Most people hate making handles… pulling them, scoring, slipping & attaching them. I might be one of the few who LOVE making mugs! In fact, if I were only allowed to make one form for the rest of my pottery career… it would be MUGS!!!

More than ten pieces thrown before 10:00am… this time more wheelthrown holiday ornaments!!! Cute little “finial” ornaments thrown off-the-hump!

All stamped for some fun textural surface decoration. Fun places for the glaze to play with when they eventually get fired… in time for my HOLIDAY HOME SHOW!!!

Getting ready to add some stamped textures & patterns on these mugs! But the real question is “which” of the stamps should I use??? Too many choices as I have literally hundreds… maybe even thousands?.. of my own handmade stamps!!!

More than ten pieces wheelthrown before 10:00am… this time another batch of mugs in the works!!! These ones will be glazed… so I added some textured bands around the top for the glaze to puddle & pool in!!!

Looks like it’s time to get some glaze on! Everything is finally painted with underglaze… so now it’s time for a layer of clear glaze to make everything shiny & more vibrant.

My latest pumpkin patch is coming along nicely… after a couple hours in the studio “pumpkintizing” my smooth spheres. Grooves, warts, stems & leaves! All getting ready for ART IN THE BARN in a couple weeks!!!

More than ten done before 10:00am! My “harvest” of pumpkins ran out at the art fair last weekend… so it’s time to “grow” some more in time for ART IN THE BARN in Barrington. Always the last weekend of September!

So it took my just about three hours to fully load the soda kiln… kinda like Pottery Tetris! Trying to fit in as much as possible, all the while trying to leave some space for air to flow through during the firing. The soda atmosphere needs to get in between everything to leave its glazed finish. I piled a LOT of work into this one! The back stack is a single shelf filled first to the top. Then front stack is a double-shelf filled up to the arch. It’s packed tight… so it might be a long firing today?!

And then I rolled down my studio cart… the same one my Dad built for me several years ago! I have figured out that a full cart of glazed & wadded work pretty much equals a fully loaded soda kiln. The masking tape just works as a little “protection” so nothing jumps off the shelves while I take the rickety freight elevator downstairs… kinda like a pottery seat belt!!