Marlee Kitchen's Art Portfolio

Marlee Kitchen Stonewear clay and acrylic magnets 2025

For this project, I made a set of magnets using clay. The designs I chose were a pumpkin, a sand dollar, and. a cookie. I chose the pumpkin to honor the fall season and to be festive. I then made the sand dollar because of my love for the water and being in the sun during the summer. And finally, the cookie to show my hobby of baking. Some of the tools I used to make my magnets were a point tool, a wooden shaping tool, a sponge, and a polishing pin. One challenge I had was trying to get my chocolate chips to stay on the cookie because when I would go to slip and score them on, they would just smash inward. I solved this by making my chocolate chips thicker, which worked, and my cookie looked complete. Another challenge I had with this project was making the slits in my sand dollar. This was challenging because none of the slits I made looked even or right. To solve this problem, I decided to trace the slits before I cut them to make sure that they were even enough. This worked, and my sand dollar looked good. Overall, this project was a good start to the year and was a great way to start to get used ot the clay tools. 

Marlee kitchen  Stonewear clay and glass pitcher 2025

For this project, I made a clay pitcher and then glazed it.  For materials, I used a rolling pin, a pattern, the coil press, a pointy tool, and a sponge. The design of my pitcher was supposed to emulate one that I saw at a pottery store once. One challenge I had with this project was getting the handle to attach to my mug. This was difficult because it seemed as my my pitcher was too heavy for my handle to hold. I solved this by reshaping my handle to make it more suitable for my pitcher. This worked, and my pitcher held up nicely.  Overall, this project was not one of my favorites, but it did help me learn how to press patterns with a rolling pin and use a coil press. 

Marlee kitchen Stonewear clay and glass charcuterie  2025

For this project, I made a clay charcuterie plate and a matching cup. For materials, I used a wooden shaping tool, glaze, and a sponge. First, I made the slab of my clay and started to shape the spots on it. Then, I made my matching sauce cup. After everything was ready, I then started to glaze. One problem I had when I was glazing was that the glaze didn't fire right the first time. So, I had to do a re-glazing and re-firing. This worked, and my plate and cup were looking good. I liked the way my project turned out, even though I had to remake part of it. 

Marlee Kitchen, Stoneware clay and glass mug  2025

For this project, my inspiration was the concept of space. I wanted to create a mug that resembled the sun, but not just paint the sun on it. I wanted to create a 3D version of the sun on my mug to give it a more realistic appearance. First, I made the shape of the mug that I wanted, which was a bigger and wider mug shape. I then made the handle, which was two coil-pressed logs slipped and scored together. After assembling the mug, I then let it dry out and started the glazing process. For my colors, I used red and orange, but not yellow because there was none. I layered the red and orange on. the mug. One thing that was challenging for me during this project was glazing in between the sun rays, because no matter what, there were always bits of clay that were exposed. It took lots of time to get in between all the crevices. Overall, I enjoyed this project, and it was a lot of fun to make, although it was sometimes challenging. 

Marlee Kitchen, Non-Ceramic project cardboard

For my non-ceramic project, I chose to do a castle. For the base, I made a cube out of cardboard and then left the top of it open so you could see inside. I then created an opening for the door and glued a string to the base so it could open and close. After the base was done, I then mixed up some paint for the castle. I mixed black and white to create a solid grey color for the base of the castle. After that, I made some greens for the grass. I first made the base. of my castle grey, and after that I started on the green grass. I mixed different variations of