Best thank you gift from a Summer Camp kid ever! You know how I like my tie-dye!!
So it was a wonderful gift from one of my Chess Campers… Thank You Eli.

Beautiful colors, textures, patterns & shadows in some of the large colocasia plants
being used by our landscaping team here in Dover.

No sun this morning means no sunrise to share.
Plenty of frozen “puddles” along the lake though.

Always intrigued by these thin layers of ice “floating” above air
where the puddled water used to be. So fragile. So thin. So beautiful.

You know I love color, texture, repetition & whimsy.
Needless to say, I’m really diggin’ the latest show in the Lillstreet Gallery Annex.
Upstairs on the second floor, there is this wonderful installation piece that I need to pass through everyday to get to my studio. It’s a collage made of advertising photos and pins!!! No glue. Just pins stuck in the wall. The artist, Stacia Yeapanis, is here at least twice a week through the rest of November to continue her installation. The show ends with a Closing Reeception on December 5th where everyone can help pull the pins!

From the Lillstreet promo flyers…
In her ongoing series of collage installations, Stacia Yeapanis creates large-scale abstractions by pinning repetitive images cut from magazines directly to the gallery wall. The images in advertisements and lifestyle articles are intended by their producers to create new desires and manipulate existing ones in consumers. By cutting, organizing and remixing the images, Yeapanis turns the act of consuming into one of creating.

I especially love how it “creeps” and grows throughout the weeks. What started as just a few snippets has “grown” into a beautiful work of art on the walls, in the corners and encroaching on every part of the gallery space.

At the end of the gallery show, Stacia will be pulling pins. The pieces will literally be “falling off the wall.” T-pins everywhere! And the wonderful shadows the T-pins created?… gone along with Stacia on December 5th!!!

So Bowl #1 of my class demo was the “plain” smooth one. The bowl that was the basis for all bowls to follow. Tonight I trimmed the bowls and had “trouble” leaving it plain. It’s so not me.  So I figured a little carving here & there couldn’t hurt, right?

So I started to carve out a pattern using the rounded edge of my loop trimming tool. I started with a smaller one for the first couple rows, and then switched to a slightly larger one for the rest of the carving marks.

So much better than the “plain” bowl, right??? And thanks to Amy Higgason of Pigeon Road Pottery for the carving & detailing inspiration. She came and did a quickie workshop for my class a few session s ago and taught everyone this technique. So easy. So beautiful. So much better than a “plain” bowl.

And if a full coverage of loop tool carvings is good… why not add a knick of the sgraffito tool in the center of each one? Because you can… and I did. Thanks again Amy.

Collaboration close-up… getting ready to assemble…

Last night in class, one of the students brought in some Bulgarian pottery that demonstrated their traditional slip decorating style. We had discussed this traditional Bulgarian technique of slip decorating in class. I saw a YouTube video and decided I would try it for my class. If I’m going to mess up, why not do it in front of my students for a good laugh?! So we discussed it, did the demo and I posted it on my blog and Facebook page. Marina had seen the posts, and since she’s Bulgarian.. who better to bring in some actual pieces from Bulgaria???

Click here to see my original posting about this process…
including the original video that inspired my class demo on slip “dripping” decoration!

So here are a few colorful examples of the Bulgarian style of slip decoration. It’s a pretty amazing technique of dripping, banding, squirting and dragging through layers of colorful slips. These examples were gorgeous… and more colorful than I expected?!

Look close. It’s all done with colored slip. Drips. Bands. More drips. And dragging through…

Click here to see the original blog post about the video I saw online that started this whole thing. And special thanks for Marina for bringing in these beautiful samples. So fun to see this Bulgarian pottery story come full circle. Video. Demo. Gorgeous.

There were so many different styles & techniques displayed on the Minnesota Pottery Tour. So much eye-candy & visual inspiration. Taken out of context though, how many of these ceramic artists can you name based on a snapshot of their decorative technique!?

Artists names will be revealed some time next week!!!
Answers are now posted in RED as of 5/29/14.

#1 : Shoko Teruyama

#2 : Steven Hill

#3 : Andy Balmer

#4 : Bill Gossman

#5 : Dan Finnegan

#6 : Delores Fortuna

#7 : Ellen Shankin

#8 : Richard Vincent

#9 : George Lowe

#10 : Jeff Oestreich

#11 : Jo Severson

#12 : Jenny Mendes

#13 : Suze Lindsay

#14 : Steven Young Lee

#15 : Silvie Granatelli

#16 : Sandra Byers

#17 : Kent McLaughlin

#18 : Karin Kraemer

#19 : Robert Briscoe

#20 : Mark Shapiro

#21 : Mary Roettger

#22 : Richard Hensley

#23 : Simon Levin

#24 : Matthew Metz

#25 : Craig Edwards

#26 : Sarah Jaeger

#27 : Steven Hill

#28 : Sam Taylor

#29 : Steven Young Lee

#30 : Donna Polseno

#31 : Robert Briscoe

#32 : Karin Kraemer

#33 : Ani Kasten

#34 : George Lowe

#35 : Mary Barringer

#36 : Matthew Metz

#37 : Ernest Miller

#38 : Steven Hill

#39 : Naomi Dalglish

#40 : Steven Young Lee

#41 : Mary Barringer

#42 : Winthrop Byers

So glad these turned out as expected. These textured wall pillows are part of a special order I’ve been working on for one of my best customers. I’m generally not a fan of commissions or special orders… but as a special request for a special customer, I had to bend the rules. It’s not every day Marilyn turns seventy!!!

Fresh out of the kiln… soda-fired slab vases! Each with a different texture “picture” on each side. Here’s a few quick glimpses of the latest textures & finishes…