While I sadly consider the “berry season” pretty much over at this point, it is good to know that cherry tomatoes need to be rinsed as well. Thanks to my Cousin David for sharing his bountiful harvest in one of my handmade berry bowls.

Another batch of textured disks drying on my plastic grid. I like to elevate the grid on some wood strips so more air can get under the grid to dry the disks more evenly. Less warping makes me happy.

Platter stamping with the eternal question… is one row of stamps around the rim enough?! Or do I “over-do it” by stamping the entire flange?! This time I tried to restrain myself.

Or do we prefer an INSTAGRAM-type “photo collage” post better than individual photos?!
Personally, not a fan of the collage, but wondering what you think.

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Tonight I did a little detailing… some stamping & fluting of the rims on my latest batch of bowls. Gotta re-stock the inventory for the next wave of art fairs!

Tonight was the final class for my “Simply Soda” students. Ten weeks of classes and soda-firing fun with mixed results. They’ve enjoyed the challenge and learned a lot about the variables of soda-firing. To finish off our final class, we had a fun potluck feast along with our “Plant & Planter Trading-Exchange Game.” So each student brought in some food… and the planter they made during class with a plant they chose to coordinate with their flower pot.

So here are the plant participants in our fun little trading-exchanging-stealing game!

A beautiful orchid & flower pot by Stacey…

A charming small duo of an African violet & succulent twosome by Taylore…

A ponytail palm and ridged planter by Katie…

Some “unknown plant” in a beautiful flower pot by Jackie…

A round disc succulent and soda-fired flower pot by Ed…

A recently pruned, and soon to bloom? plant in a flower pot by Cecelia…

A sleek wall vase with a miniature mum plant inside by Emily…

A small orchid in a water-erosion-relief pattern flower pot by Patty…

And my stamped & soda-fired planter with beautiful variegated low-light plant…

And then Ryan, Taylore’s better-half, didn’t want to be left out of the fun. So even though he’s not really part of this class (he’s actually in my Tuesday night class), he decided to bring his own “plants” to trade in the game. So he worked up a batch of “dirt” for the potluck! Yummy gummy worms in chocolate pudding and chocolate cookie crumbled “dirt.”

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Tomorrow night my “Simply Soda” class is wrapping up and we’ve got a little challenge going on! For our final class this session, we decided to do a “White Elephant” trading swapping game for handmade planters. So the plan is that each student had to make a soda-fired planter during this session, bring it to the last class and trade it for another one. It was my students who went one step further and decided we should add a plant our planters BEFORE the trade!!! So I just planted mine for tomorrow’s class…

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So I’ve been working hard trying to build my portion of the collaboration project I’m doing with Cory McCrory. Lots of assembling, lots of stamping, lots of drilling. It’s been a fun project, and it’s all finally coming together on my end. And I’m pretty sure Cory’s are coming along nicely too. I can’t wait to put everything together when we get to Glenview this weekend for ART IN THE GARDEN.

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So I’ve gotten a few of my textured slab mugs out of the soda kiln.
They’re looking pretty sweet. Loving the all-around textures… and how the colored flashing slips are being highlighted on the high points of the textures.

These new “handbuilt-wheelthrown combo mugs” will be making their Grand Debut
at ART IN THE GARDEN this coming weekend!!! There will be a fairly limited quantity…
be sure to stop by to get your hands on one of these new mugs!!!

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Getting even closer on my “Cory-Collaboration” pieces. Adding some colored flashing slips for a pop of color after soda-firing. I know Cory is working on hers too… can’t wait to put everything together next weekend at ART IN THE GARDEN.

Bringing a bit of nature’s beauty indoors. White hydrangeas in a stamped & soda-fired vase.

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