Last week in my pottery class I challenged my students to make some ovals for our final class exchange game. I made two as part of our class demo… but then I figured maybe I should make some more?!!! Still a work in progress… unless you want an oval that doesn’t really hold anything?!!!

Thrown, stamped & trimmed. Just needing some handles to turn them into mugs!
So I’ve pulled my handles the traditional way and let them set-up. Now it’s a process of deciding which handle goes on each mug, and where they get attached. High? Low? Big? Small? Proportion & placement can make all the difference!

And now after a lot of scoring & slipping, I have another batch of mugs ready!
I’ll keep them under plastic overnight and then add some colored flashing slip accents tomorrow.

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Let the stamping begin!!!
Suddenly these basic porcelain bowls are not-so-basic anymore!

Playing with porcelain again… starting with some simple bowls!

Lots of patterns, stamps & textures…
drying slowly on some elevated plastic grid so they dry more evenly -
hoping to avoid any warping with even airflow on both sides!

Scratch, attach, repeat… repeat… repeat.
So I’ve been adding the textured tops to some ovals that I made a day or so ago.
They’re all closed up… and waiting for flower holes!

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So I’ve textured the slab with my STODOLA rolling pins, and now I’m attaching them to the tops of some ovals. I’m closing it up for now, but will be cutting some holes through the textured top to make these into flower bricks!

Now THAT’s a lot of pots… a lot of flat pieces AND a lot of shelves!!!
I’ve never fired a soda-kiln with so many flat pieces. I hope that they all get “kissed”
with some nice soda atmosphere for some fun flashing effects. Fingers crossed.

So I did a LOT of glazing & wadding… and filled my rolling studio cart. I added a few bands of masking tape as “safety belts” so nothing shimmies off the cart while riding the rickety freight elevator. I love this cart that my Dad made for me years ago. When I have it filled with work, it pretty much equals a loaded soda kiln. Fill the cart, load the kiln.

Just finishing off a quick class demo piece… a plain bottle that needed a little somethin’-somethin’. So I made a rectangle “stencil” using pieces of wet newspaper. I placed them on the leatherhard bottle and smoothed them along the edges. Then painted some thick colored slip over the rectangular void of newspaper, and then dragged my finger through it to make some patterns.

After the slip set-up a bit, I simply peeled the newspaper away…

...and voila’… a fun patch of colored slip with textural finger lines.