Handles attached… another batch of mugs made! I’m planning on soda-firing these in the future, so I think they might still need some colored flashing slips before I call them done & let them start drying.

Just pulled a bunch of handles… all lined up & almost ready to go. I’ve got to let them set-up a bit before I start attaching them to the mug cylinders. I want them to hold their shape, yet still be malleable… but not sticky or squishy!

Loving Kelly’s stamped & soda-fired wall pocket vase… perfect for remnants of a floral arrangement when the “fussy flowers” died off and left this textural assortment. Just another fun Floral Friday!

A single rose in a stamped & soda-fired ikebana vase to brighten your Friday…
it doesn’t take a lot to share a smile!

You gotta love when that perfect “spiral collection” happens in the center while trimming a platter. So thin, so even, so smooth… so useless?! I’ve always thought there should be “something” you can do with these when they happen…. but they’re just so fragile that they always end up back in my reclaim bucket!

Looks like Kristy is showing off her collection of sweet little soda-fired bowls! Stamps look good… but those SPIRALS!!! You know how I love a good spiral!!!

And when one falls off while replanting… mini cutie-patootie vase to the rescue!

Here’s one of the orchids that came home with me from Hausermann’s yesterday. A very cool “trailing” orchid that lives on a small plank of wood… not in a flower pot. In nature, most orchids live as “parasites” growing on the sides of trees in the jungles & rainforests… using their aerial roots to get moisture from the environment. I’ve had good luck with common phaleanopsis orchids at home… we’ll see how this one does?!

I think the original intention of “playing hooky” yesterday was that Mimi wanted to see some orchids at The Orchid Show up at the Chicago Botanic Garden… but the show closed last weekend. So Garfield Park Conservatory was a good substitute. But I REALLY wanted Mimi to see beautiful orchids. So after the Conservatory, we zoomed out to “Orchids by Hausermann” to the greenhouses where they grow thousands of orchids!!! And let’s just say… “a couple” of them may have come home with me to add to my own collection! Allegedly…

Always a treasure… this amazing mosaic wall in one of the side galleries at the Garfield Park Conservatory. The design & craftsmanship… let alone all of the TIME it must have taken to hand-cut all of these little tile pieces! I can’t even imagine!!!