I woke up to a lot of clouds this morning… but after yesterday’s rain, it felt like I had a little “window of opportunity” to see a bit of sun on my morning ride. It broke through the clouds for a few fleeting moments before going back behind them… most likely for the rest of the day!

Once my slip & plate were on the drier-side of leatherhard, it was ready for my class demo last Thursday night. I had already trimmed the bottom of the piece… but now I needed to shave off the top layer of white slip.

The “plan” for sanggam is to shave off the top layer of slip and leave it filled in the stamped impressions! Like I said… this is my first time really trying this technique. And what better place to do it than in class as demo for all of my Thursday night students?!

Turns out that my T2 Arc Trimming Tool from DiamondCore Tools was the perfect too for shaving off the white slip! It’s nice & sharp, and the curved edge seemed to fit in all the right placed without shaving off any gouges or lines!

And now that I have all of the pattern revealed, I’m planning on smoothing it out a bit with some sandpaper after to dries completely… with my mask on of course!!!

After stamping the pattern into my platter, I filled all of the stamps & covered it all with a thick white slip.

It took a little while to get it all filled in… as the thick slip wasn’t filling the indentations easily. So I had to “press it in” with the paintbrush – kinda tapping & squishing it in before smoothing it out.

Once the stamps were filled in… I smoothed it out, and added a second layer of slip to ty and cover the pattern completely.

Last week in my SURFACE DECORATION TECHNIQUES class, we tackled the traditional Korean technique of sanggam.

SANGGAM : The delicate technique of sanggam involves etching the desired motifs on the dry clay body and filling in the carved space with black and/or white slip, after which the translucent glaze is applied and the vessel fired.

I wanted to pre-prep my demo piece in advance, so I started by stamping a pattern in a platter made with brown stoneware. I used a few of my pre-existing handmade stamps. To be quite honest… this is my first time ever trying this technique, so I wanted to keep it kinda simple. Maybe more like a “mandala” kind of stamped pattern. I tried to keep it pretty clean & organized… with some “deep” stamps to help with the white slip that was still to come!!!

Looks like Pam’s mom is having a great Mother’s Day… complete with her new ikebana flower vase that Pam picked up this weekend at the PLANT & POTTERY SALE! It was great to see my pal Pammy down in Peoria… but c’mon, how cute is her Mom???

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all the great Moms in the world…
to those still with us, and to those who are not.
Take time. Share stories. Make memories. Life is short.

Besides a “ton” of coleus plants with all of their colors & textures… my friends Gerry & Rosene have the most incredible garden with beautiful flowers around every corner! Here’s a little bit of a “visual tour” for those who couldn’t stop by our PLANT & POTTERY SALE this weekend!

Huge thanks to everyone who stopped-by this weekend’s PLANT & POTTERY SALE down in Peoria! My pals Rosene & Gerry have an amazing garden & grew hundreds of coleus plants for the sale… and I just popped-in with a collection of pottery to add to the festivities! It was so much fun seeing everyone come out for our little sale… excited about plants & pottery! Thanks again for playing with us!

Early morning glow behind the trees… nice day for a road trip!

On a gray & rainy day like today, it’s great to get a bright splash of color around the corner. Beautiful pink dogwood blossoms on graceful branches.