Last night was the last night of the Summer session of my Tuesday night Beginning Wheel pottery class. It’s been a great ten-weeks of fun for the students. Each of them has made great advancements in their throwing. So we celebrated with a very sweet potluck, and a fun “Plate Exchange Game.” Everyone had to bring in a plate they had made during class to trade & exchange with someone else. Everyone brought in a plate and left with a different one.

By the end of the shenanigans, Catherine had my amber celadon stamped plate, and I ended up with this sweetie from my student Diane. She has been a “pottery sponge” every step of the way this session. Whether it has been tackling every demo, or finding as many new techniques as possible on YouTube, Diane has been cranking out some fun pieces all session long. This plate was thrown with Stoneware With Ochre for the dark chocolatey finish. She used a simple dragonscale tool for the pattern on the rim. After bisque firing, she inlaid temoku glaze in the pattern and gently wiped off the top surface – effectively leaving the temoku only in the deeper stamped recesses. She waxed the entire rim and then dipped the plate in an apple green celadon glaze for the center food surface. I love the pattern, and the shiny metallic-ness of the rim. It was so much fun having Diane in class… and watching her pottery adventure “unfold” every week. Nicely done Diane… can’t wait to have you back again next year during your teacher’s summer break!

So even took great glazing notes in her “adorable” handcrafted journal…
I would have expected nothing less!

Lots of clouds this morning. A blanket covering the city.

By the end of my ride, the blanket of clouds was passing through. You could literally see the “edge” of the stormfront as it left leaving blue skies in its wake.

Looking to the North…

Looking to the South…

And the middle section. Blue skies & white clouds… wafting above the layer of darkness.
You know how on the evening news the weatherman presents the map with a bold dashed line showing you where the edge of the storm mass is?… well, this morning I think I actually saw that dashed line up in the sky!!!

Clouded skies. Rusty pulley. Climbing mandevilla vine.
The perfect silhouette combination on my back porch.

Finished detailing another batch of mugs with colored flashing slips for my next soda kiln firing. Now to dry… then bisque… then glaze… then fire. Still a lot to do in the next couple weeks! Not to mention all of the other pots I still need to make to fill the kiln!!!

Some more textured tiles in the studio this evening.
Slab, pattern, square, repeat. Lots of textures. Lots of stamps. Lots of squares!

So much fun teaching today as I subbed for two of Catherine’s classes. The first one was “First Time Potters” who are just starting in their fourth clay class ever! So it was basic centering, cylinders, and bowls along with some ooh’s & ahh’s. The afternoon class was “Simply Soda” where I threw a platter, stamped it and then turned it into test tiles for the soda flashing slips the soda firing newbies want to test. So much fun… you know I’ll share any pottery “secret” and give away all of my tricks!!!

With a lot of clouds sweeping the morning sky,
sometimes a wide panoramic shot is the only way to properly capture its beauty.

This morning was more clouded than yesterday with a chance of rain later today.
So I took the opportunity to ride further south to get more miles in before the rain.
You could feel the change of wind & temperature as my ride continued… nice tailwind though!

A nice, dramatic view of the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier.

Low-flying clouds with a dramatic glow.

Nice sunrise ripples refelcting the morning sun at 31st Street Marina.

One of my students was thrilled to find her pot on the Student Show-Off Shelves.
It was an experiment of glazing with bubbles! Thanks to Dave & Will for introducing this new technique… which has now become “all the rage.”

Congrats Katie!!! Your bowl looks fantastic!

FYI… Full blog post to come… hold your horses…

Today I added handles onto my latest batch of cylinders-to-be-mugs. They’ve been under wraps for a couple days, waiting for my schedule to calm down a bit. But tonight I bit the bullet and tackled the mugs! I start by making “carrot-shaped” wedges of clay.

I then hold them by the fat end and pull a traditional handle. When I get the strap to the right width & thickness, I do a quick flip-over to establish the curve of the handle. I let them set-up like that for a few minutes before I start attaching them to the cylinders.

After a lot of scoring, slipping & attaching… the cylinders are now officially MUGS!!!
So now that they’re attached, I’m keeping them under wraps so that the moisture levels can settle down and even out a bit. I will add some colored flashing slip accents to them before I leave them out to dry.