Foxtail Studio

@foxtailfcs

A potter inspired by nature in Maine. My website is open for anyone who would like to buy some stickers or pre-order pots. I need some more kiln furniture to really get back to production!

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Bluesky

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Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· 16d

I'm playing around with thrifted #glass lampshades, hopefully with some interesting results in this round of firings! #blueskyartshow #pottersofbluesky #lamp #thrifting #wheelthrown #porcelain

I had put this globe on a bottle form at first, but I think I like it on this little pedestal base better. It almost feels like a crystal ball, I'm going to look for a color changing LED to fit!

This style shade was my original plan for lamps, on a bottle kind of shape, but I ended up liking it on this SUPER narrow form even better!

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· 17d

Doing some experiments with wild clay this week! #pottersofbluesky #wildclay #testing #experimental #jimothy

Bits and bobs of some experimental clay!

Bars are a great way to test out the properties of different clay bodies. Cut to 10cm, once fired it's an easy way to calculate shrinking and absorbance for glaze.

A few pendants, beads, worry stone type things from scrap bits of a new clay I'm testing out

I have no idea what color this clay is actually going to fire to, but hopefully Jimothy is able to keep things under control in there!

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· 24d

I am not the type of ADHD that keeps a ton of plants, but this little succulent has been #growing in one of my early attempts at a bell for a couple years now! This is the second time it's flowered! #blueskyartshow #notafailurejustaplanter #apparentlyaprettygoodone #succulents #flower

This is the second time I've seen this little guy flower, it's planted into an early attempt at a bell that warped in the glaze firing.

The flower stalk reached up over the top of the window pane in just a couple weeks!

The flowers don't even look real, it's like they're made of that ultra-thin shipping foam stuff.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jul 11

Nothing beats a #quiet morning with a cup of good coffee, especially in one of your own mugs. #BlueskyArtShow #pottersofbluesky #coffee #slowmornings #handmade #mug

Good coffee in a small mug I made, in my Beach Rocks pattern, with a dock cleat handle. I like to imagine the kind of world where all mornings could start like this.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jul 11

I saw one just the other day too! It's been years!

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth at a milkweed blossom

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jul 5

I'm not sure whether this marks the end of an era, or the beginnings of a new Revolution, but it was hands down the greatest fireworks show I have ever seen. #twohundredfifty #outwithabang #revolution #iscoming

Fireworks are one of my favorite things to photograph, trying to get the right kind of shot without knowing precisely where to look is such a fun challenge

The pyro in me is always thrilled with pretty fire, which is at war with the environmentalist who wants to protect all the animals.

I'm interested to see where things are heading as drone shows seem to really be taking off. They don't have the same kind of magic as fireworks, but that seems a small price to pay for animal's welfare.

Whether to mark the end of an era, or the beginnings of a new Revolution, this was the greatest fireworks show I have ever seen!

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jul 4

The prompt for #blueskyartshow this week is #wide so I thought I'd share a photo from the lovely day out on the river, with water smooth as glass reflecting wide open skies. #nature #river #MaineAdventure

The water was so smooth on the river it looked like a perfect mirror. All around gorgeous day out!

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jul 3

Trying to get things done while also not completely melting in this disgusting, suffocating humidity 🥵 #heatstroke #pottery #tiles #handmade #pottersofbluesky #porcelain #workinprogress

Starting with the smallest pieces, I'm incredibly excited for this new project! I've got to get a LOT of these done by the end of the month!

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jun 23

And with the candles blown out, I'm 35! #celebrate #cake #wishes #birthdaycandles #vinyl

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jun 22

Happy birthday to me! I made this cocktail a few days ago, and at home I do like just eating the boozy fruit out of the glass, but there is something to be said for a properly shaken and strained drink 🤣 I call it the Lady Slipper #birthday #cocktail #watermelon #gin #secretingredient #floral

I muddled up watermelon with a secret ingredient, then shook that with gin, strained, and topped with some lime yuzu soda from Fever Tree. A much more delicate and light drink than I usually make, but it's quite good.

The flowers that inspired the name of the drink! Maine's only native orchid, they're spring ephemerals and always such a treat to come across!

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jun 21

Apparently I wasn't actually following the #blueskyartshow feed, but today's theme is #curve so I thought I'd share the wall hanging version of my wreath vase! I'll be keeping better tabs on the fun going forward, lol #pottersofbluesky #porcelain #wreath #vase #wallart #flowers #ceramic #pottery

I had the idea to throw a donut shape as a vase a few years ago, but didn't have the means to fire it for a long time. My kiln is up and running, I was part of a gallery show in March and finally got to see my idea with actual flowers in it!! Those are real. Long and thin stems fit down either side of the circle, which is hollow so it can actually hold water for them.

