Samirah

A porcelain test tiles showing a clear glaze made from the minerals and rock just behind the tile.

Three porcelain test tiles in the foreground. Left to right: The left tile is a gritty primitive attempt at making a rock glaze using local materials. The middle tile is another attempt using local materials that created a tan, cracking glaze. The right tile is finally looking like a clear glaze! Yay!

Meet my Sky Islands clear glaze! The recipe consists of 90% locally scavenged calcium carb, quartz, and feldspar (1st photo). 2nd photo shows earlier attempts at making a clear desert mineral/rock glaze.

#geology #rocks #minerals #ceramics #ceramicglaze #glazenerd #pottersofbluesky #artprocess

Stunning: A pair of emerging stars in Lynds 483 have sculpted this radiant, hourglass-shaped cloud of gas and dust.

In a few million years, each star could grow to match the Sun’s mass, leaving behind only a thin disk where planets might eventually take shape

(Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

Credit: @pablocarlosbudassi.bsky.social

Over here sculpting rocks with rocks in the rocks.

#rocks #minerals #geology #ceramics #ceramic #workinprogress #potteryofbluesky #pottersofbluesky #ceramicstudio #desert #handmadecup #cactus #landscape

Bowl featuring star resembling CW Leonis and surrounding galaxies. (Side).

Bowl featuring star resembling CW Leonis and surrounding galaxies.

You look a little down, have a bowl of cosmos
#sciart

For the fifth day of #Invertefest a minoan mashup cup, kamares ware outside, marine (and invertebrate) style inside.
#pottery, #ceramics

Incredible photos.

A photo of the face of a dragonfly with intense blue eyes from the front. The large blue eyes mottled with black spots surround the roundly rectangular pale blue central face area. There is a small black triangle at the top of the face between the eyes where there are three small oceli, small primitive eyes.

Today I want to share with you all one of my favorite #MacroPhotos I have ever taken. On July 18th, 2014 I had a magical encounter with this #dragonfly, the Great Blue Skimmer, #Libellula vibrans and I was able to capture this focus stack.

#invertefest
#insects
#Photography
#MacroPhotography

My mom used to make those kinds of mugs, with a surprise at the bottom, but with something cuter like a lil frog. A roach mug definitely appeals to a person's ridiculous, mischievous inner kid. Harmless fun, until the mug gets thrown against the wall.

I have yet to hear from any customers about their piece meeting a violent end. Not yet...

That's a real concern! I kept one of my roach bowls (it had a glaze flaw) and I use it to scoop packing peanuts into packages. Every now and then, I get that automatic recoil when I first open the bag of peanuts and catch a glance of the ceramic roach 😂 It's such an instinctual response.

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks!

The only scarab I have made is a dung beetle, with ball of dung of course. I have added gold luster, but have not tried any colorful metallics. That would look beautiful though!

Thank you!!

Thank you 💕

Happy to hear you like it :) This mug sold a few years ago. I haven't made roach mugs for over a year. Perhaps I should make a few for my next batch...

An older design to share for #InverteFest. Very few people enjoy seeing a #cockroach on a mug they're drinking from, which is why I just had to make these. Only a customer with a particular sense of humor brings this into their home.
#potteryofbluesky #ceramicmug #ceramics #wheelthrown #bugs #roach

Thank you so much💚

Oh wow that is stunning! I bet you're brimming with new ideas...

Thanks for sharing ♡

Thank you :)

Thank you! It was fun trying to figure out how to depict those fragile legs/antennae.

I can imagine, they don't understand that you're just trying to relocate them. I've always used a twig to help them flip back onto their legs when they get stuck on their backs. They just grab onto the twig.

I agree 👍 Beetle bodies are so beautiful, so much fun to try to sculpt.

Thanks!

Thanks for the compliment and for sharing the link! I'll check it out...

Four wheel thrown stoneware mugs, each decorated with one Palo Verde Beetle that I sculpted and glazed with a black-brown glaze. The top exterior is glazed in sky blue and the bottom is left unglazed.

This sweetie is a Palo Verde Beetle clinging to a branch on a Sweet Acacia tree in my yard. They're notoriously clumsy and when they emerge I'm on the lookout for any that need help after accidentally landing onto their backs and need to be flipped over.

Another post for #InverteFest

The Palo Verde Beetle, one of my favorite local invertebrates. They emerge during the monsoon season in the Sonoran Desert and freak people out due to their size and clumsy flying style. They're harmless and I love them.
#beetle #ceramics #pottersofbluesky #pottery

Thank you so much :)

Wheel thrown porcelain mug with a tarantula I sculpted, glazed in a light purple neodymium glaze.

Same mug, side view

Same mug, side and handle view

Sharing for #InverteFest

(Reposted bc I got the hashtag wrong the first time!)

I used to make tarantula mugs, this one was testing a neodymium glaze on the tarantula. Usually I glazed them in browns/blacks to resemble my local tarantulas.
#tarantula #arachnid #pottersofbluesky #ceramics #pottery

Yarn bowl featuring three hikers on a Martian landscape at sunset.

Yarn bowl featuring three hikers on a Martian landscape at sunset. (Left)

Yarn bowl featuring three hikers on a Martian landscape at sunset. (Right)

A hike on Mars!