Going back about a week, we also did some more “tie-dyed” surface decorations during my SURFACE DECORATIONS class last Thursday night. Like this version where we poured in some underglazes and then swirled them around… maybe more “marbled” than tie-dyed?… but you get the gist.

Enjoying the Spring flowers these days.
Still gray & chilly outside, but with a lot of beautiful colors popping up all over the neighborhood… and on my back porch!

Ten bowls by 10:00am!!! Sure, I shoulda been making the terra cotta drip plates… but I kinda slipped on a tangent. But seriously, who doesn’t need some new bowls???

Just trying to crank out one last batch of flower pots for next weekend’s PLANTS & POTTERY POP-UP down near Peoria on 5/13 & 5/14. The terra cotta pots are made, but now I need to tackle the drip plates!

While our temps are still chilly waking up in the low 40’s…. it is wonderful to see that Spring is finally here!!! And that all of those April Showers did indeed make some beautiful May Flowers!!!

Had a “little” fun last night in class! We started with throwing lidded jars… and then switched to throwing the lids off-the-hump. And then since I had some “extra hump”… we continued and I showed them how to make mini bowls, small bud vases & ornaments too!!!

Celebrating another MUGSHOT MONDAY by featuring a bunch of great mugs!!! All made by the six artists who will be featured at the Sandwich stop of the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR. Be sure to stop by to see beautiful pottery by our host Cory McCrory, as well as Nancy Gardner, Linda Kiepke, Kenyon Hansen, Lindsey Heiden, and ME!!! We’re just six weeks away… still enough time to make some more mugs!!!

Saturday, June 11th & Sunday, June 12th
@northernilpotterytour

Art Deco glamour still exists in architecture… at The Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago. Who knew elevator doors could be so stylish?!

Spent the day with My Talented Friend & master metalsmith Sarah Chapman today down at the ONE OF A KIND SHOW. So much fun to surround yourself with such talent & beautiful jewelry! I love having talented friends!!!

Check out more of her work online at www.chapmanmetals.com …
or follow her on Instagram : @chapmanmetals

This week in my SURFACE DECORATIONS class, we tackled a couple different techniques for a fun tie-dyed effect… you all know I’m a kinda big fan of tie-dye!!!

So we started with a “squiggly” version… where I took a large plat platter, painted a layer of thick slip on top, and then dribbled some blobs of colored underglazes on top of it. Not really sure how this will work… but I’m always ready to try something new… it’s just clay, right?!

And then I took a plastic rib with a scalloped edge… a cake decorating tool… and started to squiggle through the layers of slip & underglazes to blend, blur & texture the plate. In hindsight, I kinda wish the plastic rib were either softer or thinner… as it was a bit tough to get some good squiggle up by the curve of the rim.

So here it is so far… I’m going to let it dry slowly and trim the bottom when it gets leatherhard. Still contemplating if it might “need” a bit of stamped texture somewhere?! And if so… where???

After bisque firing, I’m assumiong I’ll probably just sue some clear glaze to make the colors “pop” and give it all some shine. The downside might be… that I’m not fully confident that the colors of the underglazes will actually “survive” the high-fire cone 10 temperatures. But we’ll find out soon enough…

Not quite traditional “tie-dye”…. but pretty fun & groovy nonetheless!