You gotta love when that perfect “spiral collection” happens in the center while trimming a platter. So thin, so even, so smooth… so useless?! I’ve always thought there should be “something” you can do with these when they happen…. but they’re just so fragile that they always end up back in my reclaim bucket!

Been busy stamping cylinders again… getting ready for another batch of mugs! My favorite thing to make! Each one stamped with a different clay stamp that I made myself. Handmade mugs need handmade stamps!!!

A cold & rainy Sunday perfect for some repetitive stamping. Decorating another platter with one handmade stamp pressed in one by one… by one… by one…

So I was painting some pots with a colored flashing slip… and it matched the clay body color too much. It was tough to see where I had painted already. So I added some basic food coloring to the slip to make it more orange! Problem solved… and the food color will burn out & not affect the final results. Plus, as an added bonus… you get this groovy tie-dyed effect as the food coloring “spreads” on the surface before you stir it up!

Finally got around to finishing up some class demo projects today. They’ve been under plastic for quite some time.., and I’ve had to spray them several times to keep them workable. But finally done & drying. Finally.

So I was spray painting some bisque the other day… as I have repeatedly for several years right around this time. It has always worked perfectly… but this time it peeled right off??? Wait, what??? Same paints. Same bisque. Same everything???

The only thing I can think of is that I didn’t give it enough time to dry between the layers of different two different paints. Because shortly after spraying the second layer… it all peeled off like a fine layer of gold leaf?!

So I peeled it all off like a bad sunburn, did some quick sanding… and spray painted again. This time with an “overnight” between layers of paint. And it looks perfectly good & sparkly!!! WHEW!!!

A snowy afternoon… perfect for photographing, measuring & pricing lots of “shamrock” pottery for tomorrow’s online sale ONLY on my Facebook page at 10:00am CST Saturday!

Remains of the day… hard to believe this “shadow” is still here a year later?! Time to do it again!!!

And here’s a little preview of how I think these textured tiles are going to lay-out. Trying to mix them all up evenly… “forced random” as I like to call it. There might be some changes along the way… but for now I need to start wiring it all together!

More sunlight streaming through… creating cool angles & shadows on an upcoming “4×4 : FOUR MAKERS” pop-up collaboration project.