Last night before teaching class, I had just enough time to stamp another platter…
actually the demo platter I threw for class last week.

I started stamping with one stamp pressed in one… by one… by one… all the way around!

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After yesterday’s one-day stint of Spring, today we’ve plunged back into cold grayness. Nothing some flowers & textured vases can’t warm up!

So I’ve had this porcelain platter under plastic for quite some time now…
pretty much back to the “Sgraffito Surprise Challenge” for my Throwdown Class.
I threw the platter shortly after that and added a layer of black slip. Unfortunately, once it was under plastic wrap, the urgency seemed to dissipate as well. Sure, I had to spray it a couple times… but it all seems good. So I trimmed it last night and started to decorate it with some sgraffito carving.

I started with a “template” leaf shape I cut out of a Post-it Note…
that’s the first thing I found! So I traced it into the black slip with a wire needle tool.

The first cut is always the toughest!
It’s tough to COMMIT… once you start, there’s no way to turn back!

And I love using me DiamondCore Tools – especially this V-tip Carving Tool – my fave!!!
Clean, crisp, lines that carve out SO smoothly. Like buttah!

Once I had carved out the first round of petals, I started freehanding some more curves.

And then I decided to do some “shading” with some straight lines in some of the sections.

I sort of love how the trimmings just lay there… twisting, turning, scattering.
So much fun to simply blow off to remove!

Then I switched to the DiamondCore square-tip carver to clean out a few sections to make them smooth & white.

After seeing them smooth, I decided I like the texture better. So I went back in after cleaning them with my DiamondCore V-tip tool to add some more texture lines in the white sections.

Almost there… lots of trimmings piling up!!! I love a good work in progress shot!

But then I thought that there were a couple too many fully black sections. And yet I knew I didn’t want to change them to white or “fray” as they would contrast with the sections next to them. So I decided to add a few white dots… what wetter way than a quick turn of a drill bit?!

And there it is… “done” for the evening and now back under plastic.
Of course, forcing yourself to stop sgraffito-ing is sometimes the hardest part.
So I “think” I’m done… but I may need to do a few more refinements when I get back in?!

And now

Another platter. Another stamp. Stamp. Stamp. Repeat.
And repeat again… and again… one by one… from plain to fully stamped!

And done. For now.
Next up is drying slowly… bisque firing… glazing… and firing again! Quite the process!!!

It’s the first day of April, and these colorful gerbera daisies sure make me feel like Spring is here! Now if it would just warm up a bit more so it “feels” like Spring is here too?! Thanks to Patti for sharing her flowers with all of us! So cheery!

Also fresh from this week’s soda kiln, a new collection of textured square slab vases… in three sizes!!! With a different texture “picture” on each side of the vase! Perfect for the soon-to-be-here Spring flowers!!! And making their “big debut” next weekend at the Prairie View Arts Invitational in Naperville!

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On another gloomy gray day, I’ll take a bit of Spring green anywhere we can find it.
Loving Mother Nature’s textures & colors in Early Spring.

Good thing I’ve been making more of my textured square vases…
because the ones used for Patti’s centerpieces pretty much cleaned me out!
So I’ve made another batch of them… this time in three sizes!!!

So I’ve been making more, adding flashing slip details and setting them out to dry. I decided to dry them on plastic grid for better air-flow, as well as some tile “weights” on the tops to keep them from warping or twisting as they dry. Not an exact science… but it can’t hurt, right?

Always a fun explosion of color & texture.
A splash of Witch Hazel is always welcome after a long dark & drab Winter.

Time to do a bit of detailing on the latest batch of bowls. They’ve set-up a bit and are now a “wet-leatherhard” stage. Not quite dry enough for trimming, but stiff enough to hold it’s shape during the stamping process. Gauging the right wetness is kind of mportant when you’re going in to for a full day of stamping!!!

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And for now these bowls are stamped and back under plastic for the night.
But then coming soon… power tools to make them berry bowls!!!

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