Doing a little cooking today and it seems I’m getting a little low on my garlic?! Only a few cloves to go before this stamped bowl is empty. Looks like I might be doing some grocery shopping tomorrow, as my breath might be a little stinky tonight… but in the best way possible!

It’s another MUGSHOT MONDAY… and to celebrate tonight my “Mugshot Mondays” students finished their 3-week class by glazing all of their mugs. And we all know that a good glazing session begins with a good waxing session! I’m not really a “fan” of glazing… ugh… but oddly, I do LOVE WAXING the bottoms?!!!

Fresh from the kiln. A class demo bottle with a class demo glaze! One of my students had used this glaze combo on a few of his pieces, and Ted was more than willing to share the info. So I figured I would give it a try too!!!

The look is pretty sweet, but if I must say, the “texture” of the blended top section is a little “rougher & scratchier” than I would normally like.

Hey Lillstreeters (besides Ted)… Any guesses what this combo is?!

So here’s a little photo quickie… the same glazed platter before & after the kiln firing!!! Big difference. Pretty sweet, huh?! Just one of the large platters available at MY HOLIDAY HOME SHOW this week!

After several days of glazing & wadding, my studio cart was finally full… which tends to pretty much “equal” a full soda kiln’s worth of work. Sure, I probably could have gotten this all done a little sooner… if it had not been so amazingly beautiful outside this week “forcing me” to go play on my bike… repeatedly!

And in case you’re wondering, the masking tape works as a “safety belt” to keep pieces from jumping off the shelves as the transport the cart full of work from my studio downstairs to the kiln room via the rickety freight elevator!

So I’m still glazing & wadding for my soda kiln… which I will be loading later tonight. I think I’m getting down to the end. Like these ornaments that now have some tenmoku inlaid glaze accents. Some of them will still get a blush of colored glaze before going into the kiln too. Things are coming along nicely… no need to panic yet!

I got an early start in the studio this morning… trying to get a lot of glazing done today! I started by adding some inlaid glaze to the stamped textures… next to wipe them off. Another collection of pieces in the works!

With the stamps all cleaned off, I just added a liner glaze to the mugs. Since these are going into the soda kiln this weekend, they don’t really need any more glaze on the outside. The mixture of soda ash & soda bicarbonate that I add into the soda kiln towards the end of the firing will “magically” create a kind of glazed finish on all of the mugs! I still need to clean up the edges on the rims… but we’re getting there! Might be done for the night though… as it’s time to head downstairs to teach class!!!

By wiping the top surface of the mug, the tenmoku glaze stays only in the indented impressions. Sure, it might be labor-intensive… but I really think it makes a HUGE difference to the stamped details!

Painted some tenmoku glaze into the stamped impressions on the mugs. Adding some dark accents in the stamps will really help them “pop” more after they go through the soda firing process! Now I need to clean them off!