While pedaling downtown this morning, I found some great rusty metal & concrete “urban decay” highlighted in the morning sun. And you know how much I LOVE rusty metal!!!

With a forecast for more rain & snow tomorrow… it sure felt great to squeeze in
a beautiful sunrise ride this morning before “the bad weather” hits us!!!

Snow?… really?! It’s mid-APRIL!!!!… in case anyone is wondering!

Another great piece from the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN fresh from the kiln… one of the first challenges where they had to carve away at least half of the weight of their bowl. Teresa did a wonderful job carving a simple & precise pattern… perfectly accentuated by her VERY FIRST soda-firing!!! LOVE IT!!! Sure, they may be a small S-crack in the bottom… but the bowl was going to leak in other places anyways, right?!

Save

So fun to see some of the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN projects coming out of the kiln… like this incredible “creamer” from the Beatles Sugar & Creamer challenge! Well done Jon!!!… everyone needs an adorable yellow submarine in their life!

Back in the studio refilling inventory a bit… building enough work to fill another soda kiln in a couple weeks. Oh, and look at this…. making more MUGS!!! Go figure!

Last night’s class demo… throwing taller.
Showing them ways to get the clay to move up the wall, off the bottom and how to get their pieces taller… like this 3lbs. of clay! So here’s my demo vase as I threw it… and then as I stamped it tonight. I definitely like the stamped one better!!!

Save

With cold rain, wind & verging on a mix of “sleetish-snow,”
good to see that Spring is still trying to push its way through!!!

We’re in our third week of my Beginning Wheel class. They’re moving along nicely, but at some point they’re going to be ready to start decorating… and “quite possibly” do a little stamping. So last night in class we sat down to have them make some new stamps for themselves to use. Of course they  need to dry and be bisque fired first. But then they’ll get to play with texture & pattern. Two of my FAVORITE things!!!

Last night in class we had some delicacies from Japan… after “searching” all of Japan for OREO’s, my student Michelle returned from vacation with “biscuits” which were as close as she could find. Yummy… but still not an OREO.

And to seal the deal, she also brought Japanese Kit-Kat candy bars!!!
Sure they may have been GREEN matcha tea flavor?!!!!.. but still Michelle ROCKS!!!

And yes, for the record… it is VERY DARK when I start out on the morning bike ride…

After yesterday’s crazy-cool-cloud-show… today was quite the opposite.
Not a cloud to be found – just clear skies & great pedaling!!!

Save