Similar inspiration to the vase my cat so graciously modeled for me back in the spring, this one actually hangs on a wall! It does hold water, and thin, long stems fit into holes along the top and down the sides.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jun 16

The bookends I made with Throwdown have color, and now the perfect spot to display them! I am SO HAPPY with how they turned out! #bookends #literature #handcrafted #pottersofbluesky #pottery #throwdown #booknerd #slabbuilt #mushrooms #blacktrumpet #foraging

I finally bought another cabinet and reorganized all my books, lol. Love the way these fit on top!

A close up of the bookends, the one on the right was broken, and it leaned a little too far trying to glaze it back together. I haven't decided if it's worth risking one more kiln to see if I can get it to level out.

This is the bookend on the left side, LOVE how it came out! The colors are spectacular. This set was based on Black Trumpet mushrooms and I think the colors came out spectacularly.

This is the one that leans forward a little too much, other than that I think the colors came out amazing!

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jun 7

This plate is out of the same firing, totally fine and exactly what I expected.

The plate from the Souvenir Set I did as part of the Make Along series for Great Pottery Throwdown. It was in the same firing as the other pieces, but doesn't have any problems at all, I'm actually pretty pleased with how cute it is. I'm wondering if it's an issue with my Pearl Grey underglaze? Though I have a piece with orange that crawled a bit too, not nearly as bad though.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jun 7

Well, that's new. I've dealt with crawling glaze before, but never had this latexy, peeling paint texture. Any potters out here experience this? Is it salvageable if I refire or should I cut my losses and remake them? #pottersofbluesky #wtf #weirdglaze #troubleshooting #glazeproblems #help #clay

Nothing particularly strange about this pot, it's just underglazes and Amacos mixing clear. I've never seen crawled glaze look like peeling latex before, and never had it turn out this bad in my work before.

It's like someone made a little slice in the glaze and it peeled away like a rubber coating. I'm using all commerical materials here, Laguna 5/6 clay, Amaco underglazes with their mixing clear. This is a different kind of crawl than I've experienced before. Any ideas on what caused it or if it could be fixed by firing again?

A few of the pieces had glaze that bubbled up, but didn't pop and peel back at the edges. Nothing super unusual about the firing, it's the same materials I've been working with for years.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Jun 5

While I appreciate how full and lush celandine looks, it is invasive, toxic, and yellow so out it goes! Replacing it with sweet fern, which is native, whimsical and delicious! The roses were too perfect to resist while at the garden center trying to find a scythe 😆 #landscape #garden #nativeplants

The flowers are celandine poppies, which produce a bright orange latex when broken which is really cool. As wonderfully luscious and full as it looks, they're also invasive, toxic, and yellow so I'm ripping them all out. Pretty shallow root systems so it was actually pretty easy.

This is Sweet Fern. The leaves and the weird little nutlet spiky things are edible, and quite tasty. It is native to my area and will hopefully fill out the border in place of the celandine I ripped out. I'll add some hostas and fiddleheads into the mix back there too, making the whole back border garden edible 😁

I absolutely love sweet fern. It smells amazing, it tastes good, and the way I describe it's looks; The result of a Fern's one night stand with marijuana.

The sweet fern I intended to buy, I'm excited to replace the invasive flowers taking over the edges of the property with delicious natives. These roses on the other hand, were just too stunning to pass up! This is without any sort of filter or enhancement and they look unreal! The color is more of lilac's purple in person, my phone wants to make them an intense pink for some reason.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· May 26

One of my soap dispensers in Lobster, accented in platinum luster #lobster #oneinamillion #luster #porcelain

A soap dispenser, in Lobster! With platinum luster.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· May 26

Now THIS is what a good time looks like! Set up a folding table with my patio chair because I spent way too much of a beautiful day inside at my day job. #sunshine #pottery #painting #wip #pottersofbluesky

LOTS of new pieces to paint, a nice little cocktail, and tunes to take advantage of the last couple hours of daylight.

Just keeps getting cuter and cuter!!! I think I'm going to paint the base the little dragon sits on in a nice pearl grey, just soft and neutral so the colors pop

One half of the Throwdown Make Along bookend project! The other one had a break, but I'm going to attempt to glaze it back together.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· May 23

This is quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever made! A bank to go in my best friend's dragon inspired nursery! I have a ton of old coins, including a bunch from different countries pre-Euro that I'll put in as the beginning of their own little hoard 😁 #baby #bank #nursery #handmade #somuchlove

I threw the sphere shape, and the bottom is actually going to be a giant cork so dropped coins don't crack anything and it can be opened without breaking. Hand sculpted the dragon with some coins and gems!

After shrinking that slot should still fit any sized coin, I'm going to put some half dollars, francs, kronar, and rupees in it to start baby's own little hoard of adventures!

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· May 8

I went to BullMoose this afternoon and now I officially have some vinyl! The player should be arriving by the end of next week and I'm so excited! These are what I grabbed just browsing the clearance section;

I love Irish music, and it's fantastic for getting moving and doing housework.

