Another beautiful piece finished from our Lillstreet Throwdown pottery class… a sweet vase made by Jon during our “decorate a cylinder with one crazy tool” challenge! The pink peonies are a nice touch too. Well done Bucky!!!

There’s been so much going on these days, that it was tough to find time to finish these mugs! Spray. Re-cover. Repeat. I was so happy that I finally found time last night to get them done. Score. Slip. Attach. Repeat.

My handles start out with a wedged “carrot” of clay. I then pull them the traditional way… with a bit of water and lot of friction!

When I have the handles pulled to my desired width & thickness…
I like to flip them into a loop, stand them up to let them stiffen up
with the curve already established.

So for now they’re drying slowly under plastic. I’ll do a last-minute cleaning & smoothing of the attachments today when I take off the plastic.

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It’s always fun to see finished work by some of my students… even if it is MONTHS later!!! Like these pieces that Dave finally got around to glazing. Beautiful porcelain pieces made during out Lillstreet Pottery Throwdown class back in January! And I totally get it… I have a tendency to let my bisque pile up as well as my least favorite part of the process is glazing!!!

 

Last Tuesday in my pottery class, some of my students ended the night with a little stamp-making seminar! We talked about how to make them, what to keep in mind design-wise… and how they should just make a LOT of stamps with the hope that they’ll run across a few that they love using!

With a hazy-foggy start to the day… the skyline was engulfed in fog & dappled clouds.

Celebrating the Fourth of July with my annual road trip down to Central Illinois to visit great friends in the little town of Chenoa. The town does a great job hosting a very Norman Rockwell-ish small town celebration… parade, house decorating, corn dogs, lemon shake-ups, cotton candy & SPECTACULAR fireworks! A wonderful “escape” to get away from everything going on these days!

A crazy-cool tree I found with these wacky spikes popping out everywhere!!!

And then the EXCITEMENT started!!!

And yes, Chenoa is definitely stepping up their game…
and here’s their ONE traffic light… which is actually just a blinking red stop sign light!

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Working on another set of porcelain mugs… stamping patterns & textures into them.
So here’s the before & after shots, as well as the stamps that did all of the magic!

Mug One –

Mug Two –

Mug Three –

Mug Four –

Mug Five –

Mug Six –

Mug Seven –

Mug Eight –

Mug Nine –

Mug Ten –

Mug Eleven –

Mug Twelve –

Mug Thirteen –

Mug Fourteen –

Mug Fifteen –

Mug Sixteen –

Mug Seventeen –

Mug Eighteen –

Mug Nineteen –

Mug Twenty –

Mug Twenty-One –

So for now they’re all wrapped up under plastic… waiting at least another night until they stiffen up enough for me to start trimming the bottoms. Once trimmed, they will all start getting handles to become mugs!

 

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When the sky is splashed with BIG colors…
sometimes a BIG photo is required to capture it… or two?!!!

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This morning was so much calmer than yesterday’s big stormin’ bike ride… cooler, calmer and a LOT more colorful. Another beautiful sunrise sweeping across the horizon.