I need to put up a post on the process that these Medallions went through, at BOYCC, but for now I want to show the glazes and explain the choices I made, before I forget! I tried to choose each glaze because of some connection with the person, or some aspect that would play up an aspect of the medallion itself.

(they were sculpted in a workshop at the Convention, and the students varied from amateurs to currently working artists)

Here is the group that I ended up glazing yesterday. There were more medallions, but a couple of the molds went home with their artists right after BOYCC, and Sue Sifton and Deb McDermott will be coming here and glazing theirs separately. So, these six are what we are looking at today.

Cynthia Perry sculpted "Foalie", a sweet little foal head that reminded me of a bronze medal. So, I chose "Patina" as a glaze, which is a matte 'stoneware' finish that I felt would play up the sculptural aspects of "Foalie". Hope you like her, Cynthia!

Jackie Arns-Rossi sculpted this delightful "Kitty". I had a hard time figuring out what glaze to use, because I don't know Jackie that well and the kitty didn't tell me what to use. So I used the Elemental "Blue Ridge", which has breaks of pink, mauve, and tan brown. It has a lovely feel to it, and the way it breaks in the low areas highlights the gentle detail of "Kitty".

Katie Younger-Gehrt sculpted "Happy Happy Koi Koi", a koi fish in a pond with water lilys. It reminds me of an antique Japanese piece of artwork, so I used "China Sea" crackle. You may not be able see the crackling, but it is there and the glaze pools darker in the deep areas. I applied an extra layer to the water areas to enhance this effect slightly. 

Kim Bjorgo-Thorne sculpted this Rhodesian Ridgeback dog, "Dugu", and to play up the very loose and sculptural aspects of the medallion, I used a combination of "China Sea" and "Mocha Cream" crackles, which made an almost granite like color and a crackled finish. 

Kim Knight sculpted this foal head, and since Kim is a geologist, I chose "Smokey Agate" as a glaze. Agate, the mineral, gets "smokey" in the vicinity of radioactivity which makes the tips of the crystals darker than the base. It was one of my favorite minerals when I was collecting them, and I hope Kim likes the finished result!

Melanie Miller sculpted this horse head with a Celtic knot design around the rim, and I wanted to play up the delicate design with an art glaze. I chose "Peacock" because it was a favorite color when I used to do PH awards. "Peacock" lays darker in the deep spots and is also semi translucent, so it shows off the delicacy of the sculpture. 

These medallions, from start to finish, have been an interesting journey for both the artists and the workshop leaders, and finally for me, as I was able to cast and glaze them. Thanks also to Deb McDermott and Sue Sifton, who came and helped to cast and clean them for a very fun day!

His mold has a lot of itty bitty goofy hand formed pieces, which make it complicated to demold. Not only could I not have made this mold ten years ago, I doubt that I could have demolded this horse ten years ago and put him back together!

Following a discussion on Breakables about Maggie's Stormy, I thought I might put up some photos of other Stormys that I have finished. (They have all been spoken for, but they have not all been finished yet. They take me a long time and I can't do them back to back :)) 
First is one that I wish I had a better picture of, he is the Stormy that I did for Karen Grimm when she came and tiled my kitchen floor. She bought the supplies, we did the work together,and I made the horse for her in trade. Of course, Karen loved Appaloosas, so he is a few spot Appy. He is much prettier with a blue or colored background, but I didn't have time to take more pic before he went home with her. He is the only Stormy that I didn't give a name to before he left.

He is also in a satin finish, unusual for a Stormwatch. Karen passed away from cancer, in May.

Joanie

I always liked the head shot of this guy:

And then some in-progress shots of Elli's Stormy, the intensive scritchy roany one.

Note how the last photo shows the chest only half done. It tooks WEEKS of hand numbing work to scritch this guy. After scritching an area, I would go back in a day or two and do some more, to take away the 'pattern' that you tend to fall into when doing repetitive work. Finally, gave him a good all over look to blend any areas that needed more roaning. My hand still hurts just looking at the photos!

These photos were randomly in with the glazed Stormys, so here are just a few views of a Stormy being cast. His hind leg/tail, plus six fly away pieces from his forelock, mane and tail are all cast in separate molds. Once he is cast, and I start assembling him, it takes a full eight hours to finish putting one together and sitting him down to dry. 

When I run across more pictures of the casting process, I will post them.