Here we go… wedged & ready to get busy!!!

Don’t you just hate when you forget to wire a platter off the bat… and then let it dry far too long to a very stiff leatherhard… and then still try to wire it off so you can trim it?! I thought I could do it… spinning it on the wheel while I pulled the wire tool through slowly & very, very taut. But then THIS happened… so much for this platter!!! And so it goes… into the reclaim pile!!!

This week in my SURFACE DECORATION class… we did a bit of simple faceting. Basically throwing “thick-ish” walled cylinders, slicing through them… and in some cases, re-throwing from the inside to bulge them out a bit. We also did some throwing with marbled clay… but my hands were too gooey with three colors of clay to get any good photos! Maybe after we do a little trimming to reveal the marbling better???

Finishing up a large batch of berry bowls… so much quicker & easier with my power drill. Just some quick cleaning-up of the tiny burrs when they dry. Soon enough they’ll be dry enough for the bisque kiln. Now I just need to make a bunch of drip plates to go with these berry bowls!

Time to make some berry bowls… so much easier with a power drill to do the “heavy lifting”!!! Plus, the range of drill bits gives you a good selection of hole diameters!

The morning after… trimming scraps ready to toss into my reclaim bucket!

Trimming some bowls with the perfect combo of trimming tools… my favorite trimming tool from DiamondCore Tools & my Giffin Grip. One holds ’em tight, and the other trims them smooth. Makes my job easy… even when my trimming tool blade is wearing thin. One of the benefits of DiamondCore Tools is that they remain sharp even while wearing down… and oh, but wait there’s more.. they even send you a replacement blade to switch out when this one eventually dies. But I still have a good amount of trimming with this one before that happens…

Well, it looks like I’ve got a good bit of trimming ahead of me today… hoping to get it all done before teaching class tonight?! A bunch of bowls at a good leather-hard state ready for trimming… one of my favorite parts of the whole process!

And now for the ever-popular… but never acknowledged “ugly” side of soda-firing. All of the parts that most people don’t ever realize happen behind-the-scenes… scraping kiln shelves, sweeping & mopping, stacking kiln furniture and my least favorite task… adding a new layer of kiln wash on all of the shelves I used in my firing. Luckily, I get to look at all the pretty pots after all of this drudge work!

Bricked up & closed for the night. It was a “quick sleep” and now I’m already back at the studio firing!!! Bricks in, peeps in & ignition started!!! An early start to a long day for firing… plus random studio “spring cleaning” projects throughout the day!