugnen igen med dom glasyrena som såg bäst ut från mina prover, och fick resultat som gjorde mej glad. jag brände högre än jag gjorde i Glasgow, till 1060 grader, vilket är lite för högt för den här massan, men titta på transperansen! o glasyren verkar passa jättebra, inga sprickor eller crackeleringar i sikte (än så länge!)

i made these little birds from a mold that i made when i was in 2nd year in Glasgow! so they're not exactly news. but i still like making them, nevertheless.
jag gjorde dom här små fåglarna från en gips-form som är från när jag gick på andra året i Glasgow! så dom är inte precis en nyhet. men jag tycker trots allt om att göra dom fortfarande.

and here is the tail of a bird, to show how the transparent glaze turned out.
och här är stjärt-fjädrarna av en annan fågel för att visa hur den transparenta glasyren blev.

but everything didn't turn out well: this was a bowl/dish before i fired it, now it's some kind of strange disc cuase it slumped so much in the kiln. so i'll have to work on that one, and fire a little bit lower...
men allting blev inte så jättebra: det här var en skål/fat innan jag brände det, o nu är det nån form av konstig platt grej för det föll ihop så mycket när jag brände det. så jag får jobba vidare på det, o kanske bränna lite lägre också.

result, resultat

here are the little picture tiles after they've been fired, to approximately 1130 degrees C. they're not glazed, that's the frit in the quartzpaste body coming out. and they're transluscent! i should have taken a picture this morning when the sun was shining...
här är dom små bilderna när dom är brända, till ungefär 1130 grader. dom är inte glaserade, utan det är frittan i kvartzpastan som kommer fram. o dom är transparenta! jag skulle ha tagit bilderna i morse när solen sken...

i decided to make a few more...
jag bestämde mej för att göra några fler...

i fired the little kiln today with some more glaze-tests (on the quartzpaste body), so tomorrow i'll find out how they turned out. (fingers crossed!)
jag brände den lilla ugnen idag med lite fler glasyrprover (på kvarzpasta "leran"), so imorgon får jag se hur dom blev. (håll tummarna!)

from now on... från och med nu...

...i'll be writing both in english and swedish.
...har jag tänkt skriva både på engelska o svenska. hör av dej, om det är någon av dom gamla posterna du skulle vilja att jag översätter!

quartzpaste, continued...

last week i fired some little glaze tests for the quartzpaste (fritware) body, and a couple of them look alright! as you see, some of them weren't quite so good... so that is exciting. the blue one is the same glaze i've been using for the earthenware clay, but it seems to be a good fit on the quartzpaste! the other glaze-tests were just varying proportions of borax frit, kaolin and quartz. fired to 1050 degrees C.
förra veckan brände jag några små glasyr-prover till "kvartzpastan" (fritta-leran), och några av dom ser ut att ha blivit bra! en del, som ni ser, mindre bra... så det är roligt. den blåa är samma som jag har använt hittils på lergods, men den verkar passa bra på kvartzpastan utan några krackeleringar. dom andra är bara olika proportioner borax fritta, kaolin och kvartz, brända till 1050 grader.

i also made a little thing that i really enjoyed! i haven't fired it yet, but soon i will. i just made a little thin tile of the quartzpaste body, covered it with black, and scraped away till i had a picture. i'm looking forward to making more...
jag gjorde också en ny liten grej som var jätteroligt. jag har inte bränt den än, men gör det så snart jag kan. det är bara en tunn liten platta av kvartzpastan, täckt med svart, och sen skrapade jag till jag hade en bild. ser fram emot att göra fler...

for those of you in Gothenburg...

yes, already: Christmas sales begin

the Christmas exhibition at Sintra starts on Saturday already, so i've submitted some things for it as well. as you can see, i've gotten really quite commercial and have made christmas-tree decorations! what next...?

thanks to my very generous friend...

... i have been able to make some progress with the frit-ware tests! Isabelle, at the Owl & Lion gallery in Edinburgh, gave me a little test-kiln and a whole load of other useful stuff this summer when we were visiting Scotland!!! it works really well, and has been brilliant for testing different recipes. it was harder before, since no-one else in my studio fires to the same temperatures, and i didn't want to fire a whole big kiln with only 5 little tests in it.
so a million thank you's again to her.
now i just have to get a good glaze that doesn't chip etc, and then i'll get back to making turquoise birds and bowls again :-).

result

i was a little bit disappointed when i opened up the kiln a few days ago. i had been in a bit of a rush when i was glazing and packing, so the glaze on some of the bowls was way too thick and (of course) stuck to the shelf. i can save the small ones thanks to J's dremmel machine, but the big one will the hares will probly have to go to the place where all the other unsuccessful pots go: we have a special bin and hammer in our studio, where (with some satisfaction) we crush and break and destroy things that haven't turned out so well. so next time i'll try not to be in a hurry...

but a few of the other things turned out alright. i'll take some proper pictures of them before putting them out for sale.
soon it's time for Christmas sales, both at Sintra and our studio, so i have some ideas for that...

waiting, waiting, waiting...

i've got a kiln-load firing this very minute...
i can't wait till it's ready and i can open it up!
i'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

hot air

last week i went and bought myself a hot-air-gun. the best thing i've done in a while, i think!
it means i can speed some things up (e.g. lifting a shallow bowl off the wheel-head) and also: i can put on slip with a brush instead of pouring! i.e. no drips, it uses much less slip, it's alot quicker, and generally neater and bettter.
so that's pretty good.
Johan Svanbom, who works in the same studio as me, gave me some coloured earthenware slips earlier this year -dark blue, yellow, green & pink- which i rehydrated and am now trying out. tack, Johan! can't wait to see how they turn out when they're fired...

and it's ready!

my website is now ready:

www.estersvensson.com

thank you to Andy and Marcus (round of applause: )!

soon...(ish)

yesterday i registered a domain for my website, that i'm working on (thanks to Andy and Marcus for your help)! it'll have pretty much the same things that you've already seen here, but in an easier format.

i'll let you know when it's finished.

i'll keep this blog going as well, but it'll turn more into a news-inspiration-work&thoughts-in-progress thing than it is now.

new machine

i did something i've thought about doing for a long time: i bought one of those printer-scanner-copier machines! it was a really cheap one, but so far seems to be doing a good job. so you might be seeing a few more drawings in the future...

Sintra window exhibition

i've got a little exhibition of little bowls up for the next three weeks, at Sintra, a shop/gallery here in Göteborg. i've also been accepted as a member there for the next year, so i'll have other work there too from 1st October.

here's what it looks like:

here is some work i did before leaving for a little trip to the States.

the little tiles are a project that A has been working on this summer, it was interesting to learn a little about the mathematics behind Islamic tiles. they're really fun to play with.

i also did a transfer firing, and added some gold to a few pieces, which was fun.

so now i'll be without the studio for a month, but it's a good chance to do lots of drawing and thinking.

dolls

i've started making some dolls. so far there's a couple of heads, and 6 little porcelain arms.

it's summer...

... and i've not posted anything for a long time! i have been spending some time in the studio, though, and here are a few pictures of little bowls.

Young Guns

You've seen these pieces before, but my brother helped me take some proper photographs of them. (TACK Marcus!) They will be included in a show in Sydney next month, if anyone happens to be in Sydney.
"During July, 2009 Sydney College of the Arts, the visual arts faculty of the University of Sydney will be hosting the exhibition YOUNG GUNS – a survey of international ceramics artists in the SCA Main Gallery. The intention is to highlight the innovative and varied contemporary ceramic art being created by emerging practitioners from around the globe."