A sweet little stamped mug with a splash of green glaze!
Perfect to kick off another Mugshot Monday.

Save

While I am not a “factory” cranking out the pottery… it is sometimes interesting to see how production pottery is made. And how every step in the process has been maximized & streamlined. Got to get me one of those plate-making machines! And the “insta-glazing” system… as we all know how much I hate glazing!!!

Click here for the Production Pottery video.

Spent some time tonight trimming my stamped cylinders… with my favorite trimming tool. THE GIFFIN GRIP. It’s a brilliant contraption that instantly centers things and makes my trimming life so much easier in the studio!!! Love it.

Same mug shape. Same mug stamping. Just none of the color or flashing from a soda firing.
Porcelain with a thin white glaze in a cone 10 reduction firing.
This one is definitely “Quite White.”

Save

Save

A quick glimpse at the wedding gift I gave to Camden & Kristin yesterday.
A large stamped platter with a bit of “color irony.” My friend and Camden’s mom’s maiden name is Kelly Green!!! Hope they like it… if not, I’m pretty sure Kelly would be more than willing to take it off their hands!

Save

Save

A sweet collection of soda-fired bottles…
that have landed on my fireplace mantle as part of my own personal collection!!!

It’s always so much fun to find out that someone out there is actually reading my blog, watching my videos and trying some of my ideas in their own work. I love sharing and story-telling… Good to know that someone is “listening.”

So I got this great e-mail from a “Fan” who is currently living in Japan.
Apparently, they don’t do much stamping in Japan?!

From an e-mail from David in Japan…
“Gary, I have to thank you for your blog and YouTube videos: they’ve been a brilliant inspiration for me here in Japan. Just by copying a few of the things you have done. I’m trying things here that nobody else, even my teachers, have done before. It’s a lot of fun. I’ve just started, but I think I’ll be stamping for quite a while from now. Thanks again!”

Here’s a quick glimpse of a fun platter a made as a class demo. I placed a lace doily onto the freshly-thrown plate surface and carefully covered it with thick white slip. Pull off the lace.. and voila’! Sure, it’s taken me awhile to get it glazed, but I think it was worth the wait.

I had a great “surprise” visit from a budding potter from Nova Scotia yesterday. She follows along on Facebook and found herself in Chicago for a conference. So she stopped by and luckily I was around to meet her, chat and give her a quick tour. So much fun to meet some of my Facebook friends in person! Plus, she now has two nice mugs going home with her to Canada!

As part of the last pottery class, I like to challenge my students to a pottery exchange. So this session everyone had to bring in a mug they had made in class. We then did a fun trading-stealing White Elephant sort of game… and everyone left with another person’s mug. I came home with a twosome of tumblers by Megan… complete with some crocheted little cozies!!!

Good luck Megan as you move on to Colorado…
and continue your pottery adventure in the Rockies!