C McIver Studio

Thank you!!

Community studios really are the best at picking you up when you’re totally bummed. And thank you to my best friend, Rachel, for giving me some of her personally hand-dyed roving.

Retrieve, 2025

#ceramicsculpture #sciart #needlefelting #eggfreezing #sodafired

4/4

This was my first foray into soda firing, using acrylic molding paste, porcelain, and needle felting. It’s the most repetitive work I’ve made to date and I really pushed myself to make it work when it didn’t turn out how I wanted at multiple points. 3/?

As someone who used to faint during blood draws, giving myself injections was a big hurdle to overcome. I was able to retrieve 7 eggs from my first round. Here, a sea creature carry’s away porcelain eggs on its precarious, pointy legs.

Ceramic sculpture shaped like a sea slug carrying a nest of eggs. The slug has many tiny, orange-brown legs and a graphic pattern of teal, brown, and mottled orange. The nest is needle-felted white with teal wisps and an orange interior. The nest has round, unglazed, porcelain eggs inside.

A detail shot of the many legs, stripes, and needle felting.

A top view, better showing the mottled orange top and eggs contrasting with the orange nest interior.

This piece represents many things for me, both in symbolism and artistic growth. I started this as I was preparing for egg freezing. While doing the hormone treatments, blood tests, IVs and more, I had over 45 needles stuck in my body. 1/?

Glazing up this wall-hung piece! Looking forward to seeing this black clay come out of the gas kiln.

#bear #fig #ceramicart #sculpture #animalart

I’d love to be included!

Soda fired ceramic sea slug

Yellow spikes with bronze, silver and milky yellow tips

Top view of mottled soda fired slip 🫠

My first soda fired piece is fired! I have mixed feelings. I’m loving the spikes but the surface work I did on the top didn’t go as planned. I’m thinking through cold finishing before giving up though!

#sodafired #nudibranch #ceramicsculpture #creature

Here she is in all her pre-firing glory! I’ll get her back on Tuesday, stay tuned!

#sodafire #pottersofbluesky #sculpture #art

Thank you!

I’m planning on wadding the smooth surface. I’m hoping for seven wads for symbolism/concept reasons. It’s my first soda firing though so I’ll be open to what makes it stable!

The spikes ALL survived. Now comes the prepping for the soda firing this weekend!

#sodafiring #bisqueware #sculpture #sciart #creepy

Haha no worries! I didn’t use foam because I needed to see how many spikes were actually touching the surface for weight distribution. I can see why you’d want foam though!

Okay, I flipped this spiky dude over! Still have some more finishing touches to do before it goes to bisque. 🤞🏻

#pottersofbluesky #sculpture #wip #seattleartist

I’m nearing the pre-flip finish line! Will these little spikes hold the weight of the sculpture? 😅

#clayart #sculpture #artistsofbluesky #wip #ceramics

8 year old smiling next to tiny clay furniture and pets

Child being silly with a clay pumpkin and tool.

This group of kiddos at Kirkland Arts Center is so fun! Can’t wait for more 🤪🎨🥰 next quarter - open for registration now!

canvas.kirklandartscenter.org/classes?instructor=Caitlin+McIver

#kidsceramics #teenartclasses

A gourd-like body with a snaking neck that falls to the ground. The head is a red and blue flower with a long, golden, stamen/tongue. The neck and tongue make a script L shape from this angle.

This view shows the head is detached from the neck.

Detached, 2024
Stoneware, glaze, gold luster
10”x12”x12”

I love a stuck out tongue - a through line between my last post and this one.

#contemporaryart #sculpture #ceramics #scifiart

A throwback to the first ceramic sculpture I ever made back in 2022

#artistsofbluesky #fishhead #ceramicart #sculpture #creepy

An abstract sculpture that has four small feet (two visible), a “torso” with a golden swirl leading to a donut-style hole. It has two “necks” with flower “heads”. One flower faces away and one face-on.

A side view of the same sculpture. It is thinner in depth than it is wide and the hole is no longer visible as it runs parallel to this view.

Some of my favorite pieces come after a major “wtf am I doing with this one” moment! I had one with this piece before the necks and swirl were added.

Maelstrom, 2024
15”x10.5”x8”
stoneware, glaze, stain, gold luster

#ceramicsculpture #pottersofbluessky #scifiart #abstractart #blue #cone10

A white porcelain beetle with an earthenware bowl strapped to its back with twine.

Another one from the archives.

In Servitude (2014)
Porcelain, earthenware, epoxy clay over wire, twine
8”h

#sculpture #ceramicsculpture #insectart

Yes ☠️ I think I’m going to have to recruit more than just the kiln gods for this one!

A ceramic sculpture of a heron with blue feathers, sitting atop a rock.

One of my students had this STUNNING heron come out of the kiln today - so proud of her! I was worried the beak was going to bend because of its proximity to the arch but all is well.

#heron #artinstruction #handbuilt #artistsofbluesky #ceramicsculpture

Work in progress

A sculpture in progress: spikes covering about 1/5 of a worm-like creature

Spikes on the worm in the concave section where they cross-cross

Phew! Nine hours worth of spikes. How many do you think are going to break when I flip it over?

#pottersofbluesky #scifiart #sculpture #wip #clayart

Ooh! Fun idea! Thank you ❤️

Unfinished, dark brown sculpture of a bear head. The bear has its tongue sticking out, wrapped around a fig. The bear has no eyes and a flower in the center of its forehead.

I’m thinking about surface treatment of this bear with a floral third eye that is about to eat a fig. I’m leaning toward leaving the black clay mostly raw except for the flower and some luster patterning.

What would you do in terms of glaze?

#claysculpture #ceramicart #surfacedesign #seattle #wip

I’d love to be added!

A clay sculpture of a worm-like creature with spikes partially covering. It is unfinished and sitting on foam in a ceramic studio.

An artist uses a serrated rib tool to smooth an unfinished clay sculpture.

A hollow, unfinished sculpture of a worm sits atop a large sponge. The sculpture is made of clay and has temporarily placed suction cup-like appendages.

I’ve been working on a new piece! This little insect will be entirely covered with spikes. 🐛

I’m still mulling over what its eyes and/or antennae will look like. Will it have extra long spikes alone its spines.

Third picture was a trial of suction cups ❌
#pottery #ceramicsculpture #pnwartist

Hi Bluesky! Let me introduce myself 😊 I’m Caitlin, a ceramic sculptor & educator based out of Seattle. My work often involves monsters - a little creepy, a little cute.