Sometimes a single flower can be enough.
Big impact from a homegrown dahlia in a handmade ikebana vase.

So tonight’s class demo was stacked two-part vase! I threw a 4-pound bottom cylinder, and then another 4-pound top cylinder that was bottomless. After they set-up a bit, I scored & slipped them & attached the two halves. Smoothed out the connection seam… then tried to smooth it out & reshape it into a nice, tall vase shape.

As I told my class, I would have liked to have the clay set-up a lot longer. But for class demo timing, we decided to go for it even though we all knew the clay was far to wet to hold up. So when the bottom section started to squish as we knew it would, we decided to cut it in half to see how thick the walls were. And I think it looks pretty good… nice thin & even walls… but you can clearly see how wet & squishy the clay was! We all knew it should have set-up more… but sometimes it’s fun to show a “fail” demo too!!!

Beautiful flowers in a square vase… stamped & soda-fired by me!!! The flowers are straight out of Rhonda’s garden… she must have a green thumb, huh?! Thanks for sharing with us Rhonda!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the Glenview Summer Art Fair this weekend. We had perfect weather both days… with some rain overnight which didn’t affect us at all… whew! So much fun seeing so many people enjoying the weekend & appreciating local artisans. A lot of pots found their new forever homes!

My art fair booth flowers survived the weekend as well… so now they get to hang out a few extra days in a nice stamped & soda-fired vase on my back porch! I love a good oval vase as they spread the flowers out a bit more side-to-side… instead of just slamming them into a circular vase opening.

You gotta love when your art fair friend brings your fresh flowers from her garden for your booth display! I mean, I’m sure she knew I would have plenty of vases to put them in! Thanks Rhonda… you’re the best… they’re beautiful!!!!

So this is what happens when you accidentally break off a lantana blossom while watering on the back porch… and then you just happen to have the perfect mini vase for it too!!!

Looks like some happy petunias found their place in one of my stamped & soda-fired wall hanging vases. I hope they thrive in their new home for Tina’s Mom!!!

A sweet little stamped & soda-fired mini vase with a few sprigs of fresh eucalyptus… brightening Tiffany’s table! You can almost smell the eucalyptus from here!

Always fun to have great art fair booth neighbors… like Rhonda & Maria!
Not only were they hysterical all weekend… kept me laughing the whole time. But they also each brought me a bundle of flowers from their own gardens to help show off my vases! So sweet. So thoughtful… even if they were trying to one-up each other!!! HA!!!

After stamping the stacked vase, I had to do a little trimming on the bottom. Thankfully I have my Giffin Grip which helped support the vase upside-down while I was trimming!