Well, not quite as much fun as teaching face-to-face, but it did feel good to “teach” again as I just finished teaching my first “official” ceramics workshop on ZOOM for Lillstreet Art Center! It was a one-hour workshop on making clay stamps… from my studio. A little jittery at times as I tilted by laptop screen up & down for demos… but I’m sure these ZOOM classes will get smoother if we need to keep doing them for much longer!

Getting ready to teach my first online workshop for Lillstreet Art Center… CLAY STAMP MAKING! Okay, so I may be showing my age here… but I just can’t get THIS out of my head! And you can thank me now… for I’m sure it will be stuck in your head now too for your next ZOOM Meeting online!

And… you’re welcome!!!

Making another TEXTURE TUESDAY happen in the studio.
Just stamping that “replacement” piece I had to make after Sunday’s ZOOM debacle!

Little bit of good news though… if anyone is interested to find out how I make my own clay stamps, I will be teaching a one-hour “Making Clay Stamps” workshop a week from tomorrow as Lillstreet Art Center will be going “virtual” for some workshops & classes. So if you want to make some stamps with me, or learn a whole new “craft” while under quarantine, check-out the online classes being offered at Lillstreet!

Click here for the link to my “Making Clay Stamps” Workshop.

Another productive studio night with a lot of stamping. The bowls were thrown (against my natural instinct) without a spiral… and you know how much I LOVE a good spiral!!! But these are going to become berry bowls, and I didn’t want the spiral to “get in the way” of the drainage holes I’ll be drilling through the bottom later.

Bowl #1 –

Bowl #2 –

Bowl #3 –

Bowl #4 –

Bowl #5 –

Bowl #6 –

Bowl #7 –

Bowl #8 –

Bowl #9 –

Bowl #10 –

Bowl #11 –

Bowl #13 –

Bowl #14 –

Bowl #15 –

So for now they’re all stamped and back under plastic for the night. I’ll tackle trimming the bottom to add a foot ring tomorrow… and then drainage holes after that. Once trimmed & drilled, then I’ll throw a batch of small plates to fit… drainage catch plates for the berry bowls!

And while I was already in the studio stamping… I decided I might as well just continue & stamp the lidded jars that were already under plastic in my studio. So I did… I mean, I was already there!

Just a quick “tour” while I was stamping my latest batch of mugs… showing the plain mug after throwing, after being stamped, as well as the handmade clay stamp that did the hard work! I was just there pressing…

Mug #1 –

Mug #2 –

Mug #3 –

Mug #4 –

Mug #5 –

Mug #6 –

Mug #7 –

Mug #8 –

Mug #9 –

Mug #10 –

Mug #11 –

So for now they’re all stamped and under wraps for the night. I will most likely trim them tomorrow night, and then try to get handles on the on Monday… what a great way to celebrate another Mugshot Monday than by making more mugs!!!

So I finally finished stamping a new batch of bowls. I’ve been trying to stay productive and get into the studio as often as possible… but with all of the craziness going on these days, it’s tough. Luckily, my studio is very safe & isolated these days. Lillstreet has been closed to the public for weeks now, and I am seemingly the ONLY person there working at night… safely “trapped” in my own little work space… well-isolated from anyone else! And as a potter, I feel like I’m washing my hands ALL the time!!!

So they’ve been stamped… and now they’re all under wraps waiting to be trimmed… and then fired… and then glazed… and fired again! I remembered to take photos of the stamps that did the magic… well, for some of them any ways?!

Bowl A

Bowl B

Bowl C –

Bowl D –

Bowl E –

Bowl F –

Bowl G –

Bowl H –

Bowl I –

Bowl J –

Bowl K –

Back in the studio for another VERY quiet night alone… stamping some more porcelain patterns! One-by-one. All the way around. So much more fun when there are people around the place to distract me from getting my work done!

Tonight I got to do a little stamping here & there… and there… and there… just a few more porcelain cylinders working their towards becoming more mugs!!!