After my sprigged demo bowl, my students started with the sprigs to decorate their plain demo bowls. So much fun to watch my SURFACE DECORATION students excited to try new things on the plain bowls I surprised them with… as stamping & sprigs can be quite addictive… I should know – HA!

Here we go again…
making more handles… making more MUGS!!!
My favorite thing to make!

Score, slip, attach… repeat, repeat, repeat! You know by now that making mugs is my favorite thing to do in the studio! So today was another good day with another batch assembled.

Handles pulled, looped over & standing tall so they can stiffen up with the curve already established. I’ll let them set for a few minutes before I start attaching them to the cylinder mugs-to-be!

Got my clay wedges ready… kinda like ClayHenge…
ready to start pulling some handles for the latest batch of mugs!

Now with handles attached, these “wheelthrown-handbuilt-combo” mugs needed a bit of color. So I dipped the top portion of them into a thin colored flashing slip. I held them upside-down by the footring & dipped them in the bucket… and then “floated” them on kiln bricks so they could drip-dry!

The slip does a really good job of “filling” any of the little cracks & imperfections… as well as adding color. These flashing slips will change colors & add some flashing drama when fired in the soda kiln!

So I’ve just finished stamping the newest batch of cylinders… getting one step closer to becoming mugs! Stamping each of the cylinders with my own handmade stamps… one stamped impression at a time… again, and again, and again…

MUG 1 –

MUG 2 –

MUG 3 –

MUG 4 –

MUG 5 –

MUG 6 –

MUG 7 –

MUG 8 –

MUG 9 –

MUG 10 –

So now they’re back under plastic for the night…
as I’m hoping to trim the bottoms tomorrow.

Stamping patterns one indentation at a time… over & over again… to get a repetitive textured pattern all the way around the mug. I like to make my own clay stamps with my own patterns… better than buying someone else’s designs! I don’t sell my stamps… but I do teach my students how to make them & encourage everyone to try.

Celebrating another TEXTURE TUESDAY! Adding some accents of colored flashing slip onto each stamp. This slip color will change to shades of orange when soda-fired!!!

Working on another batch of my “wheelthrown-handbuilt-combo” mugs… trimmed the feet & waiting for handles to be attached!