Clayquot Sound Mug

This mug was hand built, the handle pulled.  It was underglazed with green, brown, black, and a bit of sponged on yellow/green, then wiped so that the underglaze would emphasize the etching marks.  The ocean was done with a brush on dark blue (1 coat) and then dipped in clear glaze.

Mount Sentinel Mug

This mug was hand built, the handle pulled and then etched. It was underglazed with blue/pink/white for the sky, green/black for the mountain, green/yellow/black for the grass.  Then, it was wiped so that the underglaze would emphasize the etching marks. It was dipped in a clear glaze after. 

Tombstone national park mug: Photo to clay

My boyfriend Jimmy and I drove from Vancouver to Inuvik, one of the most Northern points that you can drive to in Canada.  It was an epic 2.5 week drive in August, but it was worth it just to camp in Tombstone National Park.  There were almost no humans and instead our neighbours were caribou herds, fox, thinhorn sheep and tons of wild mushrooms.  The tundra was gorgeous, with tons of changing colour which I tried to capture on this mug made for my mother who is a lover of prairies and wide open spaces.

Making the mug:
This mug was hand built, the handle was pulled into form and the bushes and mountain lines were etched onto the wet clay.  

Glazing: 
Interior is white dip glaze.  
Exterior is coloured with underglaze that's been layered and sponged off to create more texture.  Then the exterior is dipped in clear.

Tombstone National Park

Making a vase look like a rock...

Like I said, I'm inspired by nature.  This standing lava rock was my inspiration for glazing this vase.  I brushed on orange underglaze, sponged some of it off for a more natural pattern and used a black, glossy brush on glaze (painted in a swish pattern only to the top of the vase).   Again I sponged some off to get rid of any brush patterns.  Then, I brushed on a dull, matte grey blue.  These 3 glazes blended in the kilning, you never know quite what you will get, but I was happy with the result.

The shape of the vase was made on the wheel 5 lbs of clay.  I deformed the opening with my hands to give it an oval shape and then used my palm, sticking it to the wet clay and pulling away to give the surface a more random, organic texture.

How do I make my naturescape mugs?

JUG ISLAND MUG...
With this one, I used the image below as reference for Jug Island, BC (near Belcarra Park).  Then I etched the island trees and water line in and set in in for bisk firing.  Then, I painted the island and mountains with underglaze.  I dipped a clear green translucent glaze for the bottom half and a slight blue dip glaze for the sky.  The mug was thrown off the hump, the handle pulled.  Fun!

Photo by Taryn Eyton

Glaze tests...

For the Waterton Mountain Mug, I tested different underglazes and brush on glazes, layering them with various results.  In the end, I went for the underglaze on the left tile and the brush on cyan glazes for the lake (on the right tile).  I used the earth reddish tone of the right tile.  Final result you can see in the mug picture below.

Dandelion Plate

My latest fall inspiration!  Hand built plate on a form, glazing is using wax resist for the dandelion seed patterns and then sponging glaze on top.