By now you know my mantra… MORE IS MORE.

Why stop with a smooth platter with a good spiral?… when you could create a cool texture?! So much more fun when you start stamping with one handmade stamp. One stamp, two stamp, three stamp, more! Over & over & over again… just one stamped impression at a time!

With a gray & gloomy start to the day… instead of biking, here’s some “sunrise stamping” to kick-off my morning. One handmade clay stamp… pressed in over & over & over again. Racing a deadline to get these done… seems I work best under pressure?! HA!!!

After playing with my handmade stamps in our SURFACE DECORATION class, we worked together to make some new stamps my students can call their own! And then we’ll see what kind of beauties they can create using their own stamps! Can’t wait to see ’em…

After my stamping class demo, I encouraged my students to use some of my handmade stamps on their own pieces. I suggested they start by”testing” the stamps on a small slab, and then move onto their own bowls, plates & vases. They seemed to have so much fun playing with my stamps… and they made some really cool patterns on their pottery!

This week in my SURFACE DECORATION class, the topic of the week was “Stamping & Sprigging”… mostly stamping! It was fun to show-off a bit, and demonstrate how I make my pots… and then encourage them to “borrow” the technique and find a way to “flip it” to make it an option in their own styles!!!

Doing a little stamping on a couple class demo vases… before you going down to teach another class tonight! Just trying to get to keep one step ahead…

Still working in the studio… and I’ve moved on to stamping some serving bowls. Just have to pick the stamps I want to use… and then start pressing them into the “softer-than-leatherhard” clay one by one… by one… by one…

Same clay, same day, much like many other days…
doing a bit of decorative stamping with my handmade clay stamps!

And there it is… after “just a few” stampings! I’m always enamored by how the repetition of just one handmade stamp can transform a smooth platter into a crazy cool textured pattern. Each stamped pressed in one by one… by one… by one…

Here we go… the first stamp is always the toughest. Once you press that first one in, you’ve kinda committed to doing it all. And it’s difficult to stamp with my fingers crossed! HA!!!