Textures. Colors. Slips. Tiles. Grids. Pegboard… so many of my favorites!!!

Tonight I focused on making more test tiles for some upcoming glaze tests.
Textured with stamps and grooves to “break & pool” the glazes in all the right places.
I made two batches with two different clay bodies… just to see how much difference
the iron content makes!!!

I think I’m going to like the “cleaner-lighter” look of the new glazes on B-Clay.
Just guessing.

Okay, so now I have “official” Fire When Ready Pottery Pinterest boards you can follow.

Yes, I’ve been snowed in and uploading all day.
Five different Pinterest boards full of my pottery images for you to pin & share!
Just do a quick Pinterest Search for the following…

Fire When Ready Pottery

Fire When Ready: Stamping

Fire When Ready: Mugs

Fire When Ready: Tiles

Fire When Ready: Textures

And more to come… although I’m still not sure what I’m doing?!

Seems like so long ago… but in my last soda kiln, I fired some new work including these textured wall pillows. I’ve been trying to come up with a new piece for the holiday Home Shows. Something new for people to hang on the wall. I’ve already made ceramic masks and tiled ClayQuilts. Oh, but what to do next… and I came up with these. I started by making these textured round tiles that hang flat to the wall… with a little depth to pop them off the wall. Here’s a quick “teaser’ of a few of them as I was unloading the kiln.

I made them in three different sizes.  My hope is that people will make their own collections, and decide how to hang them on their walls in all different configurations. I threw together this first one on my living room wall as an example for the first Holiday Home Show. It’s a quick “constellation” of textured tiles.

And now I’ve thrown together a few more examples of how they can be used.
Random constellations. Random groupings. Different sizes. Same sizes.
Straight lines. Trios. Doubles. Singles. So many ways to play with them on your wall.

Pick & choose… plenty to choose from to make your own “constellation.”
I had fun making them, so there’s a pretty good chance there will be more coming soon!
Yet, I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to show them at the summer art fairs???

Today was another beautiful Fall day. Wonderful colors. Beautiful textures.
All of this beauty just in my back courtyard… as I was trudging through to do my laundry!
Sure, I live in the city. Sure, the courtyard is all cement. You can still have a garden
even if it is all in containers! And still plenty of natural beauty all around.
Too bad it’s all going to be gone in a few more weeks!

Here’s the third batch of textured pillow tiles… the smallest size of the three. My goal is to have the three sizes so people can pick & choose and create their own “constellations” to hang on their walls. But the BIG question is… What to call them??? The “working title” has been “Textured Wall Pillows.” But I’d like to come up with something a bit catchier. Any suggestions?!

While my computer has been down, I’ve been getting a lot done in the studio. Coincidence?!… maybe I should “break” my computer more often?! Anyway, I’ve been working on some new pieces with a lot of textures & patterns. Here’s a couple sneak-peeks…

So here they are… I’ve been making some pieces that I hope will hang on the wall. My plan is to make them in a couple different sizes so people can put them together for a great wall hanging piece! We’ll see if my plan comes together…

Yesterday I rescued some “slightly-used” flowers from the “glitter gig.” I brought them into the studio to spruce up the place. I love the textures & colors of my new studio still-life.

We didn’t get very far… until we stopped at Joe Christensen‘s studio in Hudson, Wisconsin to see some huge pots, vessels & sculptures with wonderful textures, carving, slip patterns & sgraffito. Not surprisingly, larger pots using more clay take a lot more time to dry. So these large vessels have been sitting out for days, and are different stages of dryness. The darker the stoneware clay, the wetter the clay is.

And you thought those ones were big… check out this huge one still sitting on the wheel…

You know how I love texture & pattern… so I knew I had to share these great surfaces with all of you. Some especially wide & deep sgrafitto through the white slip layer.

On the other side of Joe’s workspace are some finished pots. Already glazed & fired.
Now just waiting to go home with a satisfied customer!

For those of you in the Chicago area, Joe and his huge pots will once again be on display at “One Of A Kind” over the first weekend of December. Click here for more information about Joe Christiansen.

This morning we strolled through an incredible 8-block long Farmers Market in downtown Minneapolis. So many wonderful fruits, veggies, flowers, colors & textures!

Along the way, we tripped upon a statue commemorating Mary Tyler Moore… and that momentus occasion when she made it to Minneapolis and celebrated by throwing her hat up in the air. Of course we had to recreate it… but all we had was Pam’s stalk of brussel sprouts!

Apparently Pam really likes brussell sprouts?!… who knew?