Back in the studio… and the texture fun continues…

After a wonderful weekend of pottery fun & camaraderie…
and a really long drive back Sunday evening… it felt great to be back
in the saddle again this morning. With a beautiful sunrise to boot.

Well, the original plan for today was to get up and go hiking, then drive home.
But the possibility of seeing more pottery and chatting with some of the artists won out.

So we drove back up to our very first stop – Bob Briscoe’s studio. We got out and looked
around… not at all surprised by how few pots were left. It was a much slower morning
so we actually got to talk to some of the artists. Including a very nice discussion with
Bob Briscoe & Suze Lindsay. They make such great pots, and have been successful potters
for a long time, so it was great for Amy & I to spend some “quality time” with them.

We then head off to “squeeze in” a quick hike at the Interstate State Park along the river.
The weather was beautiful and it felt great to play outside for a change! But then, all too soon,
it was time to say goodbye to Amy, hop in our cars and each of us drive back to our respective
homes. Sadly, my drive is a LOT longer than hers. So I just got home a little while ago…
but knew I had to do a quick update.

But like I’ve said already… I HAVE A LOT OF PHOTOS FROM THIS WEEKEND!!!
So I am hoping to dig through them all, do a little editing, and then do some more
in-depth posts that regale our pottery adventures for the whole weekend. Stop back soon…
and relive our entire weekend playing in this weekend’s Pottery Mecca!!!

Another wonderful day in Minnesota. Surrounded by lots of clay. Both raw & fired.
We started our morning with a trip to Continental Clay to buy more clay & supplies.
Saves on shipping, plus they were having a sale on B-Clay… buy four, get one free!

After Continental, we went back to the Pottery Tour to continue with more studios.
We hit the last two we missed on Day One, and then returned to a few on the way back.
We stopped by to chat with Delores some more, and drop off some porcelain we had
picked up for her “worker” Roberta Polfus. We were a full-service tag team this weekend!
Then onto other stops – one of which included a nice discussion with Steven Hill
who I’ve been friends with for a few years. He had some great insights to share…
as well as us gushing about his beautiful pots!!!

Again, I’ve taken far too many photos… which I hope to post by Monday evening.
But until then… today’s final tally was two pieces by Ryan Greenheck…
a new addition to The Tour this year… and a new addition to my list of favorites!!!

Okay, so the pottery tour started today at 10:00am… but I was still in Chicago yesterday.
Not wanting to miss any of “the good pots,” I hopped in my car at 2:00am and drove
straight through to the Minneapolis area to meet up with my friend Amy at Bob Briscoe’s
studio. We did some shopping, and lot of admiring, a bit of socializing…  and more shopping!
I’ve taken a LOT of photos and will try to get them posted in the next couple days!

My final tally today…
Matthew Metz: 1 – Suze Lindsay: 1 – Jo Severson: 4 – Ellen Shankin: 1 – Dolores Fortuna: 1
So I’m exhausted… and the funds are exhausted too!!!

But Amy did really well too…
Matthew Metz: 1 – Donna Polseno: 1 – Jenny Mendes: 1 – Shoko Teruyama: 1
Laurie Shaman: 2 – Bill Grossman: 1 -   She’s claiming that one is a gift… ha.

And still more studios to go to tomorrow… and maybe a return visit or two…

I can’t wait… tomorrow is the kick-off of the biggest & best Pottery Tour of the season!!!
The St. Croix River Valley Pottery Tour.

Three days of fun with incredible pottery by 46 incredible artists from around the country…
all converging in Minnesota for the weekend. And I’ll be there with my friend Amy to do
a little admiring, socializing, networking & shopping!!! Photos & stories to come…

Another beautiful morning…
with wisps of beautiful pastels dancing across the morning sky.
And another beautiful ride to celebrate the day.

After I finished up my class demo pieces, it was time for some Texture Fun!!!
So I pulled out my texture tool collection and started making patterns…
which then started turning into a whole new project. We’ll see what develops…

So last night was Week Six in our Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheel class.
Let me just say… MY class is a little more advanced than the other beginning classes.
I have a tendency to push my beginners a little more than most. But it’s exciting to see
how they’ve all progressed and are now tackling more advanced pieces. So exciting.

Last night we tackled some more surface decoration techniques. I love showing off
a lot of techniques to my beginners… hoping that at least a couple of them “stick”
somewhere in their heads. If nothing else, it gets them excited to see more fun things
they can do with clay.

So we did some carving, basic sprigs, more slip, carving through slip and more.
The demo’s turned out to be a little too long for class, so I had to finish them up tonight.
And thanks again to my friend Amy Higgason for inspiring the carved & sprigged bowl.

And then we tackled making ovals on the wheel. And the “illusion” of making them look
like the whole piece may have been thrown on the wheel. So we did “the easy” method
of throwing the walls of a cylinder and attaching it to a slab. But the trick is to throw a deep
spiraled bottom piece, and then to stretch it to make the throwing rings appear oval-ized!
Some scoring & slipping… then some stamping & fluting… and today I finished them off
along the bottom edges and added some handles to the large casserole.
The smaller oval will remain handle-less! But still stamped… let’s not get crazy!!!

So the weather seemed to take a turn for the better today. A little cold & cloudy
in the morning, but the afternoon became sunny and a tad warmer. So I couldn’t
resist… as I head out for a wonderful afternoon bike ride along the lakefront.

And the forsythia were still in bloom – adding a sparkle of yellow along the way!
I love how the Spring colors change from week to week. Different flowers seem to appear
out of nowhere… making the lakefront a never-ending natural palette.

So it was a beautiful ride… and now I seem to have a little sunburn as a little souvenir.
Err… maybe that’s more windburn than sunburn?!