So apparently this is what happens when you go into the studio early in the morning… and have that nagging feeling that you might not have enough pieces to fill next weekend’s soda kiln?! And you have a little panic… and start throwing MORE!!!

It’s gonna be tough to get these all stamped, trimmed, dried, bisqued & glazed before going into my soda kiln next weekend!

Uh oh… tick-tock, tick-tock…

Okay, so I must say that I’ve been kind of enamored by that first batch of pumpkins… so why not try to crank out another batch in time for my soda firing?! So here we go again… another batch, even more this time & slightly smaller. I mean, you gotta have all different sized pumpkins, right?

So for now my pumpkins are drying. If you remember back to last year, I kinda “rushed” the drying process and put my pumpkins into the bisque kiln too soon. We had a little “explosion” situation because they weren’t dry yet. Let’s just say, that mistake will NOT happen again this year. I have plenty of time to let these dry this year!

After adding warts onto my pumpkins, it was time to paint them all with orange flashing slip… as my plan is to fire these in my next soda kiln. The slip might look “plain” now… but in the atmospheric firing, the soda mixture will make the slip change to an orange color. If all goes well…

You know that everyone loves a good stem on their pumpkin when searching through the pumpkin patch. So I’ve added some twisted-viny stems to my pumpkins! Next up, my other favorite thing… some good warts & bumps coming soon!!!

It’s always amazing to me how a few grooved-line indentations & a squished top can make a simple sphere look so much like a pumpkin so quickly!

While I’m still “struggling” to keep Summer alive… hanging on as long as I can… I must admit to myself that it is time to start focusing on my new Fall harvest. Starting with wheelthrown spheres… these little babies will be “pumpkintized” when they get to a soft leatherhard stage.

Suddenly a batch of porcelain mug forms have shown up in my studio… next up?… stamping, trimming, handles & colored flashing slip accents… in that order!

All handles attached & a full batch of mugs finished before class tonight!!! It was a bit of a marathon… with a short sprint at the end. Lots of mugs finished though. I’ll keep the mugs under plastic overnight so the moisture levels can even out a bit more, and then I’ll let them start drying tomorrow!

Handles pulled & looped over. I always pull my handles by hand, and loop them over to stand them up like this. They will set-up like this a bit before I start attaching them to the mug cylinders. This way, they are already 90% set to their eventual curve… so I won’t need to bend them too much after they stiffen up more.