While bisque kiln #2 is cooling… it’s time to start glazing the pieces from bisque kiln #1.
So the pieces are spread out all over my studio. And I’m starting the process with glaze
inlaid into the stamped impressions and liner glazes.

Last night when I got to the studio, they asked me if I had seen my special delivery.
I said no – and assumed it might be my new postcards for the Holiday Home Show!?
He explained that it arrived a couple days ago, and someone was supposed to tell me. Yep,
that worked well. Ha. Then Joe from the front desk said my delivery was in the refrigerator.
Now I’m intrigued. So quickly I went to find out what my surprise delivery was…

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!

Tonight I unloaded my latest bisque kiln.
But now where do I put everything?! I’ve got a lot of glazing to do now…
but I’m still hoping to make another kiln’s worth of new work. And as you can see,
my tables & shelves are stacking up with bisque. So what to do?… Glaze & wad these pots
to get them out of the way? Or make more fresh pieces to fill another bisque kiln?!

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!

So last week, we worked on ovals in my Tuesday night class.
One of my brand new students had seen my ovals here on the blog, and asked if we could
cover how to make them in class. So I said sure, even though “brand new beginners”
don’t generally get to make ovals. But then again, after the demo… Jen has been all over
the ovals and has already made a couple of them!

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!

Tonight I finished adding handles to the first batch of new mugs.
Generally I keep the mugs with freshly attached handles under wraps
overnight before leaving them out to dry. In my mind, it helps keep the handles
“happy” by allowing the moisture levels to balance out between the drier cup
and the wetter handle. After they “even out” overnight, then I can open them up,
add a few slip details, and then let them dry fully… with happy handles!

It’s time to get back into full production mode… and time for more clay!
And since my reclaim bucket was getting full, it’s also time to reclaim some clay.
Just a couple days of drying on my plaster bat and it should be “reclaimable.”
So it’s just a bit of work, a lot of wedging… and it seems like “free” clay to me!

During my firing, I knew I had a lot of time to kill. You’re stuck there ALL day firing!
So, as typical for most firing days, I spent several hours cleaning & putting my studio
back together. The pace was a mess for the past couple days of frantic glazing & prepping.
When I finally had a clean studio… it was time to mess it up again!

With “Art In The Barn” just one week away… and Fall kicking in all around us…
I felt I needed to make some more of my terra cotta “monsters” that were a hit last year!
So I started throwing some terra cotta cylinders that will be transformed into their
alter-ego’s over the next couple days. And that’s all I’ve got… my next kiln is scheduled
for Wednesday night. Which means I need to get them all assembled & decorated in the
next few days, underglaze them, glaze them, load them & fire them… and hopefully get them
out of the kiln Friday evening… just in time for Saturday’s kick-off to “Art In The Barn.”

So they may not look like much now… but these will become pumpkins…

And these will be come skulls…

And these will become Frankenstein monsters!!!… if all goes as planned…

Still hoping to make a fourth “monster” too… but too sure I’ll have time?!
And I’m still looking for some “monster inspiration”? Any suggestions???

I’m in the middle of glazing for my upcoming kiln…
and I’m feeling more than a little overwhelmed and behind schedule!!!

Luckily, my friend Nancy was willing to come into the studio and lend a hand… or two!
She was concerned that she may not be “qualified” to help with my work. But I was quick
to tell her that “any help” would be better than none. Plus, I’m sure that she can handle
any task I would give her. So she was more than willing & able to inlay some glazes, wipe ’em,
stain some ornament tops and other tasks. Tasks which would have taken ME hours!!!…
but luckily, she was there to do them for me! Thank you so, so much Nancy!!!

You know… I could really get used to this. I may need to reconsider getting another one…

Okay, so my small little studio just seems to be getting smaller?!
The more I make, the smaller it all seems to get. How does that work?
Therefore, I needed to improvise… so thank you to my studio neighbors Karen Patinkin
& Lisa Harris who’s “studio weekend off” gave me a little extra space to dry my pieces!!!
Perfect for me – and they didn’t even know it… until now!