I've enjoyed a week of beautiful clouds that have decorated the sky all day and into the evening. Luckily, some of those clouds organized into a storm and gave the neighborhood some greatly needed rain. The storm system was moving so swiftly, it was fun to see various images form. In these particular clouds, I see a puffy dragon talking to a little duck. How about you ..read more

It has been an extremely hot and dry summer and as a result, productivity is near zero. I have been using this time to review pottery that I deem successfully glazed that I want to try to duplicate. This bowl is one of my favorites. Layered Seattle Pottery glazes of Grey Stone and Opaque White give this noodle bowl such a rustic look. The shallots were a nice discovery. I could only grow onions and shallots this year since our mild winter spawned hoards/clouds of grasshoppers. Yes, masses of grasshoppers are called a cloud. They will eventually rule the world, by the way, unless we start eati ..read more

 I'm happy with these two "beer stein" mugs. I used all Amaco glazes on the outside. Obsidian on the bottom, Ancient Copper on the top half and Seaweed in the middle overlapping. That Seaweed glaze overlap created a very pretty turquoise band of drips which happen to match the interior turquoise color. I live for those happy accidents. The interior glaze is Seattle Pottery Turquoise. Cone 5/6 on Laguna b-mix with grog ..read more

This was a glaze experiment, which more often than not, is the case. The bottom half of the mug and interior has Chris Wolf Plumb Glaze. The recipe for that glaze can be googled. The band of white is Opaque White by Seattle Pottery and the creamy looking  top inch, inside and out, is Albany Slip Brown glaze by Amaco. They are all 5/6 glazes that seem very compatible. Clay is Laguna b-mix with grog. I will try to duplicate that combo in my next firing to see how predictable it is. And why do mugs look so great on weathered wood ..read more

Yay, I remembered how to log in and post photos on this blog after a year and a half! My pottery production has slowed down to a crawl but break-time is over. Our winter and spring gave us great amounts of precipitation which is unusual for this high-desert area.  Greatly appreciated, however, since we are always recovering from a drought. Tons of yard work since everything had been growing like crazy. My ryobi electric mower is my best friend right now. My new best friend will be my kiln. I'll post pots from my glaze fire soon ..read more

 Last year I had to figure out how to get myself out of a non-creating rut, so I purchased some new glazes to help to inspire me. Two of the glazes were Amaco Potters Choice Cosmic Tea Dust and Cosmic Oil Spot. Now I personally am drawn to glittery things but I wasn't sure I would like the look on my stoneware creations. I used Tea Dust on a cloaked figure (pictured a few posts back) and I kinda liked how that looked. To get the best reflection of the glittery particles in the glaze, I applied two coats of Amaco Obsidian glaze and then two coats of the Cosmic Tea Dust to my ..read more

 Enjoying a cold rainy evening by the fireplace this Christmas eve. This laptop is quite the heat generator, adding to the total affect ?. Remember to take a deep breath, relax and reflect. It's good for creativity which, in turn, is good for us all. ?  ..read more

 This is a statue I made just for my own amusement.  It's about 6 inches tall. I threw it on the wheel as a thick-walled enclosed shape. Once it got to be a soft leatherhard, I carved away the excess clay to reveal this figure. I carved a space behind the hands to put a crystal or a tiny bowl for an incense cone as shown here. The sparkly robes are are from Cosmic Tea Dust glaze by Amaco. I used it 3 ways: alone, layered over a black glaze and over Iron Luster glaze (Amaco). The glittery glossy black finish is my favorite. The others resulted in a dark brown glittery finish which w ..read more

 Photo credits go to my daughter who inspired me to make her a pumpkin that uses a tea light to heat scented oil ..read more

 I completed my 2 pumpkins before Halloween.  Yay! I used Spectrum Saffron Shino glaze to get a realistic satin finish. It's exactly what I was hoping for. Now the third pumpkin is a furry one. She is a very sweet neighborhood cat that comes to visit me in the garden. I named her Pumpkin and she comes when I call her.  ..read more