Sweet little stamped & soda-fired vase filled with some beautiful flowers.
Great colors & great textures. Thanks for sharing Tiffany!

With the weekend cold-front moving through with threats of frost up in Wisconsin, looks like Kristy has been pulling in the last of her garden’s flowers inside to enjoy. Before they freeze to death… ugh... good plan Kristy!

After a quick stop at the Andersonville Farmer’s Market this afternoon… I came home with some veggies & an AMAZING bouquet of dahlias from Vangie’s Farm. She custom-designs bouquets for you right on the spot… using your color choices & while blending her flowers & textures. We all know how much I LOVE dahlias… and I just happened to have the perfect oval vase to put them in!!! Shocking, right?! HA!!!

There are only two more Farmer’s Markets on the calendar…
be sure to stop by to grab some amazing flowers!!!

Fresh out of the soda kiln… and packing them up for this weekend’s ART IN THE BARN! I have a double booth again this year… so it’s twice the shelves & twice the pottery!!! I can’t wait to send some of these hybrid mugs off to new homes this weekend in Barrington!

Celebrating another MUGSHOT MONDAY with a bunch of the stamped mugs that came out of my most recent soda firing. I’m always so excited when you open up the kiln and see such bright, soda-fired colors… and not all of the blasted “dolphin-skin” darkness that so many soda-fired pieces get. Remember, not all soda-fired pottery needs to be black, gray or brown!!!

So today I’m packing up many of these mugs to come with me to ART IN THE BARN next weekend in Barrington. Be sure to stop by… I’ll be in the Lower Barn as usual in my double booth!!!

Some of my favorite flowers in one of my favorite vases! A perfect combo for the back porch! Seasonal black-eyed susans in a stamped & soda-fired vase!

Working in the basement trying to prep, price & pack three kilns worth of pottery for my next two shows!!! A lot to do… plus I might be miSTAKEn… but these still need to be prepped for this weekend! High STAKEs to get them done in time… HA!… any guesses?… new for Art In The “Garden”… hint, hint…

What a difference a soda-firing makes! My pumpkins were white going into the kiln…but they had actually been painted with a smooth orange flashing slip before bisque firing.

After they were exposed to the soda atmosphere during firing, that colored flashing slip “magically & chemically” transforms to a beautiful pumpkin orange color. Also highlighting the curves, creases & warts!!! Looks like we’ve had a great pumpkin harvest… so I’ll have plenty for both ART IN THE GARDEN and ART IN THE BARN!!!

Well, here’s the “Big Reveal” of my soda kiln firing from this past weekend. It’s always a labor of love… not just making all of the work, but also all of the loading, bricking the door, firing, putting in the soda mixture, unbricking the door, unloading the pots, packing it all up, scraping the kiln shelves, kiln washing the shelves, mopping the floor, and so many other “not-so-glamorous” tasks that are all part of the process. Most people think we “just make pots.” Well, there’s a LOT more to it than that!!!

But I’m pleased… my firing came out GREAT.
Nice bright colors… not too much gray “dolphin-skin” build-up! I need to prep & price everything now… getting it ready for ART IN THE GARDEN this weekend… as well as ART IN THE BARN two weeks later!!! Can’t wait to send them off to their new “forever homes.”

I fired the soda kiln on Saturday… and somehow the rest of the holiday weekend got away from me?!… too much playing outside I think… if that’s even possible? So I’m finally getting around to posting some pictures from my firing. It was a very smooth firing… if anything a little faster than I expected. When the final cones started dropping I was caught a little off-guard… and had a little bit of panic getting my soda mixture all ready. But all went well… and I put in the mixture every 15 minutes or so until it was done! You gotta love when the flames come shooting out like this towards the end of the firing!!!