Driving the Pottery Tour… there’s another great “unofficial” spot along the way! Just north of the Taylor’s Falls area, a fun group of local potters have set themselves up with a bunch of sandwich board signs to draw the people in! THE ROGUE POTTERS are a fun bunch of potters… with one of the coolest wood-firing kilns around. I swear one strong breeze might take it down, even though Randal says he’s tightened it up a bit with some new steelwork. Still a great, well-used & well-loved kiln!

To see more about THE ROGUE POTTERS… http://www.roguepotters.com/

So many pots. So many surfaces. So many different approaches to decorating your pottery surfaces. Here’s a collection of some of the ones that caught my eye during the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour. Too much eye-candy to capture all of them… but so much fun to try!

For more St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour info… www.minnesotapottery.com

Sure, there may have been a bit of rain this weekend during the Minnesota Pottery Tour… but pottery always looks better when it’s wet!!! Plus, I kinda loved the rain drops splashing on the black platter & filling the white bowl… and the rain “shadows” on the wooden shelving.

It was a beautiful weekend full of BEAUTIFUL pottery up at the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour. And it didn’t hurt any to have beautiful flowers gracing many of the handmade vases! Always one of my favorite pottery events of the year… with 73 potters all showing off their ceramic masterpieces at eight different studio locations. Several of my favorite potters are up there… so it’s always fun to see them too! Great fun traveling, shopping & chatting with potters making it all a wonderful community to be part of. Although it would be even more fun to be “part of the Tour” as a Guest Potter showing my work… and not just shopping the Tour!

For more information about the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour,
click here… www.minnesotapotters.com

Eight years ago this weekend, I started posting on Instagram. And this is a re-creation of my very first post! We were out for dinner and my friend & potter Emily Murphy grabbed my phone… pecked at it a bit… than handed it back and said “There, now you’re on Instagram!” The next morning I head out for the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour... and this very same sign post was my first Insta post. Several years later… and the “Instagram Addiction” is real!!! – @firewhenreadypottery

Just now getting around to sharing some photos from my soda-firing last weekend. I unloaded Monday night… but then somehow the week got away from me! Here’s a full look at the kiln after taking the front door off. You always tend to hold your breath while unbricking… hoping that everything went well… that everything looks good… and that there’s not too much dark-gray “dolphin skin” over-reduction!!! So I was very pleased when I got the brick door off and saw all of the fun colors & light clay surfaces. Even more fun as I continued to dig into the kiln unloading the whole thing!

Lots of pots last night on my studio rolling cart… all glazed & wadded. Ready to start loading… looks like it might be a late night?! GIDDY-UP!

Definitely feeling the Spring vibes here with some colored slip accents on my bisqued mugs. Getting ready start glazing these… inlaid glaze in the stamps & a tenmoku liner glaze. Then it’s off to the soda kiln this weekend where these colored slips will react & flash with the soda atmosphere during firing. The colors should become darker, richer & more saturated… if all goes as planned?!

Plenty of bisque piling up waiting to be glazed & wadded. First-up… inlaying a tenmoku glaze into the stamped impressions for high tener contrast after the soda-firing. Here we go… giddy-up!

Another entry for Spoon-Rest Sunday!!! Another Lisa sharing her soda-fired blue spoon rest. I love seeing all of the spoon-rest-luvin’ today!!! Plus, I’m also impressed on how clean everyone’s stoves are?! I mean, I know the spoon rests are dishwasher-safe… but I must admit MY stove isn’t usually this clean! HA!!