Looks like Julie has been busy in the kitchen again… baking up some beautiful cream puffs! It’s a shame that Keith ate too many of them… and only THREE made it to their blue sgraffito platter!!!

Last Thursday night, while I was driving north to Minneapolis for the Pottery Tour, my SURFACE DECORATION class was having a fun class without me!!! Luckily, I planned ahead and pre-made some bowls & cylinders for them to play with. And then I also scheduled the best sub teacher ever… Catherine Tweedie with her best water etching demo ever!!! Basically painting patterns with wax resist… and then wiping away the “unprotected” areas to remove a layer of clay or colored slip. It can create some great images, as well as some depth & texture. From the photos she sent me, it looks like they all had a great time. Now I can’t wait to see their masterpieces in real life!!!

And you can’t really call it “a collection” with just ONE… so… this little sweetie came home too!!! Such amazing sgraffito line-work on such a small piece of porcelain pottery. Just for the record, this little pot is only 2.5-inches tall. Another AMAZING piece from Becky Lloyd from North Carolina… and already thinking about what might piece join these two next year?!

Okay, so I “may” have done a little more damage while shopping at the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour. I’ve followed Becky Lloyd on Instagram for awhile now… and have been amazed by her detailed sgraffito work. I saw her pieces for the first time last year during the tour… and have thought about them every since! Dare I say coveted? So this weekend I felt myself slipping… sensing the start of a new collection… and YES, I took this amazing piece home with me!!! The sgraffito carving is so tight & precise… and so tiny in spaces that it looks gray, not black & white… until you look really close and see that there are still individual carving lines there!!! BEAUTIFUL… and I’m so excited to own this stunner now!!!

Be sure to check her out on Instagram – @beckylloydyogamama

Okay, I couldn’t decide… so I got TWO!

Two sides to two cups to add to my already overwhelming Matthew Metz collection! Especially loving Matt’s new spiral texture technique of carving textures “behind” all of the slip & sgraffito carving!

Cup #1 –

Cup #2 –

So many pots. So many surfaces. So many different approaches to decorating your pottery surfaces. Here’s a collection of some of the ones that caught my eye during the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour. Too much eye-candy to capture all of them… but so much fun to try!

For more St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour info… www.minnesotapottery.com

This week in my SURFACE DECORATION class… we did a bit of simple faceting. Basically throwing “thick-ish” walled cylinders, slicing through them… and in some cases, re-throwing from the inside to bulge them out a bit. We also did some throwing with marbled clay… but my hands were too gooey with three colors of clay to get any good photos! Maybe after we do a little trimming to reveal the marbling better???

After working with our underglaze transfers, my SURFACE DECORATION class then moved onto BUBBLES!!! I mean, who doesn’t love blowing bubbles?! We took a little bit of underglaze, added a smidge of blue dishwashing liquid & some water… then started blowing bubbles with a straw. The plan is to blow enough that the bubbles grow & overflow the sides of the cup onto your piece. Leave the bubbles alone… let them pop as they will leave behind some great bubble patterns. This works directly onto the pots… as well as onto newspaper to transfer later.

This past Thursday in my SURFACE DECORATIONS class, we started working with color… and transferring underglaze “doodles” onto our pots. The idea is you can draw your pattern on newsprint, let it dry, and then transfer it to your pot by wetting it… kinda like a temporary tattoo when you were a kid. We found that some of the simpler line drawing with thinner underglazes worked better.

I tried one with layers of colored underglazes… but the green was kinda gloppy… and smudged when applied. Pretty cool technique… but we’ve all got a lot of practice to do if we want to “perfect” our technique?!

After class last Tuesday, I spent a little more time with my class demo bowls. Just did a little more stamping & detailing… making the bowls even more not-so-basicER!!!

And for now, they’re back under plastic for the night… going to have a LOT of trimming to do pretty soon!