Tonight was week #9 of my beginning wheelthrowing class. Only one more week!
They have all of the basic skills and are busy working & making pots!

So tonight I thought it would be great to surprise them all with a wonderful surface
decoration demonstration by my friend & potter Amy Higgason. Amy has been in town
for the weekend, and after her Trunk Show on Friday, we thought it would be fun for her
to do a demo for my class. So Amy threw a few pots last Friday, trimmed ‘em today
and set off carving them tonight! A special treat for my students.

Amy started her demo with a discussion of the tools she uses… a few simple tools
that make a wide range of textures & patterns. Some of them actual ceramic tools,
while others are found items like a broken TV antennae! She then started in on her
demonstration of how she decorates a simple bowl.
Yeah, well it started out simple anyway…

Suddenly, not so simple of a bowl any more!!!

Then she moved on to a small creamer pitcher. A quick trick of cutting a vase shape to make
the spout. A little wetting, sponging, finessing and shaping to create the spout. After the spout
is formed, she then set in to the carving & decorating of this piece.

Amy then showed my class how she makes her leaf-shaped handles out of a slab.

And then in Amy World, a pitcher can’t be just a pitcher… it needs a saucer to sit on too!
And not just any saucer, but an over-the-top, decoratively carved plate!!!

And then to close out the evening, I surprised Amy with a birthday cake
to help celebrate her big day. Nothing says birthday like a big chocolate cake!!!

So let me send out a quick Thank You again to Amy Higgason for sharing her talents
& creativity with us. I’m sure my students were inspired and will be incorporating some of
her techniques into their work. I know I enjoyed Amy’s time here this weekend,
and I hope she had some fun with us celebrating her big birthday!

You know how I love texture… and repetitive patterns… and excess creativity!
Well, apparently so does my friend Northwoods potter friend Amy Higgason…
and here are a few detail shots of her incredible pieces! See what I mean?…

Tonight was Amy Higgason’s “unofficial” Trunk Show in my studio at Lillstreet Art Center.
She drove down from the Wisconsin Northwoods yesterday, escaping three feet of snow!!!
Today she made it to the my studio and we quickly got to converting my display shelves
and work areas to be “The Amy Show”. It’s been several years since Amy had a studio at
Lillstreet, so it was kind of a return to her roots. She brought a lot of her latest work, many
fresh out of the kiln, to show off in my studio for her Trunk Show. Special thanks to everyone
who braved the elements to come and see Amy and her work.

You can tell from Amy’s work that she is quite an illustrator, as well as potter.
Many of her pots are more like visual “paintings” on clay. So much work and so many hours
go into every pot she creates. With a multitude of textures, patterns & colors, Amy’s work
draws you in and makes you want to touch every piece!

A friend of ours has made a keen observation about both of our styles. Pat Howe decided that
Amy’s work is “feathery” and my work is “footprinty.” At first we all laughed… but in hindsight,
he was oddly insightful and onto something. Amy and I are definitely working with some of the
same aesthetics, yet using our own techniques developed over the years.

I think that Amy had a good time tonight showing her work in the Chicago area after 8 years.
Seeing some familiar faces around Lillstreet. Getting away from her frozen tundra at home!!!

I always think it’s important to support and help promote your friends. Making your way
as a full-time artist is a tough road. And everyone needs a little help now and again.
So I was pleased to give Amy the exposure she deserves in my studio tonight! She makes
incredible ceramic works but is somewhat “isolated” by living up in the Wisconsin Northwoods.
While her home & studio are located in the middle of Nature’s beauty, there’s also not a lot of
“pottery shopper” traffic. Hopefully, she made some contacts tonight, and exposed her work to
people who may never had seen her if she never made it out of the Northwoods…
especially with the recent snowstorm that almost cancelled her trip simply because
she almost couldn’t get out of her own driveway!!!

I’ve always said that I love having “Talented Friends.” Not only in their artistic endeavors,
but also in their ability to express themselves, share their ideas and inspire others.
Our pottery community is a lot smaller than people would expect. And I think it’s important
for each of us to support each other, educate people about pottery, and promote handmade
crafts   & small businesses whenever given the chance. Enough preaching to the choir…
you get it.

If you didn’t get a chance to see Amy tonight, her work will continue to be on display
in my studio space through Tuesday night, March 6th.

So the plates that I threw last week as part of my class demo were finally at the right
leatherhard stage for stamping. It’s always tricky… can’t be too dry, can’t be too wet.
Got to get them right when they’re wet enough for good impressions, but not too wet
as to be sticky or squishy. Tonight they were ready for stamping!

So here goes… The first plate is a large dinner plate. Thrown with about four pounds of clay.
When I’m ready to start, one of the toughest decisions is “which stamp”??? I have hundreds
to choose from. So the possibilities are endless. I try not to dwell on it… just grab a favorite!

