Coffee Ceremony

This 8" x 7" tile is raku fired with a clear crackle glaze over
sgraffito drawing and underglaze washes.

It's a soothing, sunny day today.  Guido is unconsious... soaking up the rays on the blanket chest.  I believe I'm going to smoosh him over, so I can bask in the healing warmth too.  The only challenge is to hobble there with my coffee.

I am free of my cast but can't put full weight on my foot yet.  Two weeks of physical therapy has been incredibly helpful, and how can you not love something that ends in a foot massage!?

Yesterday I was finally able to start teaching again.  True it was mostly from a chair with casters, but I only fell out once.  It was wonderful to be back with my peeps!

This 'Coffee Ceremony' tile was done a few years ago... when I still had long hair. Originally I designed this for a street painting festival, and it was 5 feet square.  If I can locate a photo I'll post it.  It won the professional category : )

To create the tile I scratched the design in leather hard clay. Bisque fired it.  Painted the surface with black underglaze, and when it dried I wiped it all off.  The only black remaining was in the incised lines.  I bisque fired it again to set the black, so it wouldn't smear when I added the other colors.  Then I watered down the other underglaze colors and painted them on.  Finally I dunked it in clear crackle raku glaze.