With the recent cold-spell & dusting of April snow, it seemed oddly appropriate to crank-out another batch of Christmas ornaments!!! I love making them… but I LOVE Summer more!!! I’m kinda done with the cold weather.

And for those of you who just want to see a lot of mugs… here you go… individual shots of the latest batch! What better way to celebrate another MUGSHOT MONDAY than with a lot of mugs?!

Celebrating with LOTS of mugs… my new “wheelthrown-handbuilt-combo” mugs with some fun textures all around! Drying now… as they’ve all been dipped in some soda flashing slips. So when they finally get fired in my next soda kiln, they should get some fun colors & dramatic flashing effects!

So I finished up another batch of stamped mugs tonight… adding the handles in “a bit of a rush” so I could skip out early for some evening ice cream fun with friends!!! Feels good to have the mugs done & under plastic overnight… feels even better to have had my fill of Lickity Split frozen custard!!!

Sure, smooth was nice…
but now they look a LOT BETTER after a bit of stamping!!!

Who says the wheel only makes circular pots?!
Not me.

So last night after stamping, my SURFACE DECORATIONS class switched to using sprig molds for their textured decorations. We just pressed clay into the molds, popped them out and then “scored & slipped” them into place! I don’t do a lot of sprig work, so it was kind of fun to watch my demo bowl evolve one layer at a time… a row of sprigs…some stamps… maybe a scalloped edge… some more stamps… and maybe some holes… wait, what?!

I always have trouble knowing when to stop… as MORE IS MORE.
But I do think it’s done – after a bit more cleaning up!

In preparation for last night’s class, I also made a new batch of sprig molds last week for us to use. They’re just patterns carved into porcelain and then bisqued. I figured if we were going to stamp “into” the clay… we could also use sprigs to have the patterns bulge “out of” the clay! I kinda look at sprigs as the opposite of stamps! Textures coming out as opposed to textures pressing in.

Here we go again…
making more handles… making more MUGS!!!
My favorite thing to make!

This afternoon’s project… some quick trimming & detailing with colored flashing slips before class starts! I’ve got “a few” spoon rests to finish up… and limited time. Giddy-up!!!