No room for more scraps & trimmings when the bucket’s full. Another pile of reclaimed clay piled up on my plaster bat tonight. Too much for my usual large bat, so I had to add on a little “extension” on the side! It’s a strange mix of clays… a couple varieties of stonewares, some with iron, some with ochre, some B-Clay and some porcelain scraps for good measure! All cone 10 clay bodies so we’re good.

Tumblers trimmed and accented with colored slip… drying overnight. These will go into my next soda kiln, so those “subtle” colors will change a lot when they flash in the soda firing atmosphere. Or at least that’s my hope…

Latest bisque kiln unloaded… and here’s my new pile of porcelain pieces.
Now it’s time to start waxing the bottoms!!!

Today I finished up my latest batch of mugs with some colored slip accents. The slip will change colors and do some fun “flashing” effects in the soda kiln. Or at least that’s the plan… you never know for sure until it comes out of the kiln!!!

Another batch of stamped ovals.
Thrown, oval-ed, stamped and waiting to be assembled.
This is the first time I’ve ever made them out of porcelain… I have high hopes. They’ve been a little more finicky than stoneware. Hope they make it through to the end?!!!

Well, it’s been awhile now… and time for another VIDEO on YouTube!!!
What with the Academy Awards coming in two weeks and all…

This time I tackled a softer platter than I’m accustomed to.
I threw the platter as a demo during my Tuesday night wheelthrowing class. It sat out during class and stiffened up more than I expected. So I brought it up to my studio, sprayed it really well with water and wrapped it up. Maybe too well.

As you know, timing is everything. And I knew that I had a certain “window of opportunity” to do some stamping… otherwise it might be too dry if I put it off any longer. So I forged ahead… and it was a little sticky. Typically I like the pot to be on the softer end of the “leather-hard” spectrum. But this one may have been a smidge too soft. If you watch closely, you can see the stamp sticking a bit… and more apparent, my fingers were sticking to the clay too!

But I decided to forge ahead… knowing that it might stick too much or slump too much.
It’s just clay, right?!

Click here to go to YouTube for “Another Stamped Platter.”

Okay, so I found it too tough to limit myself to 3 photos a day like was supposed to for the Facebook Portfolio Challenge. So I bumped it up to five. Still struggling… so it’s two posts a day?! And this one stretches it even further with TEN images of freshly stamped, leatherhard clay. My favorite stage of the whole process!!!

It’s Day Three of my Facebook Portfolio Challenge.
So far we’ve had Mugshot Monday, Texture Tuesday…
and now I’m calling it “Working Wednesday.” Photos of work in progress.

And today I nominate Marjorie Woodruff, my first wheelthrowing teacher at Lillstreet, to take part in the Facebook 3×5 Challenge!!!

Pretty pleased with myself for getting my 4th-quarter sales taxes
filed BEFORE tomorrow’s deadline!!!

Sadly, not so thrilled about also filing 3rd-quarter’s return tonight as well.
Whoops… and “ouch” $$$ !!!

Well, I finally finished glazing & wadding and made the big trek downstairs with my studio glaze cart. It seems to work pretty well – an almost full cart makes a full soda kiln.

Safe downstairs with my “really-should-be-patented” brilliant use of masking tape as “seat belts” for the pots during their bumpy ride downstairs on the freight elevator. It has saved many a pot over the years as they tip over & try to roll away. Saved by the masking tape!!!

Now for the loading to commence…