And then today after Summer Camp, I decided to re-fill my “recently-emptied” reclaim bucket. So I washed it down and started filling it with porcelain scraps. A potter friend in Minneapolis gives me ALL of her reclaim scraps… so I have a lot of dried porcelain to process. This afternoon I started pulverizing, filling my bin and then adding water to help slake it down. A little bit of work to get a whole lot of FREE clay!!!

So I’ve been playing with porcelain again… no time to rest…
unless you’re a SPOON!

Just when you thought that stamping, carving, sgraffito and other surface decoration techniques were a bit too fussy and a bit too much work… imagine this?!!!!

Precisely incised porcelain. Also, difficult to say three times fast!!!

Click here for the video.

So I just finished taking down my Christmas decorations…
and I’m ALREADY back in the studio making new Christmas ornaments!!!
Too soon? I hope not. I’ve got a plan… and a Challenge!!!

I’ve been playing some porcelain and stamping in a stylized Christmas tree pattern.
Contemporary swirls for the holidays.

To keep them flat, I’m drying them on some of that plastic grid they sell at hardware stores for fluorescent lighting panels. I raise the panels up just a bit on wood. That way, they can dry evenly on both sides which helps prevent warpage.

So my plan is to bisque fire these, then glaze them. I was planning on a saturated cone 6 kelly green color glaze… but now I’m starting to wonder if a few of them should stay white?! It might be a White Christmas after all???…. eleven months from now!!!

And what about the Challenge???
Well, this is just the first batch… of the first month… of the New Year.
Eleven more monthly ornaments to come!!!

But it would be more fun with friends, right?

On a freezing cold Chicago day, it’s great to see a hopefully burst of Spring. Thanks to Terri for sharing a picture of her yellow daffodils in one of my stamped porcelain ikebana vases.

Fun flashing colors on a stamped & soda-fired porcelain mug.

#mugshotmonday

Spent a couple hours in the studio tonight layering & wedging
my latest batch of porcelain reclaim.
EIGHTY-SEVEN POUNDS of FREE CLAY!!!

Well worth a little bit of labor.
And now I have 87 pounds of FREE porcelain potential!!!

Another batch of porcelain reclaim on the plaster bat setting up a bit…
wedging to commence soon!

My first mug of 2016 for Mugshot Mondays… with plenty more to come!!!
A stamped porcelain mug with a cone 6 green glaze for a fun pop of color!