Samirah
@samirahsteinmeyer.bsky.social
1.2K followers 270 following 530 posts
ceramics | minerals and rocks | landscapes | earthy distractions samirahsteinmeyer.com
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Hello! I'm Samirah and I just joined Bluesky a few days ago.

I've been making nature inspired functional pottery in a range of styles for 13 years. Here are photos of past work. Recent work incorporates regional rocks and minerals into my clays and glaze.

#portfolioday
#ceramics #pottery
A close up of a sculpted porcelain skeleton with her hand on her skull. Embedded in clay that was sculpted to resemble a rocky, mossy surface. Several desert inspired ceramic mugs wheel thrown using a tan clay with the lower exterior unglazed and featuring sculpted flowering cacti. The upper exterior is glazed in a sky blue. My hand holding a porcelain mug with a sculpted, glazed dung beetle (and a ceramic ball of dung behind the beetle). The mug is glazed with a dark, sparkly aventurine glaze that I developed in 2019. Several porcelain clay pots sculpted to look rocky, with cacti or moss wedged into fractures in the clay surface. In the front is a ceramic basket form with a handle shaped like a hoodoo arch bridge. The interior is glazed deep turquoise.
Thank you!!💗 I make a version with colors that are more true to the desert, but this color combo makes me happy
My landscapes always look like they're at risk of collapsing. Want a little precariousness with your favorite beverage?

There's a band of igneous stones embedded and fired into the porcelain.

#ceramicart #ceramics #pottery #pottersofbluesky #ceramicsofbluesky #porcelain #geological #cacti #desert
Meet my Sky Islands clear glaze! The recipe consists of 90% locally scavenged calcium carb, quartz, and feldspar (1st photo). 2nd photo shows earlier attempts at making a clear desert mineral/rock glaze.

#geology #rocks #minerals #ceramics #ceramicglaze #glazenerd #pottersofbluesky #artprocess
A porcelain test tiles showing a clear glaze made from the minerals and rock just behind the tile. Three porcelain test tiles in the foreground. Left to right: The left tile is a gritty primitive attempt at making a rock glaze using local materials. The middle tile is another attempt using local materials that created a tan, cracking glaze. The right tile is finally looking like a clear glaze! Yay!
Reposted by Samirah
Stunning: A pair of emerging stars in Lynds 483 have sculpted this radiant, hourglass-shaped cloud of gas and dust.

In a few million years, each star could grow to match the Sun’s mass, leaving behind only a thin disk where planets might eventually take shape

(Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)
Over here sculpting rocks with rocks in the rocks.

#rocks #minerals #geology #ceramics #ceramic #workinprogress #potteryofbluesky #pottersofbluesky #ceramicstudio #desert #handmadecup #cactus #landscape
Reposted by Samirah
You look a little down, have a bowl of cosmos
#sciart
Bowl featuring star resembling CW Leonis and surrounding galaxies. (Side). Bowl featuring star resembling CW Leonis and surrounding galaxies.
Reposted by Samirah
For the fifth day of #Invertefest a minoan mashup cup, kamares ware outside, marine (and invertebrate) style inside.
#pottery, #ceramics
Black clay cup with a white and red waves and circles pattern outside, marine creature with shell and tentacles  inside Inside of a black clay cup with two white marine creatures with shell and tentacles on the two sides.
Reposted by Samirah
Today I want to share with you all one of my favorite #MacroPhotos I have ever taken. On July 18th, 2014 I had a magical encounter with this #dragonfly, the Great Blue Skimmer, #Libellula vibrans and I was able to capture this focus stack.

#invertefest
#insects
#Photography
#MacroPhotography
A photo of the face of a dragonfly with intense blue eyes from the front.  The large blue eyes mottled with black spots surround the roundly rectangular pale blue central face area.  There is a small black triangle at the top of the face between the eyes where there are three small oceli, small primitive eyes.
My mom used to make those kinds of mugs, with a surprise at the bottom, but with something cuter like a lil frog. A roach mug definitely appeals to a person's ridiculous, mischievous inner kid. Harmless fun, until the mug gets thrown against the wall.
I have yet to hear from any customers about their piece meeting a violent end. Not yet...
That's a real concern! I kept one of my roach bowls (it had a glaze flaw) and I use it to scoop packing peanuts into packages. Every now and then, I get that automatic recoil when I first open the bag of peanuts and catch a glance of the ceramic roach 😂 It's such an instinctual response.
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks!
The only scarab I have made is a dung beetle, with ball of dung of course. I have added gold luster, but have not tried any colorful metallics. That would look beautiful though!
Happy to hear you like it :) This mug sold a few years ago. I haven't made roach mugs for over a year. Perhaps I should make a few for my next batch...
An older design to share for #InverteFest. Very few people enjoy seeing a #cockroach on a mug they're drinking from, which is why I just had to make these. Only a customer with a particular sense of humor brings this into their home.
#potteryofbluesky #ceramicmug #ceramics #wheelthrown #bugs #roach
Oh wow that is stunning! I bet you're brimming with new ideas...
Thanks for sharing ♡
Thank you! It was fun trying to figure out how to depict those fragile legs/antennae.
I can imagine, they don't understand that you're just trying to relocate them. I've always used a twig to help them flip back onto their legs when they get stuck on their backs. They just grab onto the twig.