New Dove Tree Platter

I was happy to be back at the studio today.  I took the first 30 minutes just moving around some of my pieces from the Tony Clennell workshop, and getting myself settled and ready to start something new.  I decided I would do a leaf imprint platter using one of my styrofoam hump moulds which I made last year.

Unfortunately, I didn't have Linda's extrusion pattern which I had last time, to make the feet and rims, so I did my best with one which was there, but it needed some cutting and altering to make it work.

I was so busy, I forgot to take a photo of the foot while I had it flipped over.  My first photo is once I force-dried it a bit with a hair dryer, so that I could turn it right side up:

The leaves are from my beloved Davidii involucrata (dove or handkerchief tree).  The dots are from the back of my sharpie.

With only 30 or 40 minutes to spare, I decided to go for it, to extrude and attach a rim.  I'm glad I did, although it was a lot of work to clean the extruder, and my table area, so I ended up being a bit late in cleaning up.  I didn't feel too bad, as a few others were even later, but I don't want to get into that habit of running overtime.

Here is the final piece, before carrying it downstairs to dry slowly :

It's a bit faint to see in the photo, but I've got some lovely textures there.

I have two options in my mind for glazing it.  One would be typical of me, to brush Deep Blue (leaves) and maybe Amber Celadon (dots) glaze and rub off with a sponge, to highlight the texture.  Then spray the whole thing in Clear or Celadon.  The second would be to dip or spray the whole thing in the newly formulated Tam's Green, which is quite a rich colour, but would break nicely on the texture.  I think it would be more subtle, but still could be quite a statement.

I wish I had two platters, so I could try one of each.  Maybe I should make another one next week.  We'll see.  I have an abundance of good leaves this time of year.  I had wanted to do a fern one, but somehow  couldn't get a layout I liked.  So maybe that will be next week's challenge.  Stay tuned.