Ambitious...

So last week I popped into the guild for a few hours. I decided to throw on some bats with a half sleeve of mid smooth stoneware clay. I had two four pound balls, and two two pound balls of clay. I successfully threw one nice big bowl, and the other three wern't such a success, but that's okay!

What Time Is It???

So I made some clocks for my Mum and Step-Dad last week. They turned out rather well for my first attempt at hand painting.

The first idea that we had for a clock was for an "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere!" Clock.

For the clock my father-in-law cut out the clock face for us, and routered the edges. We were pressed for time, so he also applied a light coat of stain as well... very helpful!

For the hand painted numbers, I printed off the number five on a sheet of paper, rubbed a pencil on the back of the page making sure to cover the entire number, and then I traced over the front side of the number, transferring the pencil onto the wood. I used my stylus from signing my pottery - it worked like a charm! I then painted with acrylic paint inside the transferred pencil line. I loved how neat and clean the numbers turned out.

Then we made a funny clock for my Mum. This one I came across on Pinterest, and adapted it a bit to give it a more rustic/weathered look in my mums colours.

To achieve the rustic look, I first painted two coats of brown acrylic paint, then two coats of yellow. I sanded back the yellow to reveal the brown.

Sanding the yellow made it look a different colour yellow...

...but once I varnished overtop of the painted clock face, the colours levelled out and it looked awesome.

This is the varnish I used...