Carrot-shaped nuggets ready to start pulling handles. I know most people hate making handles… but I kinda love it. No worries here… if I could make mugs every day I would be one happy potter!

Kicking off MUGSHOT MONDAY by finishing off a new batch of mugs. The cylinders are stamped & trimmed. Now they just need handles. So here we go… cutting clay & starting with carrot-shaped nuggets.

Just finishing up a second batch… racing for the kiln…
prepping & producing & pottery-ing for ART IN THE GARDEN next weekend!!!

YEAH!!! The lids all fit… as you can now hear me exhale!

Throwing lidded jars in porcelain with lids that fit is not an easy task. A lot of caliper measuring & hoping for the best. My biggest piece of advice?… throw a lot of extra lids. Because inevitably a “few” of them are not going to fit the way you want them too!

Part two of my production today… the bottom jars to go with the new lids!!! The jar bottoms are a little further ahead as I just finished stamping them! Just hope the lids fit?… always said with fingers crossed.

Ten cylinders now have handles… making that ten fresh new mugs!!!
These are the same ones from my Tuesday night class challenge with Ashley… finished just in time for my Saturday morning class… with minutes to spare…

Gonna try to crank out some quick mug handles before class starts at 10:00am this morning! Pulling them is easy… it’s the attaching that takes forever… but who doesn’t like a good challenge???

Gotta keep things moving along… pulling out another large batch of porcelain reclaim clay in the studio tonight. I let the clay pieces, trimmings & chunks dry completely before breaking them down. And then it’s all been soaking & slaking down for quite awhile. Enough of the water has evaporated that I could pull it all out of my reclaim bin and set it up on a large plaster bat. It will sit there for a few days while the excess water seeps into the plaster bat and the clay stiffens up… and then the real wedging begins!

Three stacks of pottery, shelves & bricks from tonight’s loading. A lot of work “crammed in there”… hoping that the soda atmosphere can still make its way around inside to move the soda around!

If you look close, you can also see where my flock of birds have landed!!!

And then the front stack…
which is actually a “square” made of two shelves side-by-side”

Just a few more pieces fresh from my bisque kiln to glaze quickly…
as I load the soda kiln tomorrow night after Summer Camp!
I fire all-day Saturday… so I’ve got to stay focused and get this done!!! Inlay glazes into the stamped impressions, liner glazes, clean, wad & ready to go!