My first “free” Saturday in a MONTH!!! While I love doing art fairs, four in a row has been a bit exhausting. So it felt great this morning to get up and have a leisurely sunrise bike ride. Sure, the stunning sunrise colors weren’t too shabby either!!!

Bright blue bowl & bright red cherries!
Looks like the perfect snack for a warm sunny Friday. Thanks for sharing Kristy!

More “seasonal confusion” as another Easter Cactus just started blooming at home!
Fun little explosions of white petals in a stamped & soda-fired flowerpot.

After painting the underglaze, my SURFACE DECORATION class wiped off the top surface of their waxed pots. It’s always exciting to see your pattern be “revealed” as you gently wash away the excess. Hopefully, after a good bit of wiping, the surface will be clean with underglaze only filling the carved lines & patterns. When finished, these cups can now dry & be bisque-fired. The wax will burn away, the underglaze will be firmly in place & it’s time to glaze like normal. Fine line drawings with inlaid underglaze… voila’… MISHIMA.

The next step of our “mishima” class was to paint the entire exterior with underglaze when the carving of patterns was done. Idea being that the underglaze will fill all of the carved lines… but just sit on top of the wax resist in areas where there is no carving.

Last week in my SURFACE DECORATION class, I provided some simple leatherhard cylinders so they could all practice our “mishima” technique for the night. They started by painting the exterior with wax resist. Once it dried, they then started to etch their designs into the cup. The idea is to carve through the wax & slightly into the clay. Then we will inlay some underglaze into the fine line carvings. More to come…

So Richard picked up this little sipper during the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR… and has been putting it to use! Looks perfect for #wednesdaywineday! Thanks for sharing Richard!

Low-flying clouds along the horizon… beautiful, but practically blocking the sunrise?! The wind was blowing, and I was afraid that that large cloud would move a smidge to the south and block it completely. Luckily, we had a brief moment of sunrise before heading back behind the clouds.

A new pop of color in my garden this morning… and luckily, orange is my favorite color!!!

After a long weekend of pottery-fun… it was great to get back on my bike this morning for a relaxing sunrise ride. I’ve just made it through four art fairs in four weeks, so it felt great to get back to a bit of “normal” this morning… and “normal” was BEAUTIFUL!!!