After they had all the FUN of unloading their newly soda-fired treasures… they also got to experience the “FUN” of cleaning the kiln, scraping & kiln washing the shelves, and making the kiln room better than we found it – ready for the next loading team to come in. So they learned a lot in this workshop… and they also got to participate in this sweaty GLAMOROUS side of soda-firing!!!

Once the door was finally taken off, my workshop participants got to see all of their freshly soda-fired pots! Some of them had never soda-fired before… some had never even loaded a kiln before! So this workshop was a great “taste” of the soda-firing process in a short time! Lots to learn. Lots to experience!

Tonight was the final night of our SODA-FIRING WORKSHOP at Lillstreet. My students finally got to unbrick the door of the soda kiln to see their new treasures inside! Its always an “emotional-adventure” when you start to see your new pots “revealed” as the door comes down row by row by row! Lots of oohh’s & aahh’s along the way… and a few ughh’s as well. I always tell students that just because it may not have turned out how you “expected” it to be… doesn’t mean it’s bad. Sometimes they just take a little longer to win your lovin’!

You gotta love when you make it into the studio… and your studio “neighbor” has deep-dish apple pancake leftovers to share!!! Thanks Lesley… such a yummy surprise treat!

As part of last week’s class demo of “throwing-off-the-hump” we tackled a few Christmas ornaments. It’s never too soon, right?!

Topping off a trio of lidded jars with stamps, knobs & colored flashing slip accents. Just finishing up a few of last week’s class demos… with a couple extra lids “just in case!”

Looks like Rikke has continued her adventures with texture using one of my carved rolling pins from Stodola! We started this in our Thursday morning class when she wanted to go bigger than her textured rubber mat would allow. The carved rolling pins from Stodola allow her to go as big as she can! The texture & pattern is working well… and we’re both loving the “wood texture” inside some of the pressed squares!

Click here to see more from STODOLA!!!

Even the portraits were made out of LEGOs!!! So much work. So much creativity… so many flashback memories of FRIENDS. I kinda think I need to go back and re-watch every episode from the beginning again!!!

So who is YOUR favorite FRIEND… and why?!

Let the binge begin… “Could that BE any more fun???”