Another late night in the studio. Playing with porcelain and some stamps. Just trying to make enough new work to fill next weekend’s soda kiln!

Working on another batch of spoons for the Holiday Home Show. They still need some refining, smoothing & colored slip accents. Then they”ll dry for the bisque kiln… and then into my all-too-quickly-approaching soda kiln!

A great little collection of my handmade spoons in a stamped oval vase. I have the best customers who love my work… and love to share with me too. Thanks for the photos. Great reminder to make more spoons in time for my Holiday Home Show!!!

Today I tackled my holiday ornaments. They were all thrown on the wheel and were ready to be trimmed. So I took of some of the “bulk” with a fettling knife before actually trimming.

I LOVE MY GIFFIN GRIP!!!
I don’t know how I would do these without it?!
I think every potter should have one!!! You’ll wonder how you ever got by without one!

Anyways, I “float” the ornaments on the posts of the Giffin Grip. It closes in and holds the ornaments pretty firmly for trimming. For a quick trimming video, click here to go to my Facebook page.

A lot of ornaments… a lot of trimming…

After awhile thyey were all trimmed. Next up, I need to add some handbuilt caps & rings to the tops. But that’s for another day. So for now they’re back under wraps.

Finishing up more mugs with some colored slip accents along the rim and in the stamps. Nearly four dozen mugs finished & drying for the night. Waiting for the bisque kiln. Then into my next soda kiln in a couple weeks. Making a LOT of mugs so I can start my annual Holiday Home Show with well over a hundred mugs!!! ‪#‎mugshotmonday‬

Last night I did a LOT of stamping. I have a lot of cylinders working on their way to becoming mugs. I’m working to fill ny next soda kiln. So these are made with soda clay that will get some great flashing & color in the soda atmosphere of the kiln. The stamping is done now… so it’s trimming & handles coming soon!

Plus a couple B-Clay “extras” made from the bottom of the bag…

Playing with porcelain and enjoying the clean contrasts & shadows of the stamping.
Trimming & handles coming soon…

Last Tuesday was my class demo on how to make a basic bowl on purpose. Followed by showing my students some quick tricks & techniques to make each bowl unique. And that not every bowl needs to be precious. That they should play with their clay and try some new things. If it messes up, you just cut it off, re-wedge it and throw it again. It’s just clay!

For the demo I used a full bag of clay and made seventeen bowls. The bowls all came up to my studio where today I did a little more “detailing” with some stamping. I would have loved to save this part for my students too, but I was afraid they would all be too dry in a week’s time. So here the the photos of some of the bowls, freshly detailed… AND the stamps that did all of the hard work making a good impression.

Purple orchid blossoms in a small soda-fired vase.

This large platter came out of the soda kiln beautifully. And PERFECTLY FLAT !!!
I’m so happy that the Kiln Gods watched over it and all went well.

And a quick reminder of what it looked like glazes, but not fired yet…

The second platter has a little bit of warping to it… but then again, it was a LOT thinner from the start. Need to remember that lesson next time. “Don’t throw too thin on soda-fired platters if you want them to stay flat.”