Scarabs, bird skulls, beads and more

Since we were on Formentera for holiday I got into my mind that I want to create some scarabs. These are the first two finished ones! I have some more waiting to be glazed as well as waiting that I have time to start a new firing (will not be before next week *sniff*).

They turned out in all these lovely hues of blue and turquoise with a hint of green! I need to make more and also have to play with glaze and colour effects! I actually used underglazes like washes comparable with polymer clay and acrylic paint. 

You can see it maybe a little bit better at the backside It enhances the colours of the transparent glazes on top!

A lot of pendants. On some of them the glaze dropped more than I wanted to (I like a little dropping). But the kiln had started and stopped in the middle. The glaze just started to melt down. The kiln was started again but it had an effect on some pieces. Some glazes also reacted strangely... 

I played around mostly with "bottle green" but had to include "orient blue" as well. 

You can see the difference better at the backside.

Of course I also had to try to make a bird skull like I made so often with polymer clay. Love him! What else can I say? It is a different effect from polymer clay. I will definitely make more from ceramic clay as well as from polymer clay since both materials create different and unique effects. But I was honestly surprised how much easier it was to create the skull from ceramic clay compared to polymer clay.

The skull is just really, really difficult to capture with the camera!

Some more favorites (yes, I have also non favorites... but in the end it divides in "love it!" to "love it not" ^^). I like the organic shape reminding me of either sea shells or flower petals.

 I also love how this tiny leaf tuned out that had a kind of frame around. I used a polymer clay mold I made years ago.

Using the "hand ruler" you can see that is rather on the small side.

Now to the ones that went wrong. *sighs* Yes, the upper two also have a beautiful side shown in the image above. But the glaze dropped a little bit too much. The same amount like the last time but I think it behaved different due to the kiln problems. 

Maybe the same reason there was a piece gone from one of the beads.Only problem is: All of the broken ones were so beautiful on the other side.

But all in all: I am happy! Off to the next round! ;)