Fresh from the ST. CROIX VALLEY POTTERY TOUR… this beautiful mishima porcelain bowl by Steven Young Lee that came home with me. Not only is it a stunning bowl with crazy-cool colors streaming out of that hand-carved criss-cross pattern… but it was also made by my own favorite pottery teacher!

Yes… Steve Lee was one of my early pottery teachers back at the old Lillstreet location. It was a more advanced wheelthrowing class… and Steve was very clear with his expectations right from the start. A great teacher… with great pots… and always good to see him again on the Minnesota Pottery Tour.

Another mug for my collection… from the ST. CROIX VALLEY POTTERY TOUR… by the amazing Bianka Groves. Such a simple idea… just a lot of dots?! Not so easy. But the precision & refinement of this sweet porcelain mug was too much for me to pass up!!!

Also from the ST. CROIX VALLEY POTTERY TOUR… this great mug from Ryan Myers. I’ve seen his work several times before… and finally one of his peeps came home with me!!! Another addition to my collection.

Back to the ST. CROIX VALLEY POTTERY TOUR…
and some of the beautiful pots that came home with me!!!

Like this sgraffito cup by Matthew Metz. I especially love the addition of the textured walls under the slip color & under the sgraffito carving. And yes, this is black clay with a colored slip dip… and the carved through to reveal the black line illustrations! Just amazing as always… and another beauty to add to my Matt Metz collection!

This week in my classes we taste-tested the newest OREO flavor… Chocolate Covered Pretzel !!! And we were all pleasantly surprised… the cookie actually tastes a bit like a pretzel… complete with a hint of salt!!! And the chocolate filling?… yummy as always!!!

Last night in my SURFACE DECORATION class, I challenged my students to several fun glazing tasks. No one “really” likes glazing… so my goal was to make it more fun by trying new things on cylinders that I made ahead of time for them! So they wouldn’t be “sacrificing “ their own pieces… giving them no emotional attachment to the piece… allowing them to have some fun while glazing! Can’t wait to see their results!!!! More to come …

Good to see that last night’s storm didn’t blow away all of the flowers!!!
So nice to see this hydrangea bush starting to bloom this morning!

So tonight some crazy cool storms came blowing through town while I was teaching. It wasn’t until we heard large hail… that we “may” have decided to run up to the rooftop to see what was going on. Unfortunately, we missed the hail-fun by just a couple minutes. But we did see the end of the storm, the blue skies following & the dark clouds still pounding Downtown… sorry Beyonce’. Guess your concert got a little delayed & a little wet?!

A little early morning trimming! I’m trying to speed-up the drying process a bit. So they’re drying upside-down on elevated plastic grids. Better air circulation on all sides this way.