Catherine Cheek

Catherine "Kater" Cheek is a writer and artist.

Author's posts

Winter Trees Switchplate

This is a purchased piece of bisqueware that I ordered online. I would like to make some of my own, but calculating the shrinkage is too much fuss for my taste. One of the things I wanted to try with this kiln was how the black wax worked. I’ve seen some lovely tiles that use …

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Book Review: The Canterbury Tales, a Retelling by Peter Ackroyd

The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling by Peter Ackroyd I took a class in Middle English in college, and quickly realized that it was about as comprehensible as Dutch. Unlike Shakespeare, Middle English has to be translated. Too bad, because what I read of The Canterbury Tales seemed interesting. So when I saw this at the …

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Tiny Smiley Balls 2

Here are two more smiley balls, ready to give away, once I file off the  pits left by the stilts. Astute observers will note that the colors of glaze are the same as on the “thorny pot” from December.

Book Review: Evolve, Vampire Stories of the New Undead

Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead by Nancy Kilpatrick Do you like vampires? No, do you REALLY like vampires? This is a collection of 24 short stories, all dealing with vampires and how they have changed in modern fiction. Editor Nancy Kilpatrick is a little obsessed with vampires, and her prologue is worth reading. …

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Failed Smiley Balls

Part of doing art of any kind involves learning from failure.  I find the low-fire glazes rather tiresome to apply, especially when you can’t set them down until the glaze dries.  I made the nifty double-fork tongs to help glaze them (see last post) and I naturally assumed that it would be easy to just …

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