I started the New Year by making a batch of new stamps…
much like every New Year! Kind of a New Year ritual for me!!!
It’s always fun to have a few new patterns to use as I start ramping up production in the studio. Gotta start getting ready for the Summer Art Fair Season!!! Gotta make more mugs, more bowls, more vases, more… more… more…

Oh wait…

I guess we still don’t even know if there will even BE art fairs this summer or not??? Fingers crossed…

Anyway… moving forward regardless… here are some new mugs-to-be after stamping the cylinders with some of my new stamps!!

Mug #1 –

Mug #2 –

Mug #3 –

Mug #4 –

Mug #5 –

Mug #6 –

Mug #7 –

Mug #8

Mug #9 –

Mug #10 –

Mug #11 –

Mug #12 –

Mug #13 –

Mug #14 –

And for now they’re back under plastic waiting for me to come back to trim the bottoms and add some handles! Overall, I’m pretty pleased with most of the new stamps… there are still more that I didn’t get to test in this round. Maybe next time?!…

Repeat…. repeat… REPEAT.
Attaching handles and making mugs!!!

And now that they’re all done, they’re going back under plastic for the night. I like to think that the moisture levels between the mug and the handles can even out a bit before I unwrap them to let them start drying. I also want to add some colored flashing slip accents to a few of them for an upcoming soda kiln firing!

Now to let them set-up for a few minutes before I start attaching them to the stamped & trimmed cylinders. I like to pull the handle and then give it a “little flip” so it stands-up by itself with the majority of the handle curve already established. I’ll cut out the portion of the handle I want to use… and recycle the rest of the clay!

Saturday night is apparently going to be MUG NIGHT!!!

Small chunks of clay, wedged and thrown into carrot shapes… getting ready for a productive night of mugs!!! You know how I LOVE making handles & mugs! No, really.

After fulfilling my BERNIE-quotient for the day…
It’s back to the studio for some trimming. Gotta take a little clay off the bottoms of these cylinders & add a nice footring so I can start turning them into mugs! Special thanks to DiamondCore Tools for making these really great trimming tools for smooth trimming, clean lines & groovy squiggles of clay as they come right off!

Okay… so my brother-in-law “found” Bernie at my Holiday Home Show… at Lillstreet… on my wheel… and even on two of my morning bike rides!!! That Bernie sure gets around!!! Just had to share “a few” more!!!

Okay… one more… purely based on the level of detail & ironic humor!!! Gotta love Melania’s new frock!!! I’m sure The Donald would love this one too!!!

I mean… this just keeps getting funnier!!! Here are just a “few” more BERNIE’s that made me laugh today! And then I swear I’m done… I swear… with fingers crossed behind my back.

Excited to get another batch of beautiful postcards from THE POSTCARD CLUB in the mail today! Sure, I could just send an e-mail from my laptop… but isn’t it a lot more fun to get a handwritten note in the mail???

Now I need to decide who’s gonna get these ones??

If you’d like to get quarterly postcards in the too, to “begin you snail mail adventure”… check out www.thepostcardclub.com.

The second large bowl from yesterday’s demo had a flared-out rim just screaming for some decoration. “HEY, DECORATE ME!!!”

So here’s the bowl after some stamping…
and a glimpse at the stamp that did all of the work!