Tonight I trimmed a bunch of things, added bottoms to the ovals and
added handles to the mugs. Getting ready to wrap them up for the night
to keep them “workable” for another day. Once the moisture levels “balance out”
a bit, I’ll add a little slip for a splash of color and then they can start drying!

So I pulled out some stamps and started pressing them in. Making the first “impressions”
of the New Year. Sadly, the newest batch of stamps has not been bisqued yet, so I’m still
using last year’s stamps… picking from the “thousands” of stamps in my studio arsenal.

Next up… trimming the mug cylinders, adding bottoms to the ovals…
and handles to the mugs! Otherwise, they’d just be cylinders, right?!

After a two-hour Lillstreet teacher meeting, sheesh, I finally made it into the studio
to get my hands dirty. First, I started with a lot clay layering & wedging to get some
of my fresh reclaim clay prepared to go. I had reclaimed a huge pile of clay shortly
before the holidays, and just put it into clay bags to store it until I had time to
properly wedge it up. So today was the day. And then, once I had that “task” done,
it was time to start throwing. I started with a couple simple favorites… mugs & ovals.

Some simple cylinders… proving that I am still ready for class to start on Tuesday.
It may have been a long holiday break… but I’m back and ready to throw!

Turns out that my college friend Pammy, and fellow first-time-Triathlete, had sent me
a little trick-or-treat surprise. And what a treat it was! I had sent her a couple Halloween
surprises in the mail, and apparently this was her response!

Breakfast of champions… seriously!

Well, by now you know the answer is always ‘make more fresh work.’
I can glaze another day.

You know I love making mugs!
And tonight I finally finished adding handles, painting some colored slip accents and
setting them out to dry. Half of them are made of soda stoneware, the other half B-Clay.
All of them are set to be fired in my upcoming soda kiln. The B-Clay works especially well
in the back stack of the kiln, whereas the soda clay turns out better with a little heavier
coverage of soda glaze build-up. So I need to keep track of which is which… okay…
so there’s a small “code” on the bottom of each piece to help with that.

So now they’re drying… waiting to go into my next bisque kiln on Tuesday.
Forty-four of them… just in case you’re counting! Then they’ll be glazed and soda fired
just in time for my upcoming Holiday Home Show!

Since then, I’ve been all over the ovals in my studio as well.
And when I dive into production mode, I have a tendency to go a little overboard. I may
have done that again here… as I’ve run out of space in my studio because of the ovals!!!

Since the demo was so “inspiring” to Jen… I thought I’d cover a bit of them here too.
So when I start making my ovals, I generally throw a large bottomless cylinder on a bat.
For these ovals, I also made split rims while I was throwing them so I would have a little more
to play with later when stamping & decorating. Once the cylinders have lost their “shine”
and stickiness, I wire them off the bat, pick them up carefully and manipulate them into the
oval shape. I let them set up even more, do some stamping, some pinching, some fluting…
you know, more of my usual decorating tricks!

The next step is to add a bottom onto the bottomless “now-ovaled” cylinders. So I throw out
a slab of clay large enough to fit the oval. Then I carefully pick up the oval, set it on the slab
and trace the shape. Then I take it off, flip it over and score & slip both pieces. Carefully
putting them back together and “squishing” them carefully so they stick! Since I was tired
and running out of time, I wrapped them up and let them sit like that overnight.

The next day, I came in and worked to clean-up the bottoms and edges. So I flipped the
combined form together and trimmed off the extra clay with my firm green rib. Carefully
scraping off the excess clay – trying to combine top & bottom seamlessly.

Then I take a flat sided paddle to compress the edges together  – making sure the
connection is strong, as well as creating a nice corner-angle-undercut all the way around.

Once the bottom is attached, trimmed and smoothed into place, I carefully flip it
back over and decide if it needs handles – and this time the answer was yes!

So I rolled out coils of clay and textured them with a grooved rod that I found at a flea market.
I think it’s a piece from Lincoln Logs or some other kid’s game?! Hey, but it works great!
So I press the textured rod into the coils to get the textured, then bend them into the handle
shape. I always do both handles at the same time so that they match.

Then, it’s more scoring & slipping to get the handles attached.
A few last minute touch-ups and then they were done for another night.

Special thanks to my studio neighbors Lisa Harris, Cathi Bouzide & Karen Patinkin
for letting me “borrow” some table space while I’ve been working on these…
many times without them even knowing it!

I wrapped them up in plastic for one last night. Hoping that the slower drying will give
all the parts a little more time to balance out and dry more evenly. Unfortunately, all these
ovals are taking up a LOT of space in my already small studio. So much so…
that these ovals have been relegated to the floor!!! Careful where you walk…

After an evening of “slow drying” under plastic, they’ll be uncovered so they can dry the
rest of the way… and then go into my next bisque kiln scheduled for next Tuesday night!