What an ADORABLE way to start my day!
With an “adorable” preschool teacher (and an “adorable” assistant) reading a book to her class kids on a YouTube video! She reads “Bear Snores On”… and talks about drinking warm beverages when it’s cold outside. Then she shows off some of her favorite mugs… and lookey there… MINE is one of them!!! Thanks for sharing Jody…. and great story too!!!

Perfect timing for another MUGSHOT MONDAY!!!

But my favorite part is that she holds up the bottom of my mug to show the preschoolers my name… upside-down and CURSIVE!!! Like they even know what cursive is… them or thousands of other school kids these days!!! Ha!!!

Click here for the link to the YouTube video if you want to watch “Miss Jody” read the bok and show -off some of her favorite mugs!!!

I started the New Year by making a batch of new stamps…
much like every New Year! Kind of a New Year ritual for me!!!
It’s always fun to have a few new patterns to use as I start ramping up production in the studio. Gotta start getting ready for the Summer Art Fair Season!!! Gotta make more mugs, more bowls, more vases, more… more… more…

Oh wait…

I guess we still don’t even know if there will even BE art fairs this summer or not??? Fingers crossed…

Anyway… moving forward regardless… here are some new mugs-to-be after stamping the cylinders with some of my new stamps!!

Mug #1 –

Mug #2 –

Mug #3 –

Mug #4 –

Mug #5 –

Mug #6 –

Mug #7 –

Mug #8

Mug #9 –

Mug #10 –

Mug #11 –

Mug #12 –

Mug #13 –

Mug #14 –

And for now they’re back under plastic waiting for me to come back to trim the bottoms and add some handles! Overall, I’m pretty pleased with most of the new stamps… there are still more that I didn’t get to test in this round. Maybe next time?!…

Repeat…. repeat… REPEAT.
Attaching handles and making mugs!!!

And now that they’re all done, they’re going back under plastic for the night. I like to think that the moisture levels between the mug and the handles can even out a bit before I unwrap them to let them start drying. I also want to add some colored flashing slip accents to a few of them for an upcoming soda kiln firing!

Now to let them set-up for a few minutes before I start attaching them to the stamped & trimmed cylinders. I like to pull the handle and then give it a “little flip” so it stands-up by itself with the majority of the handle curve already established. I’ll cut out the portion of the handle I want to use… and recycle the rest of the clay!

Saturday night is apparently going to be MUG NIGHT!!!

Tonight in my Advanced Beginner’s Wheelthrowing class we tackled trimming, handles & making mugs! Working with the cylinders they threw last week… they cranked out a LOT of mugs tonight! Not bad for only their second class of the session!!!

Still playing with some new mug shapes for the New Year. Looked up and saw this sweet little one sitting on a shelf in my studio. Must have slipped by from one of my last holiday kilns?! I think I’ll have to re-visit this shape… I’m kinda diggin’ it!!!

Looks like my pal Allison is starting her day of right…
with a bit of morning steam from her “wake-up call” in one of my mugs! Thanks for sharing your morning with us on Instagram @apmolloy !

It’s always nice to get back to work in the New Year. To get back to a bit of a routine again after “sliding though the holidays.” Always fun to get back to teaching… to meet your new students, plan out the syllabus and getting them all fired up again! We’ve all been off for awhile now. Everyone is so happy to be back!!!

To get us started, we made a few simple mug cylinders. But one of my New Years plans is to “play” a bit and try out a few new shapes & profiles. Sometimes the work, sometime they don’t!!!

For my Monday night intermediate class, we discussed how to “alter” some of the shapes, so we worked on indenting, squaring-off, faceting (which we didn’t keep)… and a few more ideas! And then my Tuesday night Beginners started off with some more basic cylinders… which they will trim and add handles to next week!

I, of course, just added a few more stamped details to the mix in my studio tonight… MORE IS MORE… and still, some of them work, some of them don’t… and some of them might need a little re-visiting later?!!!

Mug #1 –

Mug #2 –

Mug #3 –

Mug #4 –

Mug #5 –

Mug #6 –

Mug #7 –

Mug #8 –

So for now these mug cylinders are all under plastic wrap for the night. I will continue to work on most of them in my studio. The last three I’ll save for next Tuesday’s Beginner’s class when we’ll discuss trimming & adding handles. They’re going to be “surprised” when they finish their first batch of mugs at their second class!!!

Looks like Tatiana is getting ready for a relaxing night at home! Celebrating another MUGSHOT MONDAY with two of the mugs she snagged during my studio mug sale before Christmas! Vino, snacks & more – have a great night Tatiana!!!

I packed up the pottery “starter sets” and shipped them out… anxiously awaiting The Big Reveal on Christmas! With things being as they are this year… the family “got together” to open their presents online!!! Not the best screen-grabs… but you can kinda see the excitement & joy of their new pottery! With the “gift-givers” a bit blurry, but still in the bottom left corner!

And since then… it’s been fun watching them all start using their new pottery collection! Each of them showing off parts of their new collections!

And Matt has already found “space” on his kitchen display shelves… although methinks he’s going to “need” more shelving pretty darn soon!