Painting some accents & details onto my lidded jars with colored flashing slips. These lidded jars will all be soda-fired… so hopefully the porcelain will get a beautiful blushed effect & the colored flashing slips will pop with color! Working my way towards ART IN THE GARDEN with a few of our special collaboration pieces!!!

Lidded jars without knobs… whoops… but, part of the plan!!! Working on these lidded jars as part of my collaboration pieces for ART IN THE GARDEN. Drilling holes through leatherhard porcelain?… why not use an actual drill bit???

Who knew that one little piece of pottery could draw out such creative wackiness?! Whether it’s a horn-holder on top of a watermelon?… or a kitten spittle-catcher?… or a zucchini bread holder???

Looks like he might be going a little “covid-quarantine-crazy”… but I LOVE It… and I can’t wait to see what he’ll do with larger pieces of pottery?!!! Bring it on Matthew!!!

My globe thistle is finally blooming… sure, maybe smaller than I had hoped for, and only TWO globe blooms. But this is my first season with them… thanks to my cousin Kimberley Sue who shared a cutting from her HUGE mother plant. So I know what to expected… in a few years!!!

Another entry in the “post-pandemic-shutdown” glazing of Lillstreet Throwdown projects… Christine finally got her colorful bowls back with some mixed results! For many of her projects in my Throwdown class, Christine was experimenting with some colorful underglazes, and slips made with Mason Stains. A bold move without testing the results first. Well, we finally have some of her pieces back to compare before & after firing.

Some of the colors worked well, some of them not-so-much. Orange looks like the big winner… turquoise good… green fired darker than expected but still nice… as well as the purple which actually turned out to be more of a deep blue?! Pretty, but blue. And the yellow?… GONE!

Here’s her set of four matching bowls… with colorful flowers!

And her set of matching dessert bowls…

And her tie-dyed bowls with swirled slip… again, orange is the WINNER!

YEAH!!! The lids all fit… as you can now hear me exhale!

Throwing lidded jars in porcelain with lids that fit is not an easy task. A lot of caliper measuring & hoping for the best. My biggest piece of advice?… throw a lot of extra lids. Because inevitably a “few” of them are not going to fit the way you want them too!

Packing up some of my handmade beads to send off to Kristin & Lynda! They’re both going to work their “magic” by somehow incorporating them into their work. It’s always so much fun to see how these collaborations come together for ART IN THE GARDEN… I can’t wait to see what they do!!!

Now we’re talking… fudge-covered mint OREO’s in a perfectly coordinated “mint green” bowl. Thanks for the photo Rosene… although MINE never make to a bowl??? Straight from package to mouth! No need to “dirty” the pottery!!!

Looks like a yummy stick-to-your-ribs kinda country breakfast over in Pittsburgh with my friends “celebrating” Monochromatic Monday in some handmade ceramic bowls!!!

Part two of my production today… the bottom jars to go with the new lids!!! The jar bottoms are a little further ahead as I just finished stamping them! Just hope the lids fit?… always said with fingers crossed.