A few oval vases glazed & ready for soda-firing… just need some wadding! I think these might be the last pieces to be glazed… getting ready to start loading soon.

A sweet little Saturday bouquet. A tiny little bud vase filled with fragrant Lily-Of-The-Valley fresh from my garden. Stamped & soda-fired… ready to brighten your day!

Looks like three of my textured square vases have found the PERFECT location! They look perfect there… almost as though they were designed to fit in that space with beautiful flowers! Just perfect Patti… thanks for sharing!

The lilacs are starting to bloom with beautiful colors & wonderful fragrance. Beautiful flowers need to be shown off… and maybe a handmade vase would be the right choice?!!! Stamped & soda-fired by yours truly!!! And available in My Online Pottery Store… http://firewhenreadypottery.com/my-online-pottery-store/

With a nice stamped & soda-fired mug…
and some spring blossoms still looking great in a “matching” ikebana vase!

Celebrating Spring with some more pretty flowers… just a few branches of ornamental pear blossoms in a stamped & soda-fired ikebana vase. A simple centerpiece with just a few stems. No need for the full bouquet with a stylish ikebana vase!

Looks like Rikke has continued her adventures with texture using one of my carved rolling pins from Stodola! We started this in our Thursday morning class when she wanted to go bigger than her textured rubber mat would allow. The carved rolling pins from Stodola allow her to go as big as she can! The texture & pattern is working well… and we’re both loving the “wood texture” inside some of the pressed squares!

Click here to see more from STODOLA!!!

Looks like Spring is working its way into Oak Park… and my friend & fellow potter Roberta’s backyard where the snowdrops have started to bloom. She brought a few blossoms inside for her perfect little bud vase! So pleased that my tumbler made her photo shoot! Thanks for the shout-out Roberta!

Check-out Roberta’s amazing work on her Facebook page…
https://www.facebook.com/robertapolfusceramics/

This week in my Beginning Wheel class we played with colored clay for “marbled” pots! I started by coloring some clay ahead of time for them with mason stains layered & wedged into B-Clay. We then layered regular B-Clay and/or Brown Stoneware with the colored clays… and then gave it two simple wedges to start the marbling. So much fun to see the colors presenting themselves as you’re throwing. When we were done, the pieces still have a “smudgy” layer of mixed clays like a dirty skin on the pot. When they get to leatherhard, we will carefully trim the entire surface off to reveal the clean lines of layered & marbled clays.

And yes, if we were doing more than one or two pots, I would have definitely used rubber gloves. But since this was a “quickie” demo and not a long-term pottery career of marbled clay… I figured it was tough enough for my students to throw their own forms, let alone to do it with gloves on!

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