Last week in my SURFACE DECORATION class, we tackled carving & sgraffito. The colored slip on my platter was just a little too wet to sgraffito carve the full demo. So I brought it back to my studio… and continued later when the slip had stiffened up more. A fun carving session… especially with a great sgraffito tool from DiamondCore Tools.

Who knew there would be “zoo” right next the gas station? Is this a Wisconsin thing??? We stopped for gas last Sunday during our pottery tour roadtrip. And you’ve got to know that I’ll stop in heartbeat on a roadtrip to see something fun or unusual. So the sign said “zoo”… and I’m all in! Really, it turned out to be mostly farm animals that looked a little rough after a long winter. But at least the peacock was beautiful!!! And we got gas…

We also found farm fresh eggs on the side of the road… payment on the honor system!!! And with the way eggs have been so crazy lately… I gladly left my money in the box and grabbed a dozen eggs!!!

One of the side benefits of a Wisconsin roadtrip last Sunday…
finding some cool rusty metal along the way!!! You know it’s my favorite!

While on THE CLAY COLLECTIVE Pottery Tour last Sunday… I had a chance to chat with my pottery-buddy Kenyon Hansen… always fun, always informative. One of the Guest Artists at the Cambridge Pottery stop. And I just “may have” come home with a new set of plates!!! Allegedly…

Last Sunday, we had perfect weather for a little roadtrip… and a day full of fantastic pottery shopping with my friend Kristen. We drove up to the THE CLAY COLLECTIVE Pottery Tour in southeastern Wisconsin. As with any pottery tour, it’s always so much fun to see a ton of beautiful pots, meet the artists, chat it up, buy some pots & see the different studio & kiln locations. These pictures are from Mark Skudlarek’s studio… with one of the largest kilns I’ve ever seen!!! Three chambers for wood firing. The first chamber is for straight wood fired work, the middle chamber is for glazed pieces & the third chamber for a salt/soda firing. All connected, all firing at the same time!!! Crazy cool. And that was just one of several fun pottery stops!!!

Another 10×10 challenge done! With the weather warming up, it’s gonna be time to start planting flowers everywhere. Which also makes it time for some terra cotta flowerpots! More than ten thrown before 10:00am!!!

The first of my irises to start blooming. These short yellow ones are always the first of the season. A fun surprise on an otherwise wet & gloomy Monday morning.

Just me here painting some accents of colored flashing slip on this next batch of mugs.
The colored slip should turn orange & show good flashing marks after being soda-fired.

We’ll gather lilacs in the Spring… and then put them in a handmade oval vase. Even better when it’s stamped & soda-fired… with double handles to make displaying the flowers even easier.