Today I tackled my ware board full of salt & pepper shakers.
First I paired them up, then stamped the matched pairs. Then I trimmed the bottoms and punched the bottom “fill ’em up” holes.

I then set out to drill the shaker holes… and by “drill” I mean POWER DRILL!!!
Yes, so much easier to use power tools to do the work than any other hand tool.
Cleaner, quicker, easier! Gotta love POWER TOOLS!!!

After drilling the shaker holes, I painted the pairs with colored flashing slips on the tops and stamp accents. Occasionally the shaker holes would fill in with slip… but a quick puff of air through the bottom hole would easily clear the slip out of the holes!

And now they’re drying for the night…

Last night I threw twenty salty & pepper shakers. And then wrapped them up for the night. When I came back into the studio this evening, I found the typical condensation inside you’d expect. But I was intrigued by the little one spot on the plastic that had no moisture?! What gives?!

Upon closer inspection, I found that there was a teeny-tiny little hole in the plastic right there in the middle of the “dry spot.” Go figure.

Apparently, only twenty fit on my ware board. So that’s where I “had to stop” for the night. Next up, some stamping, trimming, slipping and hole punching to turn these into a new batch of salt & pepper shakers!

New ring holders… getting ready for my next soda firing in a couple weeks!

After Summer Camp, I finished adding handles to my latest batch of mugs.

It was moving along quite nicely, until it was time to teach my evening adult class… and I still had TWO handles to add. I “almost” got them done. Just two more. Two more and I would have been done. Instead, I had to come back up to my studio after class to finish those last two!!! So now they’re all under wraps for the night – and I’ll add some colored slip accents tomorrow!

I also trimmed all of the “24”… and added some colored slip accents to the tops & stamps.
Now all set and drying.

It felt great to get back into the studio tonight after this weekend’s art fair in Evanston… and the start of another week of Summer Camp kicking off today. Luckily, the bowls I stamped last week were at a perfect leather-hard state for trimming. So now they are all trimmed, burnished, signed and drying upside-down.

Last night I stamped some more larger, serving bowls. I always love to see the transformation from the “plain” round bowl to the stamped & textured finished bowl. It always surprises me when I see how much of a change can be made with just a couple stamps!!!

Bowl #1 –

Bowl #2 –

Bowl #3 –

Bowl #4 –

Bowl #5 –

So now they’re wrapped up loosely for the night… hoping to dry them up to a good leather-hard state so I can do some trimming on the bottoms.

Quick night in the studio tonight… and another two dozen done! Oh yeah, and five more bowls!!!