Hard to believe that it has already been three months since my Alaskan adventure!

Traveling to Fairbanks to teach a two-day workshop with the Fairbanks Potters Guild. We had such a great weekend playing in the clay together. It was such a great group of potters all ready to share ideas, tips & tricks! We had a great time… and I’m looking forward to “taking my show on the road” more often in the future.

If anyone else is looking for a Chicago potter to come to your studio, art center or pottery guild… keep me in mind! We made so many pots in just two days. We made stamps… made mugs… made platters… made bowls… and made memories for a lifetime!

Getting ready to add some stamped textures & patterns on these mugs! But the real question is “which” of the stamps should I use??? Too many choices as I have literally hundreds… maybe even thousands?.. of my own handmade stamps!!!

Day Two of my pottery workshop with the Fairbanks Potters Guild.
My fear was that when we returned to the studio all of their pots would be bone dry… or still soaking wet. I was hoping that they would be on the softer-side of leatherhard for good stamping… and they were!! YAY!!! We did a little heat-gunning to dry the stamps more before the potters arrived.

To get us started, I did a couple stamping demos using some bisqued stamps I brought with me. We also discussed how to use your texture tools to complement the design & shape of a pot… and maybe thinking the other way while throwing. Setting yourself up with a well-designed pot with good “canvas areas” for stamping later. So the stamps & textures are the focus, not an after-thought.

Throughout the day we stamped & textured everything. We also added some thick slip decorations to a few of the bowls… I love chattered slip!!! We trimmed our pots even though they were wetter than I would like. We even did a demo-on-demand for pulling handles… which I love! We also did some trimming & finishing of their hybrid mugs before adding handles. Again, we had a LOT of pots to work our way through… luckily we had all day!

This workshop was so much fun!!! They were a great group of people… so open, invested, encouraging & interactive. Everyone participated and I think had a great time making some newly-inspired pots. I was kind of wondering what I could offer a group of established potters… turns out there is always lot to share. I shared with them, and they shared with me! It will be interesting to see how they incorporate some of these new techniques into their pottery moving forward.

Huge thanks to all of the Fairbanks Potters Guild… you guys were the BEST!!! Thanks to my favorite Ida who was seemingly the all-knowing matriarch of the group… so much wisdom, so helpful, so nice!!! And thanks to Tammy for opening her studio & hosting the two-day event. Special thanks to Theresa for making this all happen. A simple email got me interested, and then Theresa worked out all of the details to make this workshop happen!!! Thanks to everyone for making this workshop a success & so much fun!!!

I love teaching. And I loved this workshop.
So if anyone else out there needs me to visit for a fun group workshop in your neck of the woods… just let me know! The more exotic the location the better!!! HA!!! I mean, it can’t hurt, right?!

Just a little stamped design on a new dinner plate… aka Tuesday night’s class demo! I threw the plate in class, and then it sat under plastic until it was ready to stamp this morning!

A little early morning stamping… giddy-up!

Last week I subbed for a Thursday night class… and they asked me to show them how to do stamping. I said we should start at the beginning. So I taught them how to make their own stamps. I bisque fired them… and then I subbed again last night and we did some stamping demos on actual pieces. I think they liked the demo… and now they have some handmade stamps of their own.

In the meantime, I made a small batch of new stamps as well. Now it looks like I need to make some new mugs. I mean… the holidays are coming sooner than you think!!!

A little early-morning stamping… working on my class demo placesetting challenge project. Dinner plate… salad plate… side bowl… serving bowl… tumbler… and the single handmade stamp that did all of the work!!! Coordinating in design… but not too matchy-matchy!

Last night in my Advanced Beginner’s class, we closed out the evening with a little stamp-making demo & interactive making session. Hopefully I can get these stamps bisque-fired soon enough for them to start using before the class session ends!!!

Just stamping another large dinner plate… all with one handmade clay stamp!

This week in my SURFACE DECORATION class, we tackled stamping & sprigging. I showed them the basics of how I approach a pot, how try emphasize the shape & geometry of the pot with my stamps… and the most important part… how to stamp! Sure, not rocket-science, but there are a few tricks!!! I did my demos and then set them loose… with their own stamps they had made the week before, as well as some of my collection. Many of them had made their “homework” pieces to work on, but I was glad I had a made a bunch too so they had more to “play” with! I tried to emphasize how stamping can become addictive… and they heard the mantra more than once…

MORE IS MORE!!!