But last week… in my Tuesday class we “celebrated” our ongoing quest for OREOs with a package imported all the way from PORTUGAL!!! Thanks to my friend Pam who “smuggled” them back for us! Sure, I can’t read the labels in Portuguese… but I’m pretty sure it says “it lots, eat often”!!!

Last night in pottery class we had another version of our favorite OREOs… gluten-free! So they tasted a little “different” and maybe a little “chalky”???… but the double amount of filling made up for it! Thanks for bringing the treats Elena!

WE LOVE DOUBLE-STUFFED!!!

Stalky yellow beach flowers basking in the morning sun.

Tiny pebbles… shining wet… crashing waves.

Early morning sun along the beach… warming & illuminating the layers of beach grasses along the way!

Another beautiful morning along the lakefront. Nary a cloud in the sky… quiet & cooler than expected this morning. Great colors, great moments, great bike ride!

Hydrangeas after the overnight rain.

I’ve often say how much I love reclaimed clay… that is until you find pieces like these hiding inside while you’re in the middle of your class demo?! Two hard pieces stuck in the clay… makes the demo more about digging out chunks, and less about throwing a tall, stacked vase!l Not so good… luckily, my own studio reclaim is “cleaner” without hidden gems like these! But tonight I was using the classroom’s reclaimed clay!

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!!!

Not a lot of studio time between teaching Summer Camp all day & teaching my Intermediate Wheelthrowing class tonight… but I did find enough time to stamp another large platter! One stamp at a time… over & over & over again!!!