As “shelter-at-home” continues on & on… today is a weird day for many potters as the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour was forced to go “virtual” this weekend for the first time EVER. I’ve gone to the big Minnesota Pottery Tour for MANY years to see a lot of incredible pottery, meet the artists, network, get inspired, play with friends and add to my own pottery collection! It’s become an annual tradition. But this year… it is all online! Which might be the “new normal” for the foreseeable future. But I don’t like it. I miss playing with my friends. I miss touching & holding pottery. I miss a lot of things! But we’re all in this together… so show ’em some love and check-out their online Pottery Tour Sale!!!

Click here to go to the main Minnesota Potters web page… and then go shopping by artist!

And just to whet your whistle… a jew photos from how it “used to be”!!! If you want more, you can also go back in my blog here to see some of my adventures in previous years! Do a SEARCH for Minnesota Pottery Tour and see a bunch of great times & great pottery!

Not so much for this year… mwah, mwah, mwah…

A bit chilly outside today, so I stayed inside taking a bunch of pottery photos with my little “photo booth” set-up… in my kitchen!!!

Just like something out of “The Wizard Of Oz”…
a bucket of water takes down the Wicked Witch of the West!!!
Well, it didn’t take a bucket… and there wasn’t a witch…
but there was a lot of MELTING!!!

So when I was loading my bisque kiln, I was loading boards full of pieces into the kiln. Many of the boards had been stored in the kiln room for a couple weeks… to dry out… as well as to get them out of my small studio space! Some of them have been there for a couple days… some for a couple weeks.

To my surprise… when I took down a board of twelve mugs from the top shelf… and found that “something” had happened to a few of them. They looked weird, and it took some time for me to process what had occured.

Apparently, there was some sort of water dripping down onto them over time. That’s the best solution I’ve come up with. There’s a electrical pipe running along the ceiling about an inch from the corner. Which I think would lineup with the drip marks on the mugs. Yes… if you look closely… I believe this is “erosion” from repeated water drips falling on them!

It had to be happening for awhile… as you can also see drips on the wall! And the amount of “melting” is kinda crazy… I think this must have been going on for quite some time! And since it was on the top shelf and out of eye-sight… who knew?!

You can actually see where there’s an actual hole all the way RIGHT THRU the bottom of the mug!!!… drip… drip… drip… kinda like Chinese Water Torture during the War!!!

Luckily, the mugs can just be broken up and reclaimed again… IT’S JUST CLAY, right?! And I’ve learned a valuable lesson… no more greenware storage on the top shelf… at least not pushed all the way back… until we find out why water might be dripping from an electrical pipe?! Now THAT doesn’t sound good either, right?!

Okay, now that that succulent diversion is completed,
back to the task at hand. Packing up some pottery pieces to ship out today… or maybe tomorrow if I trip upon another tangent today?! No promises.

While this happy wavy one has been replanted recently in a new stamped & soda-fired flowerpot… just finding more “diversions” from working on the REAL projects I “should be” tackling during this crazy time off!

So you know that skinny little area above your stove? Like that two-inches of “useless” space? Well, I am a firm believer of “more is more”… so I have a tendency to use every space with MORE!!! Gotta love a good collection! Like these little cutie-patooties lined up filling that useless above-stove area in my kitchen!!!

So here I am still showing off some of my pottery collection! Here’s another kitchen cabinet with my Steven Hill dinnerware set. Long story… it’s all here on my blog if you just do a quick search for Steven Hill… I never thought I was going to get it… it was a long time coming… but Steven pulled through, and “surprised” me with these beauties!

Great glazes. Great pottery. Great guy!!!
Thanks Steven!

And let’s not get crazy… while THOSE mugs might be “for show” as part of my collection… I do have PLENTY of pottery to use everyday!!! Some of my own, and a lot of other friends, former teachers & potters I admire!

Back from my ride, showered & changed…
time for a little breakfast. Starting with some fresh Vitamin C!!!

We’ve gone LIVE!!!
Check-out the “official” Photo Album on Fire When Ready Pottery Facebook page to start shopping for that one-of-a-kind, handmade gift for Mom… or yourself… or that special someone!