Pretty perfect puffed & powdered pastries
on a pinkish-purple patterned pottery platter!

Now say THAT ten times fast!!!
Thanks for sharing your yummy treats with all of us Julie!

Celebrating another TEXTURE TUESDAY with a few close-up detail shots! Crackled slip textures thanks to the magic of sodium silicate!

Here’s a few more shots of the crackled slip vases I made since class last Thursday. For these, I used colored flashing slips to see what happens to them when fired in the soda kiln. It’s been a fun process to play with… creating different textures & patterns that “magically appear” as the pots are bulged out and the slip begins to crackle!

So when I shared this crackled slip technique with my class last Thursday morning… they asked if I thought it might work its way into my own body of work. I scoffed and said “I don’t think so.”

But I posted some class demo pictures online and they got some good loving… and then THIS happened!!! Looks like maybe I should not have scoffed so quickly…

Celebrating NATIONAL TILE DAY with a quick glimpse of the tiled wall I made for my condo! Sure, it may be one of little known holidays… but still a fun “reason” to show-off my tiled wall. Usually just those folks who come to my Holiday Home Show gets to see it. There are just short of three thousand handmade soda-fired tiles on the wall… 2,894 for the record… with textures, patterns and a few hidden surprises!

So here’s a quick game for you…
Can you fund my initials in the mix of tiles?
As you scroll down it will get easier, so don’t cheat!

Some more fun stamped textures in the studio today…
getting ready for Spring flowers with these ikebana vase discs!

After doing the crackle “trick” demo on a slab, I showed them how the same process works even better on wheelthrown pieces. So for this one I threw a basic cylinder and painted the outside with the “white slip sodium silicate mixture.” I put on a couple layers and then dried it a bit with a heat gun. Just for fun, we had also drawn some lines into the slip before expanding just out of curiosity. I mean, if we’re playing & testing, we might as well get as much “information” back from it as possible, right?

Then I pressed outwards to add volume to the cylinder with the wheel spinning… never touching the exterior with my hands… and the crackles just magically appear. The more you expand it, the bigger the crackles! So again, they were all duly impressed… and I must admit, I was pretty intrigued too!

After that first “pattern sampler” demo vase, I made a second one with the same “white slip sodium silicate mixture” but with little swipes through the slip all the way around. Again, I dried the “skin” of the slip quickly with a heat gun and then expanded it for the crackle to appear. I like this one even more… we might be onto something here… we’ll see…

And who knows… next session at Lillstreet I’ll be teaching a new “Surface Decoration” class on Thursday evenings. Pretty good chance this little trick might show up again then!!!

In my Thursday morning class, one of my students has been working with a “brick” texture mat and trying to get more of a weathered & worn surface. Rikke had been painting different slips on them after pressing her texture in. Today I demo’d how to make a slip “crackle” using sodium silicate and then stretching it. We pulled the slab, then added some bricks and I think she was quite pleased with the new “weathered & worn” surfaces. Now I can’t wait to see where this takes her & how the finished pieces turn out!!!

Celebrating another TEXTURE TUESDAY with a large stamped platter. Started as a plain class demo piece last week… but one single stamp pressed in over, and over, and over again made quite an impact. I’m digging the “starburst” effect that radiates out from the center!

Frozen “rivers” running down the bricks of my condo!
Not quite right… but still quite beautiful!!!
Picture perfect for another Texture Tuesday!