This week in my Thursday morning class, we continued with some more crackled slip fun… with Heidi asking for a crackled black slip demo. So I did another one using black slip with sodium silicate on white porcelain clay!!!

And now that my reclaim bucket is empty… it’s time to start filling it up again! A little while back one of my students was cleaning off her shelves and brought me her bag of porcelain scraps asking if I wanted them to reclaim. Of course the answer is ALWAYS yes!!! Even better, her last class was a print-on-clay class, so all of her reclaim had already been rolled out into thin slabs. So I just broke them up, spread them out and I’ll let them dry out overnight.

Then I’ll crush them down to small little pieces with a rolling pin and into the reclaim bin they go. Thanks Katie for kickin’ off my next batch of FREE CLAY!!!

Last night in my wheel class, Katie one of my Advanced Beginners continued her exploration marbled clay. She started with standard colors like marbling ochre stoneware with lighter B-clay. She loved the finished results… and now has stepped up her game with stained porcelain!!! Looking great… even though there’s still a little bit of cleaning up to do!

Not to be outdone, or out-bling’d…
here’s a little sneak peek at what Retta Hentschel did with the three lidded jars I sent her to play with. Such an amazing assemblage of colors, textures & bling on each of them. Stop by ART IN THE GARDEN to see them all… before they’re gone!

Another glimpse into some of the collaborations we’ve been working on for this weekend. Months ago I soda-fired some porcelain lidded jars and then “challenged” some of my fellow ART IN THE GARDEN artists to add a knob to the lid. Here’s what metalsmith Amy Taylor did with the three jars I sent her. A beautiful addition to my pottery.

Collaboration projects like these are part of what makes ART IN THE GARDEN so special.

For more information, click here.

Well, my part of these collaboration pieces are soda-fired & done… and I’ve got five of My Talented Friends who’ve agreed to collaborate with them for ART IN THE GARDEN. Amy, Cory, Ken, Kristin & Retta will all be working “their magic” with them as special one-of-a-kind collaborations only for this special grassroots art show!

More to come I’m sure…
as I can’t wait to see what each of them do to finish off my lidded jars!

Painting some accents & details onto my lidded jars with colored flashing slips. These lidded jars will all be soda-fired… so hopefully the porcelain will get a beautiful blushed effect & the colored flashing slips will pop with color! Working my way towards ART IN THE GARDEN with a few of our special collaboration pieces!!!

Lidded jars without knobs… whoops… but, part of the plan!!! Working on these lidded jars as part of my collaboration pieces for ART IN THE GARDEN. Drilling holes through leatherhard porcelain?… why not use an actual drill bit???

YEAH!!! The lids all fit… as you can now hear me exhale!

Throwing lidded jars in porcelain with lids that fit is not an easy task. A lot of caliper measuring & hoping for the best. My biggest piece of advice?… throw a lot of extra lids. Because inevitably a “few” of them are not going to fit the way you want them too!

Part two of my production today… the bottom jars to go with the new lids!!! The jar bottoms are a little further ahead as I just finished stamping them! Just hope the lids fit?… always said with fingers crossed.