Yesterday might have been one of my most productive days at the studio ever! Besides these AWESOME hanging planter pots, I also made 8 pitchers, 8 mugs, 9 chip’n’dips, 7 brie bakers, 7 yarn bowls, and a serving platter! And all in pretty close to matching sizes. Less than a year ago I wouldn’t have been able to make even 2 matching forms and now I’m doing 8 at a time! Tomorrow I’ll be putting handles on the mugs and brie bakers and cutting the yarn bowls. Handles are definitely not my strong point but I have to keep working on them to get there! I’ve also gotten better at trimming efficiently and consistently. I love intricate trimming, but for something like a yarn bowl it makes more sense to have clean, simple feet. And now for the best part- these great hanging planter pots!!! These are all pretty big, with probably close to a gallon of space inside them. They’ll hang upside down by macramé strings and I can just imagine them with long hanging …

Lots of glazing to do today!! I had tea bowls, candle plates, some brie bakers, and some large vase forms ready to be glazed. I’m continuing to test out newer glazes, and I’m finding some really gorgeous ones! I also want to try out painting with underglazes, and I left some large flat surfaces on my vases for just this purpose. I’m not sure what I’ll paint on them yet- it could be a pattern, or even a scene of some sort!  Bisque ware is so beautiful in its own way! In the corner here you can see my very first bisqued porcelain bowl!! I can’t wait to see how the glazes turn out on such a beautiful white surface. Thanks for reading!

This week I’ve been trying out some new glazes and also doing some hand building! Right off the bat, this glaze has jumped to my top 2 favorite glaze combinations. Its so interesting and unique! I love the matte sage green that pools to a sandy color, and then how the dark purple stripe is extra shiny in contrast. Gorgeous!! As for the hand building, I usually prefer to spend my time throwing, but since I’ll be teaching hand building next month I figured I should get some practice in- and I’m actually loving it! These small plates are a perfect quick project for kids, and the process is easy enough that you could make tons of different shapes with the right press molds. In the past I’ve made small plates thrown off the hump, which are perfect to sell as candle plates, teabag/sauce holders, jewelry dishes, or whatever else you might want to use a small plate for! They also happen to make very nice test tiles for me since they’re quick and easy …

For anyone who doesn’t know, WIP stands for work in progress. I work in the studio at least 5 days a week, so, I have a lot of progress photos! I think its really helpful when you’re creating anything to keep a record of what you’ve been doing; you can take a step back and look at what you’ve tried, and what worked and didn’t work. And personally I just love to see close ups of interesting textures or glazes! This week I’ve been trying out some textures with slip. I got some really interesting basket-weave and honey comb effects! Heres a vase and pitcher I was playing around with, freshly thrown and then after trimming and adding handles. I had another slightly smaller vase (you can see it in the first picture) but I dropped it right before I was going to trim it!! Ruining a piece is always sad but the larger one turned out so nicely that it makes up for it! I really like the combination of the soft organic texture of the slip …

The more clay you throw at once the more difficult it is. Centering a huge block of clay takes A LOT of muscle, which is why I usually do it in smaller pieces (as I did for this one) even still, once you have 25lbs of clay centered on the wheel, doing anything with it and keeping control of it as it gets taller is really really hard! I wanted to make this piece mostly to see if I could, and I had no real ideas about what it might look like before I started, other than that I wanted it to be a vase of sorts. I was pretty happy that I was even able to keep it upright to be honest! These pictures are the piece freshly thrown, and then after I’ve trimmed it and added some detail carvings. Its only the tiniest bit lopsided and the walls actually turned out pretty even! The bottom was a little thicker than I wanted it to be but I decided the leave it thick so …