So here’s the lucky stamp chosen to tackle the rim of this plate…

Then, that one stamp rhythmically pressed in over & over & over again…

And the rim suddenly has a whole new texture. So much more fun than the plain,
old smooth flange that the plate started with!

Now plate #2 is a bit larger. Thrown with about six pounds of clay. The rim is plain,
but the center “food area” has a dramatic, concentric circle design created on the wheel
as I was finishing the throwing demo.

So again, which stamp gets to come out to play?… this one apparently!!!

Around & around, this time developing a nice scalloped pattern around the edge.
This pattern is also quite conducive to a fluted edge. So I did…

And there it is… a scalloped pattern of stamps with another small detail stamp
at the points, as well as on the tips of the fluted edge “high points.”

So now, both plants are back under plastic drying some more. I’ve got to wait for them
to dry to the right stage for trimming. I always tell my students that throwing plates is easy.
It’s the drying & trimming that is difficult. So now I wait… for the difficult part!

Last Spring, I made a collection of textured terra cotta planters.
It never crossed my mind that they would need water drip trays to go with them…
because in my mind, I would be using the terra cotta planter outside and would not
use a tray?! But when I posted pictures, I got a few comments from people asking me
here the trays were?! Uh oh…

So… I quickly made another collection of textured terra cotta planters WITH trays!
And we started out the summer art fair schedule with both options.
With tray. Without tray. I was anxious o see which would sell better.

It didn’t take long for us to see that practically everyone wanted a tray.
Who knew?! Not me apparently. But by the end of the art fair season, I had no more
planters with trays. But I did have the tray-less planters. So tonight I finished up a
bunch of trays to “complete” the planter sets for this season.

So now they’re drying. Then they’ll be stained with black underglaze to “antique” them
a bit and make the textures pop. Then it’s a layer of glaze on the bottom… and into the kiln!
And if all goes well, last year’s “trayless” planters will this year BETRAYED!!!

Tonight I made it back into the studio to do a little more work on the “basic” bowls
I made last night as part my class demo. A big part of my demo is trying to convince
my students to “make their own mark” and do something to their pots to make them
their own. Don’t settle for a simple, plain round bowl… when you can take time to add
a little design & style! So we’ve already made stamps in class… gently pushing my
“addiction” onto my students! As part of my mission, I had some work to do to add some
of my own “style” to a few of the “plainer” bowls from last night’s class demo.

Bowl #1 - A simple flanged rim quickly becomes far less “simple” with some repetitive
stamped impressions and a fun little pattern!

Bowl #2 – An extra wide flange gives me “extra wide space” to stamp. What fun!!!

Bowl #3 – What started with a simple fluted flange…
suddenly a lot more fun with a single row of stamps just below the flange!
oops… forgot to take a photo of the “in process stamping” stage… sorry!

Tonight I made it into the studio to pick up some new pots that had just come out
of the cone 10 studio kiln. I don’t know what Corinne did “special” while she was
firing the kiln, but everything turned out beautifully!. With all of my glazes
“breaking” in all the right places! Thank you Corinne… I’ll be your “kiln filler” any time!

While I was at the studio today covering us for Open Holiday Hours,
I also found time to make three textured terra cotta trays – part of a special order
for a special customer. Her plan is to place three of my oil lamps on the tray!

Once they dry, I’ll wash them all with black underglaze and then gently wipe off the top layer…
leaving the underglaze in the stamped textures and giving it all an aged patina.

Tonight was the opening of Sarah Chapman’s Trunk Show at Lillstreet Art Center.
Stunning work as always. Click on her name in the LINKS section of my blog to see more
of her metalsmithing work. As always, her work was meticulous & inspired. Such great
design & craftsmanship throighout her collection. However…

The piece that really caught my interest was her new “tile” wall piece!
Squares of textured pieces of metal showcasing several different methods, textures and
finishes. All connected with jump rings so it can hang on the wall like a “tile” tapestry!
Here’s just a small section of the wall hanging. Love it…

And no wonder… it does look somewhat familiar to me.
Kinda like a section of my own textured tiled wall?!

During the Ravenswood Art Walk today, I was in my studio greeting customers
and making another batch of stamps! I figured if I’m going to be sitting around there
all day, I might as well get something accomplished. I always find it a little tough to
throw on the wheel getting all dirty when there are so many visitors, so many shoppers
and so many “interruptions.”

Instead, I sat there and made another batch of stamps. Not only will I have more patterns
to play with… but I also think that it’s a great demo for the visitors. I think it helps “explain”
that I make my own stamps – and then press them into my pots one-by-one-by-one to
create the textured patterns, surfaces & details.

And for those of you who may have missed it today, the Ravenswood Art Walk continues
tomorrow with artist studios & galleries open all up & down the Ravenswood Corridor!