One of the side “perks” of doing the whole Pottery Tour thing is watching for the signs
along the road just north of Taylors Falls for The Rogue Potters. A fun group of potters
making their own way… with a great, “well-seasoned” wood kiln and a really cool
brick chimney going right through the roof!!

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Great to see my friend & former teacher Steve Lee
showing at one of the pottery tour stops on Friday.
Luckily, one of his inlaid porcelain plates came home with me!!
So great to have Talented Friends!!!

With predictions of rain & clouds for last Friday, it sure turned out beautiful…
especially bright & cheery with the colorful works of Karin Kraemer
on the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour.

Our first stop Friday on the St. Croix Pottery Tour found us having a nice chat with sgraffito master Matt Metz. And then this beauty decided it “had to” come home with me to join my ever-growing Matt Metz Collection. First souvenir of the St. Croix Pottery Tour!

We had practically perfect weather this past weekend as we enjoyed
the St. Croix River Valley Pottery Tour. So many pots. SO MUCH FUN!!!

Doughnut filled with banana cream, crunchy peanut butter, bananas, syrup and the best bacon ever!!! The Velvet Elvis at Hi-Lo Diner! And yes... I ate the whole thing!!! Yum.

And now 0ff to the Pottery Tour…

You know you’re headed North when you get to the Norske Nook for homemade pie!!!

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Playing with porcelain again… and a bit of black slip!
Pretty good chance that there’s some decorative sgraffito carving in my not-so-distant future!

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Another quiet morning along the lakefront.
Calming clouds with a cool breeze sweeping through.

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So it’s been a BIG week for me and NEW TOOLS!!!
First the care packages arrive from STODOLA…
and then earlier this week I got yet another care package in the mail…

This one I knew about as I had ordered it online from Phil Poburka at Bison Studios.
But so excited to see them finally arrive… in such a fancy box no less!

So you may have heard me talking about these before. I have coveted these tools for quite awhile. And was lucky enough that some of my students were “actually listening to me” and picked up on it. At the end of last session’s “Lillstreet Throwdown” class, my students presented me with an AMAZING Thank You Gift Certificate for these Bison Tools!!!

Have I mentioned lately that I have the BEST STUDENTS EVER!!!

Anyway, so I went on line to order my Bison Trimming Tools.
They’re all handmade with beautifully hand-turned handles. In fact, when you open the box you are stuck by the soothing smell of fresh-cut wood and some sort of oil. Wonderful. And then the blades themselves are made out of tungsten carbide. So much stronger than the usual ones that dull down so quickly! Guaranteed to be the sharpest trimming tools ever!!!

So I went with two similar ones… most like my favorite Kemper tools.
But I got them in the two different blade sizes he offers… standard and narrow.
Each with some beautiful woodgrain and different handles shapes!

Now I just can’t wait to break them in. Although I’m a little concerned
about what it’s going to feel like actually trimming with a sharp tool?
Who amongst us hasn’t been trimming with dull blades for years???

And again, HUGE THANK YOU to the most amazing students ever!!!
You guys rock!!!

And if you’re lucky, I’ll even share… and let you give them a test drive!

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