Greeting the day with some orange day lilies…
excited to see the sun again after several days of gray & rain.

Celebrating TEXTURE TUESDAY with a new batch of stamped discs… soon to be turned into ikebana vases. A perfect way to show-off some of your favorite summer blooms. Coming soon…

More colors. More textures. More raindrops.

For this week’s Summer Camp I’m back to Wheelthrowing!!! I have a great group of pre-teens getting all sloppy, messy & muddy… and having a great time on the wheel. Most of them have never thrown on the wheel before… so I’m trying to get them started with some good basic techniques that will stick with them for years to come!

So now that we’ve come to the end of the process, I’m excited to show some of the results. Nice colors, flashings & soda build-up. The randomness is great… similar enough, but each one of them is unique & one-of-a-kind! I’m sure the Groom is going to love these commissioned mugs for his bridal party & friends!

One of the coolest part of soda-firing is the randomness that happens during the firing. So anyone who is soda-firing needs to be aware of this before they expect “matched perfection”… ‘cuz that’s not gonna happen!

Here’s a great example…
As each of these mugs have the exact same glaze on the interior. All from the same bucket of glaze!!!

But notice the color variation that happened during the firing… based on shelf location, firing, atmosphere, reduction, oxidation & tons of possibilities!!! A wide range of unexpected colors…. all from one bucket of glaze!!!

So the commission geometric mugs made it through the soda-firing. I’m very excited about the results from Catherine’s kiln firing. She got some wonderful results, good flashings, nice soda-build-up & none of that crusty grayness. I’m confident the Groom is going to LOVE his commission gift mugs! Perfect for another MUGSHOT MONDAY!

Along the way while pedaling Old Route 66 last weekend, I took a few moments to “smell the roses” so to speak… or at least admire the wildflowers blooming on the side of the road.

While riding without a plan, my bike ride down Old Route 66 took me back to my alma mater last Sunday… Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. It was weird being back… so much has changed… and yet everything was still the same?! The trees were bigger. The buildings seemed closer together. The classic buildings are still there… but they’re now mixed with newer & larger buildings. It was a great turn-around rest stop for my bike ride, but a little eerie with no one wandering around the Quad… as it was Summer, a Sunday & and holiday! A great stop with some great memories!