We had some “colorful” fun with my family & cousins from Minnesota doing some Easter egg coloring. Many were simple color dips… but I went for the “textured” grid effect using a rubber grippy pad & rubber bands! I happened to find the grippy grid things in the grocery aisle… darn those impromptu add-on sales items!

Worked well on the first one… so I ventured out into a two-toned world! With a band of rubber grid. Half dipped in yellow, and then half dipped in blue…  overlapping for green?!

Christopher was right there trying the new technique with great results… and focus!

A good time was had by all.
We ended with some colored fingertips and some very vibrant eggs!

A new stamped teapot fresh out of this week’s class soda firing.  A sweet little teapot from a class demo.  They always want to learn how to make lidded jars… and then they get daring and ask about teapots. Pretty adventurous for my “beginning” students!!!

I always tell my students to throw an extra lid & an extra spout “just in case.”
I didn’t “need” my extra spout… so it turned into a pretty sweet little bud vase bottle.

Finished building some new salt & pepper shakers. Kinda like my textured tiles…
but a little larger, a different texture on each side and waiting for my next soda firing.
The shakers in this batch are slightly smaller than the ones I’ve been making.
Excited to see how they turn out… and I still need to build some trays for them!

Well, I still have some old clothes back from my previous life in Corporate America… so this might be a great opportunity to clean out the closet AND get some really cool Easter Eggs at the same time. Almost seems too cool to be true?!

Click here for the instructional video.

Then some creative wrapping of the egg with the “tie” squares. Tying them tight with strings.
The another layer wrapped with white fabric. Boil the bundled eggs… etc… then voila’…

The Easter Bunny will be hopping into town soon….
and I’m still looking for fun ways to decorate some eggs.
Here’s a fun & “natural” way to add some Spring colors & patterns to your eggs!

Click here for the instructional video.

After posting last night about re-hydrating my dried-up “vintage” clay, two of my Facebook Fans, Amy & Sharon, turned me onto this video. It’s a quick-fix for making that bone dry block of clay re-useable again. I’ll definitely give this technique a try on my next dry block. Seems easy enough. Thanks to Janice Wilson Hughes of Evolution Stoneware for sharing her re-hydrating trick on YouTube.

Click here for the YouTube video by Janice Wilson Hughes.

Gorgeous sunrise sky show…
and a few moments later… even MORE gorgeous!!!

Windy. But well worth it. Tough to pedal…
but so easy to appreciate the wonderful sunrise this morning!

I’ve been doing so well at reclaiming & re-using my clay…
that I kind of “forgot” to use some of my “new” clay. Well, new back in 2011 or 2013.

Here’s the key to the secret code: The last two digits of the Continental Clay code is the year it was produced, and the number before is the month. So I’ve got boxes from August 2011 and February 2013!!! Both of which were practically dry!

So I spent a lot of tonight pounding the hardened blocks on the ground to “re-awaken” the thixotropic clay. Didn’t soften it enough, so I also added some holes and filled them with water. I’m hoping that in a couple days we’ll be back to some good usable clay, And I’ll be able to use that five year old clay as though it were “new” again!