Time to mark your calendars… we’re just nine weeks away from the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR! I will be playing with my pottery friend Cory McCrory at her studio location in Sandwich, Illinois… along with fellow ceramicists Linda Kiepke, Nancy Gardner, Kenyon Hansen & Lindsay Heiden. Put us on your calendar for a fun weekend road trip for some pottery fun!!!

Feeling a little ROUGE inspired… and painting some RED accents on these pots tonight for my next soda firing!!!

A FULL CIRCLE MOMENT!!!
Here’s a great story… follow along…

So I made some plain vases for my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class for their Glazing Challenge. I had an extra one, so my friend & fellow teacher Chelsea glazed it during the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class. It came out beautiful. And then Chelsea gifted it to Clara for her birthday… and Clara is in my THROWDOWN class. So what started in THROWDOWN is now back for good with a THROWDOWN for good!

Happy Birthday Clara!!!

Always a great day when THIS arrives in my mailbox!!!

After two years of pandemic virtual tours, it’s so exciting to see that the St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour will once again be going live & in-person this Spring. So much fun to see so much beautiful pottery over the course of a weekend… driving from studio location to studio location… chatting with over 60 talented potters… picking up a few pieces for my own collection along the way… and forever daydreaming that I might one day be invited to be part of the “Pottery Tour” instead of just a patron! Dare to dream, right…

Who knew that retro Valentine Cards had so much pottery in them?! Lots of teapots, bowls & cups to brighten your day with some really bad puns!!! You know I like a good “Dad Joke” as much as the next… but seriously?!

I needed to make a pie and didn’t have any apples in the house. So I decided to go with a retro flashback recipe thanks to the folks at Ritz Crackers! It’s a great recipe for an “apple” pie that uses no apples, no applesauce, no apple juice… nothing apple related. And yet somehow it’s YUMMY and tastes just like an apple pie?! Looks like it tasted pretty good… not much left!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!Last night my students took on “The Pottery Olympics” as part of the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN! I mean, the Winter Olympics are starting in Beijing, so we kinda “had to” get the games started at Lillstreet too! Luckily, my students were up for the challenge… and eager to put up with my silly games!

Looks like my friend Rosene has been in the kitchen again…
using her stamped & glazed pie plate… this time for MEATLOAF!!!

And I quote…“Yep, meatloaf… with some new light orange squash… yummy… I really don’t like to cook!!!! But I love playing with my pottery!”

Okay, so it’s been a hot minute… a couple weeks since… a couple holidays in between… but I’m finally getting around to showing off Christine’s beautiful pieces that came out of her VERY FIRST kiln firing!!!

Christine has been in my pottery classes for several sessions now… Beginning, Intermediate, Throwdown, Surface Decorations, etc. She’s always been on a quest to gather as much information as she can. She’s like a sponge in class trying to soak everything in. She’s been experimenting with everything she can get her hands on… lots of test tiles, underglazes, overglazes, hi-fire, low-fire. etc. She’s been getting a wide range of results – some beautiful, some not-so-much. So we’ve been discussing some other “options” for glazing of her work… particularly some of the stamped platters & bowls still unglazed from our Surface Decoration class almost a year ago!

One of the options we were discussing was Cone Six glazes. I’ve been doing some cone six firings myself with my work, and she’s liked the effects. So she expressed interest in trying that option… except Lillstreet doesn’t offer Cone Six firings to the students. So I worked with her independently as a friend & mentor instead of as her “teacher.” She glazed up her pieces with some commercial glazes she had purchased online… a group of “celadons” from Amaco. Loaded & fired… and now for the BIG REVEAL!!!…. sorry for the delay…

Here we go…
She started unloading the kiln… her first kiln ever! She had to learn how to load a kiln, stack the shelves, use the posts, etc. And now the excitement of her first kiln unloading!!! Shelf-by-shelf… revealing the treasures inside!

It was SO MUCH FOR ME to see the sheer joy & excitement on Christine’s face… or at least her forehead… every time she pulled out another piece! Large platters with a lot of handpainted underglaze details…

Or my favorite… surprise, surprise… this amazing stamped platter from our Surface Decoration class last Spring.

And a few more stamped beauties…

Followed by the bottom shelf with a lot of great colors! And especially intrigued by how the celadons from Amaco are making all of her textures & details really POP!!!

Plus, there were some wonderful “retro” mugs in her handpainted collection… so vibrant & fun when fired at Cone 6.

And some great “ombre” gradation mugs with sprayed glazes making the blend!

And again… my favorite stamped platter!!! Well done Christine!
I can’t wait to see where the success of this latest “test” by Christine takes her down her pottery path… as I’ll see her again in my class in the next session!

VERY EXCITING!!!
Except I don’t have Channel 4…
and I’m not in the United Kingdom…
so I don’t get to watch tonight!!!

We Americans need to wait for it to come “across the pond”
for us to watch on HBO Max… soon I hope?!