When some things don't quite turn out like you hoped...

 Ricky and I made concrete leaf imprinted stepping stones at the beginning of the month. It was my very first time making up and using concrete so I hoped I was doing it right! I bought some materials from Mitre 10 and we encased rhubarb leaves with polythylene before pressing over the concrete.  

 

Though they're not perfect I was pretty happy how they they turned out.

Then I had this great idea about making a bird feeder. We reused the polythylene and mound up river sand to give a concave shape, then lay a leaf over that before applying a layer of concrete. Lastly, we used a dowel to make the holes for hanging.

 Sadly, mine broke in half. It was too thin around the centre!

 I'm not convinced its work as they feeder is very heavy and not really suitable for hanging. Oh well, you live 'n learn, don't you??

 ~o0o~

CERAMICS

My first time glazing was a bit of a "hit 'n miss" too...

I'm a bit disappointed with my numbers too.

 I have "sanded back" the remaining numbers so I'm interested to see how they turn out after firing.

 This is using a crackle glaze and I like the effect. Shame the number one broke though!

 For my mum and Dad's house - I think I'll mount them onto a piece of driftwood or something similar. 

I'm really enjoying experimenting with clay and surprised that I'm not wanting to "throw in the towel" because things haven't ended up the way I'd hoped. A couple of years ago I'm sure I would have - it just goes to show how far I've come on my creative journey with TLC!

~o0o~

Time: 12 hours-ceramics (3 hours on Thursday 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th May) 
4 hours-concrete leaves (2 hours on Wednesday 11th and 18th May)