I’ve kinda lost track of what day it is… but I “think” that it’s another TEXTURE TUESDAY! So here’s a stamped & soda-fired surface… actually just one side of the square vases I’m making these days. Kinda fun as I make sure that each side is a different textured pattern… get tired of one side, just turn the vase around!

Rusted textures & patterns with an assortment of manhole covers through the neighborhood.

So the weather is still gray, gloomy & windy. Still not so pretty outside. But it was AMAZING to get outside for the afternoon for some fresh air. We haven’t been “locked down” for very long… and I already needed to GET OUT!!!

It’s a combo today… it’s TEXTURE TUESDAY and St. Patrick’s Day…
so I thought I’d capture my purple shamrock in front of some textured rattles!

It’s another Texture Tuesday Two-fer!!! One made of clay, one made of bricks… but in my head they kinda go together surprisingly well?!

This past weekend was my 3-Night Soda-Firing Workshop. A quick introduction to the many wonders of soda-firing. We glazed, wadded, loaded, fired, cooled, unloaded, cleaned, admired and potluck’d all in three days! A lot of work… but it all starts with an empty kiln. Perfect for TEXTURE TUESDAY!!!

So I spent part of the day today stamping my latest batch of cylinders destined to become MUGS!!! You know they’re my favorite thing to make… and my “default” if I don’t have a real plan going into the studio! So it was a good day… lots of stamping… lots of patterns… lots of FUN!!!

And making it a little “extra” fun… these are the first cylinders that I’ve stamped using the new batch of stamps I made a couple weeks ago! It’s always fun to see what patterns they actually make after bisque firing… both as single stamps, as well as in multiple repetitions!

Mug A

Mug B

Mug C

Mug D

Mug E

Mug F

Mug G

Mug H

Mug I

Mug J

Mug K

Mug L

Mug K

And for now they’re all under wraps for the night. I hope to get them trimmed tomorrow… and quite possible get some handles on them too!!!

This week in my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, they brought back their “dice-decorated” maquette cylinders along with the taller vases they made using the first piece as inspiration. The second part of the challenge was that it had to be a minimum of nine-inches tall. It was great to see how they each “embraced” the challenge both using the single die to decorated the cylinder, but then again to decorate the larger piece. The “spirit” of the challenge was to use that “one dice-one tool” concept for the larger vase once again… and to use the design concept from the first maquette cylinder to create a beautiful larger vase.

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Jen …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Molly …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Norah …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Taylor …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Tracy …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Christine …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Helen …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Jacob …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Jen …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Stacey!
This project came in second… mostly for the overly-creative way Stacey worked outside of the box and extrapolated her layered maquette design into a stacked & textured “layer” vase!

And the FIRST PLACE dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Dana …
mostly for sticking with the “pure intention” of the challenge… and for learning & re-designing her vase based on what she liked & disliked about the maquette… as well as the smoothest burnished surface ever!!!

For the in-class challenge, they found out it would be a surface decoration challenge.
Easy-peezy… especially when I passed out some already-thrown cylinders for them to work on. So all they needed to do was decorate them!

Oh, but there’s a twist!
They needed to do their entire surface decoration using just one tool.
And it was NOT a tool of their choice…

They found out quickly that that one tool was going to be a basic DIE…
yes, DICE for everyone!!!

After their 45 minutes for the challenge. we gathered to look at each of them. It was fun to see how they had each approached the challenge differently. Some went straight for stamping, some for drawing with a corner, some with colorful underglazes or slips using the die as the paintbrush!

At the time, we discussed their newly-decorated cylinders… with them “thinking” that THIS was the challenge! We talked about texture, pattern, and approaches to the challenge itself. But then they found out that this was not a judged challenge for points… but instead a stepping-off point for their next challenge!

So their homework for the week is to create a new vase that is a minimum of 9-inches tall that has surface decoration made again with that ONE TOOL… the dice! Their new cylinder does not need to match exactly, but instead be “inspired by” the original cylinder. I told the to think of that original cylinder as the “maquette” for their larger vase. So now I’m looking forward to next Thursday night when we get to see their newly created vases with DICE DECORATIONS!

Another texture for Texture Tuesday… totally tubular… bonus!!!

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