Totally Plastered

A student of ceramics documenting my current efforts in the medium of clay on my journey to prepare for graduate school.

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Hey there.

I’m not dead.

And I haven’t stopped doing ceramics.

Sorry for the hugely long absence!

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Etsy Shop for my Ceramics now up and running!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/TotallyPlasteredPots?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Here are the available pieces:

Further details about these pieces over in the Etsy shop!

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Carved Vase 2014

By B. Barthelette

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Textured Mug 2013

By B. Barthelette

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Textured Cup 2013

by B. Barthelette

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I'm working on opening an etsy store to sell my work. It seems pretty simple but I want to take my time and check it out.

Maybe in a week or two I'll have a shop for you to browse.

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Clockwork Mug

by B. Barthelette

The patterns are thanks to the use of an assortment of marker caps. Coloring thanks to iron oxide under a translucent glaze.

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Do you have an etsy/sell your work?

I do not have an etsy, but I plan to start one. I do sell my work, but I have never sold anything online so I'm a little hazy on how I would do it.

*fifteen minute pause*

I am in the process of opening an etsy shop right now, thanks for reminding me! Give me a week or two and I'll post on the blog when it's open for business.

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Carved Lidded Jars

By B. Barthelette

I've been trying jars the lazy way: throw an enclosed form then cut the top off for instant lid!

I'm happy with the coloring on these. Glaze over the texture with a dark color, wipe glaze off the surface, dip the whole thing in a light color. When fired the dark glaze in the texture shows through the lighter top layer.

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Carved and Textured Bowls 2014

b-mix, cone 10 firing

by B. Barthelette

I was trying a bunch of new stuff that week.

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Textured Bottles 2013

by B. Barthelette

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Textured Bowls 2014

b-mix clay, cone 10 firing

by B. Barthelette

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I really enjoy your work. Your tree sculptures are super interesting!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy it.

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I recommend a medium grey background or white. If you don't have professional lighting, use 2 shop lamps one on each side and play around with the shadows. Being a ceramicist, you might want to play with the shadows. Normally I take1 to 3 (diff) pictures per piece. If you need help, just drop me an ask or mail. My professors have helped me tons with doing this and I have notes somewhere on all the settings.

(from the far past I reach forth to finally answer my messages)

Thank you for your advice! I used four lamps but apparently my pictures are still coming out too dark. I must upgrade my bulb wattage, it seems.

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The first photograph looks really good, I'm not all that great at photographing my works either so I can't give you much advice, but I've always been told that a gray background looks better than a white one so if you can get ahold of a gray one for next time that might be good

(replies forthcoming around many ages have passed . . .)

Neutral colors seemed to be recommended more than just plain white backgrounds. Gray or gray-blue come up most. Maybe I should try that, but for the moment I have white so I guess I'm stuck with that.

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i really like the piece you did that looks like tree bark ! ive always wanted to do something like that ! 10/10 :)

(I wonder how long ago this message was sent . . . sorry)

Thank you very much for your generous scoring of my work! Tree bark and organic forms and textures are fun and I enjoy using them.

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Okay, second round with portfolio work!

I ran some photos through photoshop and tried some different things. How do they look? Good enough for a portfolio?

FEEDBACK WELCOME, please and thank you. I need all the help I can get!

(((this post will be deleted later. Final pictures of my work will be posted later)))

[poschee]

totallyplastered I didn’t see your first round, but this round looks like your lighting was a little too dark.  As a result the ISO on your camera went high and you ended up with a lot of noise in the picture.  I would add more lighting.

I’ve found that 3-point lighting, 2 bulbs going in at diagonals that are covered with rice paper and 1 spotlight shining down, gives me pretty good lighting and I don’t need to invest in a softbox (I use compact fluorescents as they don’t burn hot and are cheap) . Make sure you purchase all your bulbs the same Kelvin and the Kelvin matches your camera’s settings (5500K, for example, should match up with your “daylight” setting well, if you have Automatic mode on, the camera will probably choose for you, so just make sure the bulbs all match) Let me know if you have additional questions.  I’m more than happy to help.

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Argh! I never said that I got this or that I appreciated it! Poschee, I am sending you a private message right now!