So apparently THIS is what happens when you do a platter demo for your Tuesday night wheelthrowing class… you don’t wire it off the bat… you run it upstairs to your studio to get it out of the way… planning to wrap it in plastic after class… back to more teaching & helping people in class… get busy… get distracted… hoping to remember the platter… but you don’t?!!! A few days later… finding it… and it looks like this!!! HA!!! Who knew?… well, all of us! But it happens… luckily, “it’s just clay”!!!

Last week our snacks were “outta this world” as I shared the new limited edition SPACE DUNK OREOS with all of my pottery classes… and the soda-firing workshop too!!! The cookies are very brightly colored, with some snapping PopRocks mixed in. Overall… good reviews & empty packages at the end of every class!!! But then again… why do the packages just keep getting smaller & smaller??? Do they think we don’t notice?!

Look art Maya’s MASTERPIECE!!! She’s been in my Intermediate Wheeltrowing class for a couple sessions… entering with a plan to make this wonderful collection of platters for her wall at home. We worked on improving her platter-making techniques, as well as surface decorations & glazing. It was a labor of love for Maya… and now I LOVE IT TOO!!! Well done Maya!!! You’ve outdone yourself!

Class registration opened at 10:00am this morning at Lillstreet for the Spring session of classes! Good to see several of my “regulars” at the front of the line trying to register in-person… instead of battling online to snag a spot!!! Good news for me… all three of my Spring classes sold out in less than six minutes!!! Whoo-hoo!!!

Huge congratulations to Taylor in my THROWDOWN class… as this is her very first plate AND her first time doing slip trailing!!! And look how great her very first plate turned out!!! Well done Taylor!

And sure, kiln loading can be a long-drawn out process… but it always helps when there are good snacks! Special THANKS to Martin for baking us some amazing Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with a sprinkle of sea salt on top!!! Amazing as always Martin!

So much fun watching Kelsey get so enamored by the flashings & patinas on some of the crusty kiln door bricks. Sure, it might have slowed down our process a little… but Kelsey is right… some of the bricks are GORGEOUS!!!

After stacking the kiln full of pots, it was time to close the door last night… brick-by-brick, one at a time. Luckily, I had some eager volunteers to help with the process. The bricks of the kiln door have been well-used & well-worn through MANY soda-firings, so stacking them is an ever-changing challenge. With that, a little sealing of the bigger cracks with some wadding always helps. They all persevered and we finally got it closed up & put to bed for the night.

It was a LONG night of loading, with my SODA WORKSHOP students learning a lot & did a lot of the work! They did a great job collectively… working together to make some loading decisions & working together to get all of their pieces in! Most of them had never loaded a kiln before… so this was.a great learning curve for them!

Last night we started with an empty kiln for my 3-DAY SODA-FIRING WORKSHOP. So my “workshoppers” started their evening with glazing & wadding their bisqued pieces. The goal for last night was to FILL this kiln… and they did!!!