Catherine Daniel Ceramics

Hello and welcome to my blog where I share some of the thought processes and textile/quilting inspirations behind my ceramic art, and occasionally other random topics!
For more details and pictures of my ceramic creations, please see my website -

catherinedanielceramics.com



Sunday 25 September 2011

Suffering in the name of Art


You need to know how I suffer for my craft! So prepare to be whinged at ...

Once these letters were out of the kiln, it was like some kind of demented scrabble game ... it took me ages to sort the jumbled up heap into the words I had intended, as I couldn't remember what I had intended when I first made them!

I got there in the end, but my brain ached.



Then I had to fit the letters to individual pieces of driftwood, which had to be cleaned up and dried thoroughly. During the drying process (on my aga) driftwood smells! And not in a good way!


Then each piece had to be sanded down to get rid of any rough bits that the sea had not already dealt with. I choked on a lot of fine sawdusty stuff, before remembering to wear one of those thingys you put over your mouth and nose!


And on top of that I ended up with several jagged fingernails, a few splinters, and several grazes on my hands.

But, in the end, I managed to make some nice sea-sidey signs like those above, and some more general ones like these two below.



And for those spending Christmas in their place by the sea

Jingle All The Way !


But, Oh How I Suffered!

Would I do it all again?
You betya!
(It was great fun, really!)


Cathy x

18 comments:

  1. Love the Christmas tree and worth all the suffering.

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  2. Oh well, it paid off :) Love the results!
    And, btw, Cathy, did you consider writing your words down before kiln :) Hint, hint :)))
    Good job!

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  3. Haha I'd love to have seen you playing scrabble and scratching your head!!
    Cute btw x

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  4. Ooh reading this post I've remembered the gorgeous snowflake I was lucky to receive from your give away last year. Roll on decorating the Christmas tree this year!

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  5. Hi, thanks for your lovely comment at my blog- it meant I got to find yours!
    Love your work here!
    I love driftwood, so think what you have made is amazing!!

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  6. ooooh love your signs! wow what wonderful artful way of combining wood and ceramic art!

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  7. You're so right about the yucky smell of drying driftwood ... but it's worth it, especially when the outcome is signs as lovely as these :D

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  8. But so worth the effort. love your results!!

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  9. Hi Cathy, thank you for commenting on my blog and glad you enjoyed my recent post.
    I love your driftwood hangings and,of course, being a lover of quilting, I love your work based on patchwork designs.
    Teresa x

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  10. So glad you made it through-you're a trooper! I was just looking at my poor nails thinking along the same lines- there's no fixing these nails of mine- they're just going to have to grow out!

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  11. These are gorgeous!! Glad you stopped by! Love the Sun, Sand, Sea. I never had smelly driftwood..., I guess I only take the totally dry pieces that are light (old).

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  12. Definitely worth the effort, although not sure I would want smelly driftwood anywhere near my Aga. I have seen what goes into the sea!

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  13. Hello Cathy!
    Your artwork is amazing!
    Thank you for stopping by my blog!

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  14. Absolutely love these, always had a thing about lettering..... so beautifully put together, worth the smell and brain ache whilst trying to remember what you wanted to say!
    Sue Xxx

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  15. I particularly like the Christmassy driftwood signs. I would have thought drI hat yng driftwood would smell nice and salty and brine-y!

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  16. It is all too easy to have a bright idea,like making the letters for a lot of words, do it then completely forget what it is supposed to be.I am slowly learning that nowadays I need to write things down-especially if a day or so goes by between starting something and finishing!
    Lovely signs and I can guess the smell of driftwood, probably a bit like the dried seaweed I thought might work for a hat trimming....

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  17. Thank you sharing useful information for us. i always read your blog.
    scrabble words finder

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