July, 2016 - Daniel Kenneth

July 27, 2016October 5, 2020

Taboret

I may have snuck off this weekend and bought a taboret with easel. I may also have snuck it into the house and right into one of the art rooms while no one was home.

It’s solid wood and heavy, but lighter than you’d expect it to be. As you can see from the picture I need to remove some items in the room so the table and fold out without a shelf or door in the way. More cleaning, YAY. The room needed to be cleaned and organized but I was planning to keep pushing it off for a while. If I want to use my new easel I guess I better get on it!

Hopefully, I’ll get to use it soon so I can tell you how much better the Becky Taboret is over my stupid little metal tripod easel that falls apart whenever I use it.

July 12, 2016December 1, 2020

Ho Hum Plates

I took a peek at the test plates in the kiln and I was not overwhelmed by the results. They are alright, but they are not what I hoped for. This is what I get for working off the colors in a brochure instead of physical test tiles. This is also the reason to do these tests before committing to a whole dish set. So I think my next project will be to take all my colors and make small color chips out of them. I already made a few but there is a whole shelf of colors yet to be made. It will be a project all by itself.

For the next test plate, I think I will stick with bright colors instead of trying to tone them down. The colors that came out bright on the plates are the ones I like the most. That and the purple came out a bit too close to the color blue.

July 11, 2016December 1, 2020

Loading up the test kiln

After another week of working late and a weekend full of yard work and chores, I finally got around to glazing the test plates. I ended up creating 4 plates and loading them into the small test kiln. Last night I fired it up and I am hoping by the end of the day to be able to open it up and see how the designs came out. I checked on it before leaving the house early this morning and there was still 900 degrees of cooling left before I can open it up. Hopefully, one of these designs will end up being the new design for the household plates.

Even after firing up the kiln, I started thinking up new designs that might be cool. Who knows, I may make another batch of designs before deciding on one!

Unfortunately, I glazed the plates with clear glaze before taking this picture (dries white). So super boring photo, I know. But there is a design under that white coating.

July 5, 2016December 1, 2020

Auditioning Plate Designs

Last night, I was using some of the small saucers as testers for a new plate design. These will be used in my house and I want them to be colorful, but muted. So I selected a rainbow of underglazes but I toned down each color. Instead of Red, I went with a Ruby. Instead of Green, I went with a Forest Green…. you get the idea. For some of these colors, I didn’t have a darker shade so I made my best guess and will just hope for the best. I also rearranged the colors so it wasn’t such an obvious rainbow. Hopefully, I like the outcome and can move on to the dinner plates and glasses.

The test plates were bisque fired in the kiln last night to set the underglaze. Tonight, I should be able to glaze them and shove them right back in for the final result.

Stay tuned.

July 3, 2016December 1, 2020

I Hate Varnish

Every time I finish a mini-series of paintings I get the brilliant idea of vanishing them. And it never fails, I let completed paintings sit overnight or for a few days then gently brush varnish on one. And every time it becomes a smeared mess. This time I noticed it right away and stopped, so it’s not as bad as some of the past ones.

I need to try spraying varnish instead but I don’t have a great place to spray things. And Seattle weather rarely cooperates with taking things outside.

Now, I need to repaint this one. I don’t have any of these mixed colors left over so it’s going to feel like starting over.

July 1, 2016December 1, 2020

Madame Buttercup

I’ve been working late every night and I think I’m coming down with something. So in the interest of keeping the blog moving along, I thought I’d post some recent projects that were finished just before this blog started.

Looking around my house it’s pretty easy to see I’m a fan of Adult Swim and adult animated sitcoms. I love the solid colors and black lines. Recently, I finally got around to finishing another Roger Smith painting, a scene where he is trying on a new dress and Stan Smith names him Madame Buttercup. I love the over the top costumes.

This one took over a year to finish… mostly because I took a break from painting to work on other projects. I’m glad I came back to it and finished it up.