Doing a little carving with a DiamondCore Tool on one of the sides of my blocks… sgraffito decorating was one of the guidelines I put forth for this week’s LILLSTREET THROWDOWN challenge!

Painting black slip on white porcelain… kinda antithetical,
but setting up a good “canvas” for a little sgraffito carving!

So it’s never quite as easy as you would think.. it takes several layers and several paintbrushes full of black slip before you start to get a nice even banded layer. But with a bit of paintbrush perseverance…. I finally got them done, back under plastic waiting for them to set-up a bit more… and then some day soon I’ll start carving some sgraffito patterns into the black banded areas!

Just a little early morning stamping going on… no sunrise bike ride in the rain!!! Instead, playing with some stamped patterns on these little porcelain bowls.

All stamped for now… back under plastic so they can stiffen up a bit more… and then I get to trim some footrings onto the bottoms of them!

Some smaller wall pieces by metal artist Darlys Ewoldt. Each one perfect it it’s own right… but even “perfect-er” when grouped together. I mean… more is more, right?!

Two AMAZING sculptural metal wall pieces by Darlys Ewoldt… hollow constructed forms with amazing color & patina surfaces. Just one of the talented artists at the Pop-Up Gallery Show this weekend at Space 900 in Evanston.

Just a couple of Sarah Chapman’s sculptural wall pieces… each with an actual pendant necklace that works into it now… but can easily be taken off to wear out as a piece of jewelry!!!

So good to spend time with my talented metalsmith friend Sarah Chapman this afternoon! She was here for a quick Pop-Up Show in Evanston at Space 900. Three talented artists working together to put on this gallery “sculpture” show… Sarah Chapman, Darlys Ewoldt & Steve Skinner.

And then if you’re going to binge-watch two episodes back-to-back, here’s a few pics from this week’s episode of THE GREAT POTTERY THROW DOWN. This episode is The Quarter Finals with their largest handbuilding project where some get “wet & messy”… as well as a little “wet & fussy” decorative spot challenge of underglaze transfer along the way! And then next week is The Final episode… WHOO-HOO!!!

So I just watched this week’s episode… The Quarter Finals of THE GREAT POTTERY THROW DOWN! Where we go from four potters to three. And then I realized that somehow I forget to post last week’s episode where we went from five to four! So here it is… with a fun outdoor pit firing, some sgraffito carving and another great wheelthrowing challenge!

Click here for the link to watch the episode on YouTube!

So many of you have already noticed that my blog is currently down. I’ve been using WordPress for years… and now suddenly I have this error message popping up?! Sadly… I don’t even know what any of those things are… let alone how to fix it?!!! If anyone has conquered this issue for their own website, I would LOVE some “expert” advice to get mine up & running again!

OKAY – THIS ISSUE HAS SINCE BEEN “FIXED”…
and I’ve been back-dating & posting all of the old blog posts I couldn’t do while it was down! Sorry for the delay… the confusion… and the lack of posts over the last month. I’m trying y best to catch up. And I have a LOT of photos to upload still. Just think of it as some “good reading” during your Self-Isolation & Social Distancing!