With dark clouds & some rainy sprinkles this morning, I decided to get to the studio early instead of my morning bike ride! So it was another 10×10 Challenge with more than ten pieces thrown before 10:00am! Gotta love an early start…

After last night’s storms, it was nice to see these little blue flowers still blooming in my front yard… unscathed by the rain! I “think” they’re Virginia Bluebells… I now have a couple plants & no recollection of ever planting them???

Celebrating another MUGSHOT MONDAY with a bunch of new stamped & soda-fired mugs from my latest firing. Still loving all of the colors that came out… instead of the frequent grays & browns of a soda kiln!

Cute little flowers in a cute little vase!
And don’t forget… tiny vases “need” tiny stamps!!! Thanks for sharing Kristy!

With an early morning show of color, the sunrise was brief as the clouds
continued to move in… with possible storms predicted for later today!

Sometimes a class demo just doesn’t turn out as it did in your head. In my SURFACE DECORATION class, we did some experimenting with textures, stencils & layered slip. My demo platter turned out to be more “graffiti-quilt” … not a fan!!! I lived with it for a couple days… still didn’t like it… but then I decided I should do something about it. After all… IT’S JUST CLAY!!!

I decided I could just save it right off…

Once I had trimmed off all the layers of texture & color from last week’s class demo… I smoothed it out with a rubber rib.

And then re-painted it with a blue-to-white ombré blend of colored slips. Seems like there’s a “very good chance” that this same platter might show up again in my SURFACE DECORATION class… as this week we’re going to be tackling sgraffito! Voila’… two demos, one platter… hoping for better results this next time around!!!

So last night I revisited the class demo bowls from earlier in the week.
Sure, the altered rims & textured slip “could” have been enough.
But you know me… MORE IS MORE!!!

So I did more… go figure!

More beautiful Spring flowers… a little brightness on a dull & dreary gray day!

Last night in class we had some new flavors… courtesy of some Chinese OREOs!!! Tasty… not as sweet as I’d like… and I’m still a little leery of a flavor just called “cheese”?!!! Thanks for sharing Katie!

Last night in my SURFACE DECORATION class, we played with colored slips painted over real leaves pressed into clay as textures & stencils. The fun happens when you try to find your leaves under the layer of slip… and then gently pull them out!