We all know how much I LOVE trimming! Especially with my favorite trimming tool from DiamondCore Tools. I love watching those clay ribbons peel right off! Always trimming sharp clean lines… even as it ever-so-slowly wears away… it still trims just as sharp! Pondering when it will eventually be time to change out the blade with their convenient replacement blades?! I’m guessing maybe when the blade breaks through???

Well, this doesn’t happen everyday…

And oh, but wait there’s more…
It’s 2:22pm right now… so that makes it “two – twenty-two – twenty-two – two – twenty-two”… doesn’t get much better than this!!!

Totally enamored by these bright-colored leaves as the sun was shining in through my dining room window the other day! Not sure what kind of plant his is… but I’m diggin’ it!

Always a great day when THIS arrives in my mailbox!!!

After two years of pandemic virtual tours, it’s so exciting to see that the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour will once again be going live & in-person this Spring. So much fun to see so much beautiful pottery over the course of a weekend… driving from studio location to studio location… chatting with over 60 talented potters… picking up a few pieces for my own collection along the way… and forever daydreaming that I might one day be invited to be part of the “Pottery Tour” instead of just a patron! Dare to dream, right…

Back to basics… making more mugs! But this time I have a special holiday plan. Working on something special… if I get a little “lucky”?!

Another great “national” holiday today…
NATIONAL CHERRY PIE DAY!!!

And it would be just be downright wrong for me not to celebrate on such a wonderful day, right?!

And when you make a bunch of flower pots, you also need to make a bunch of water drip trays to go with them!

Making a quick batch of flower pots… while looking forward to my “Plants & Pottery Pop-Up” down near Peoria over the third weekend of May! If I play my cards right, I’ll be headed down with a bunch of pottery, as well as some plants to fill them!!!

One of my favorite surprises during our Glaze Throwdown Challenge?… watching Clara pull out an underglaze pencil and do these wonderful doodles on the side of her cylinder! I can’t wait to see how they look after the glaze firing… hoping they don’t get bugged out!!!

For the second challenge during this week’s LILLSTREET THROWDOWN, we moved to the Glaze Room for the first-ever Glazing Throwdown! I wanted them all to start out with the same canvas”… so I pre-made & bisqued plain, smooth cylinders for them.

The challenge was do do the coolest glaze on these possible… and the real trick is we won’t see what they’ve done until AFTER they’ve been fired!!! We’re hoping for the best… as there were multiple dips, layers, underglazes, dots, sprayed glazes, underglaze pencils, bubbles, squeeze bottles, wax resists and a lot more going on here! We’ll all have to wait to see the results!