Celebrating another MUGSHOT MONDAY with this stamped & soda-fired mug. One of my favorites… as I’m loving how the stamp covers a lot of the mug surface, and yet leaves a lot of the mug surface intact. Kinda like a stamped “fishnet” over the surface?!

When the shellac patterns were dry, I started to wipe away the “background” clay with a damp sponge. The idea is to remove layers of the background so that the shellac patterns remain intact and “higher” than the rest of the bowl. Luckily I used B-Clay, as wiping away stoneware would reveal a rough & groggy surface.

So I wiped… and wiped… and learned a few things.
One, it’s hard to know when to stop.
Two, if you wipe too hard or too long, some of the shellac wipes away too… so my thick shellac lines started to get thinner in some sections. Of course, I struggled with that for awhile… but I think I’m okay with it now.

When this bowl gets bisque fired, the shellac will burn away and then I’ll finish it with a nice glaze to help accentuate the edges & difference in surface heights. Already planning the next water etching project… let the class demo “challenge” continue!!!

You know how I love a good challenge!

So when one of my students Heidi “challenged me”
to do some water etching instead of stamping… I said “Game On!”

So I threw a bowl, dried it to leatherhard, trimmed it and brought it back to class. I didn’t really have a design plan… so I went more with a “sampler” style bowl. So in class I painted my patterns on the bowl with shellac. I used a Q-Tip instead of a brush because I thought it would have a better edge instead of bristles moving around too much… plus, disposable! I let the shellac dry… and then it was time to start wiping away the background clay! More to come…

Well, this cuteness is sure to boost my algorithms, right?!
This is little Benjamin… or Benno… adorable son of Molly & Jacob! You may remember previous posts about “Team Lavender” students in many of my pottery classes… like the last LILLSTREET THROWDOWN.

And… if you look REALLY CLOSE at the top left corner of the next picture… really close… you can see a couple of the ceramic baby blocks the THROWDOWN class made for them as a baby gift a year ago!

My how time flies & kids grow-up… even during a pandemic!!!

So we all know that social media is somehow “controlled” by some crazy algorithms that seem to be ever-changing. Looks like this is the current “secret” for Instagram, and I’m pretty sure the same holds true for Facebook. The more you “Share, Comment & Like” on someone’s posts, the more you’ll get to see more of them in your News Feed.

Another darn holiday during the pandemic!
I hope there’s cookie dough in there!!!

Surprise delivery to the studio today! I had ordered them awhile ago… kinda forgot about them… and then they just showed up today!!! Sweet surprise just made my day a bit sweeter… and reinvigorated me for a longer productive evening in the studio than I had planned on!

I’m always intrigued by how one little stamp
can change the whole look of a simple dinner plate!

Kicking off my Saturday morning in the studio with some freshly-thrown little drip plates to go with some flower pots… looking forward to that snow melting. Bring on Spring!!!

Yeah, and… ???
I see nothing wrong here… like myself, he knows it’s cold outside… that’s why he’s wearing socks with his shoes… saving his sandals for when the snow stops coming down!!! I totally get it.

Welcome to the club my friend!!!