If one is going to have a vinyl collection, Eurythmics this really just feels like a staple. 🤣

I know absolutely nothing about this one, but the photo is everything I'm going for, and it's in my favorite art nouveau aesthetic for the font, $3 and still sealed so what a fun discovery this will be! Even if the songs are awful, it's going to be so much fun finding out!

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· May 7

I was intending to do this lamp in two parts, with a top more like the initial bottle form I made, but I think I actually like this idea even better, just pull a bit more height out of it now that it doesn't have to support more weight. #pottersofbluesky #lamp #progress #testform #porcelain

I was intending to put a second piece on this, about the same shape just the other way around, but I think I actually like how the glass follows that line to complete the curve on its own.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Apr 29

Not really anything in the way of colors, but I did get some lovely smoke effects! #pitfiredpottery #peek #results

Just some browns mixed in with grey and black, but the copper scrubby mesh did leave patches of texture on a couple pieces, and the smoke textures are nice. I'll be posting the individual works later on.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Apr 29

FIYAH! First of the season, and it's got some pretty cool stuff in it 😎 Unloading it after work tonight!

Pit firing the bears from my Throwdown challenge, along with a couple vases and smaller things! A mix of red onion, dried flowers, lots of coffee grounds and some rock salt.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Apr 23

Playing around with some lamp forms! The base is too short for both of these, but I feel like it's a good direction. After some more experiments I'll probably put it to a Patreon vote one day for which goes into production. #pottersofbluesky #lamp #thrifted #vintageglass #handmade #porcelain #ideas

The porcelain bottle body of this shade is too short, and I think this style of glass will look better on an extremely narrow body, more like a vintage lamp post.

Too short for this globe style shade as well, but I actually really like the way it transitions into the shade, it has a nice and solid presence about it. Another 3-4 inches in height, and a little wider at the base and I think it's there.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Apr 21

So glad I have someone to proofread my application for a teaching position with the local charter school 🤣

Fennel takes her proofreading duties very seriously, her summer adventure plans are on the line here!

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Apr 19

Making a citrus cinnamon chicken for the first use of my Throwdown tagine! In that pile of fruit, pepper and onion is a hen seared in bacon grease. In at 325 til it smells irresistible! #pottersofbluesky #tagine #cookware #winnerwinner #chicken #dinner

A Cornish game hen, seared off in bacon grease buried in a bed of red onion, sweet peppers, carrots, a handful of grape tomatoes, sliced lemons and blood orange. Seasoned with cinnamon and spices, with a splash of hard cider as braising liquid.

And all that still fit under the lid to my tagine! Patterned in Dalton's Brookie, this is the first time I've cooked in one of these, and I'm incredibly excited! Into a cold oven to avoid thermal shocking the porcelain, set to 325°F and I'm going to let it simmer away until it smells too good to resist! It's a whole Cornish hen, probably go about an hour and a half maybe? Never cooked one of those either so we'll see what happens. Probably let it go two hours, the lid is designed to keep the steam in and everything stays juicy.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Apr 15

I forgot to post more of the photos of the show pieces from a couple weeks ago! I love any opportunity to use fresh flowers. #pottersofbluesky #bloomscroll #floral #show #newwork #artshow #freshcutflowers #display

A small bottle vase that was in the March show

A large bottle with hyacinths, featuring my newest design Rain!

A bottle vase I made back in college, but I was particularly pleased with this arrangement with the leftover flowers from the March show

The smaller of the wreath vases I had in the March show, this one hangs on the wall

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Mar 28

I did not know a model was necessary for housewares, but J'Zargo makes a very good point, he is a handsome cat. #studiomanager #model #cat #tabby #pottersofbluesky

The warm grey tones of my Beach Rocks wreath vase do compliment his silver tabby colors very well.

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Mar 22

The first pieces out of my own kiln are at Oasis, in downtown Waterville. I couldn't be happier! A few ideas that have been in my head for the last several years finally came to life! #pottery #pottersofbluesky #artshow #newwork

A wall hanging wreath vase in my Beach Rocks design, with red and white flowers

My work got to be on its own table, with wall hangings on the beams!

This is the first time I've gotten to actually put flowers in this shape, and I LOVE IT!!!

Such a great space, I have the tagine from my Throwdown series, a few small bottles, one of my wreath vases, and a nice little orb I threw a while back

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Mar 12

I am so excited to be able to add COLOR again!!! This one is going to be pretty wild looking when I'm done. Unloading on Monday! #pottersofbluesky #color #underglaze #howiamaco #layers #glaze #tagine

I'm finally able to start adding colors! The Tagine I threw with The Great Pottery Throwdown, building up some greens and bright yellow. This one is pretty magical when it's done

Foxtail Studio@foxtailfcs· Feb 7

Well, I asked my studio manager what he was up to, and this was his answer 😂 #pottersofbluesky #studiomanager #sillykitty #quick #lookbusy #totallywasntnappingonthejob #important #duties