The NorthWesternBelle

I am in love with these mugs. So much. So much that I'll be sad to hand them over to my younger sister. Solace is to be found in the fact that she's family, so I will likely be seeing them again. Whew! Because seriously, they are gorgeous. I love them so much that I photographed them outside, in the very cold, to most accurately capture how this matte glaze, winkur yellow, turned out on the porcelain body. My BFF has been calling it terra cotta. Only, it turns yellow where it went on thick. The Time for TEA mug is my absolute favorite. The shape on this one was perfect, and the glaze pooled nicely in the letters. The dramatic handle finishes it of perfectly. Imma drink tea in this one next time I'm at my sister's house. Also, I really like this mandala, and I was very pleased with the plate. Either I'm getting better at this, or I got extremely lucky that all four of these worked out so well.  I made a before and after video...

It's probably not really a surprise that I have taken to zen doodling and hand lettering on clay. Exhibit A: the Pot Bellied Tea Mugs. They were nice and leather hard when I first cut into the, and the bodies are nice and thick, so I was able to get a really good purchase with my embossing tool.  This one might be my favorite. A lot of sponging and tracing goes into making the lines this clean. I've been told that using saran wrap can reduce that labor. I'll need to give that a try because it's time consuming, and I tend to get obsessive. The plates were a little bit too dry for carving, and I've lost a couple of plates recently to over-confident carving, so I think I was a little bit lighter-handed than needed on this one in particular. Carving is a little bit risky because details can get lost if you use the wrong glaze. I'm planning on using Yellow Winkur on these, which is a matte orange that, recently, has been pooling yellow on ...

So, round about the 10th of last month I started writing a post that never got completed. That's NOT going to happen this time! At least, you know, I hope not. It's the busy season at my full-time gig, so down time available for blogging is hard to come by. You will be happy to hear that we've only been neglecting the blog so far in 2015. We've been keeping plenty busy with custom cape orders and a couple of custom afghans. I've also resumed my weekly appointment to play in the mud thanks to my amazing hubby. More on that later! First, custom order recap. Early in January I received a message through Facebook asking about making custom capelets for some professional cosplayers. We had black fabric on hand, so the construction was inexpensive and quick! They ordered three elbow length black capelets with oversized hoods, and the always-amazing Taiza P. was actually able to create two extra! They need to be photographed and listed for sale...I'll get around to...

Anybody else feel a little (or a lot) anti social before the morning's first hot beverage has been consumed? I've never really been addicted to anything, but on the days that I don't get at least one cup of coffee I'm bound to be a little edgy. It's science, folks. So, when I decided to make custom hand-lettered mugs, these were the first two things that came to my head: This about sums up how I feel about mornings.  Classic Mean Girls reference: You Can't Sit With Us! These great glass markers have been cured in an oven so both mugs are completely dishwasher safe! You can get them now on Etsy! Thanks for looking, loves! Always Yours, TheNWB