Nov. 13th-20th in the Pottery Studio

I wasn't able to get much of my own work done this week. Instead I worked on some writing. Currently I'm rewriting a mystery set in Yellowstone. I met with my writer's group and they gave me some good ideas and caught some problems. I also attended the funeral of my husband's 90-year-old Uncle Dean. He was a really good man and it was nice to celebrate his long life with his family and friends. I also attended the wedding of our nephew. We added our well wishes to the beautiful couple who started a new journey in life. Wonderful to be a part of these family events. Beginnings and endings. As sometimes happens, I had to put my working schedule aside for much of the week. And the only work I did of my own was four little frogs. This is what they look like before they're fired.

This darling girl is scoring the legs of her reindeer. She is very creative and only six years old.

I use to teach her in a church class. Now she is all grown-up. It's fun to have her in my class. She also made a really great reindeer.

Happily working on a moose. You can see that he's going to be great. She added a head and formed the antlers.

Can you tell this is a potato, with melting cheese and butter? I think it's the first of its kind.

The workings of an airplane. He's applying a propeller.

He really found his niche is creating this dragon. Soon it will have scales and feet.

The whole class busy creating. It's fun to see that everyone makes something unique. Some turned their animals into banks, others cut holes in the top so they can put stuff in them. And some just left them as sculptures. If you do leave them as sculptures, make sure you put a whole in them to let air escape or they blow up in the firing process.

Really incredible bear. She made a baby one to go with it.

I had two classes in my studio this week. With the home-school group we made animal sculptures. We roll out slabs of clay and wrap balloons for the form, then add whatever additions needed to make the animals. The students were very successful. I'll be excited to see the final products.

In my Monday evening class, we worked on slab pottery also, but played around with textures. These dishes were rolled out about 1/4 " think stamped and pressed designs and then loosely placed in disposable bowls. After they are bisqued we'll glaze them so the designs really show up well.

Next week I hope to fire and continue getting ready for the Christmas events. And of course have Thanksgiving dinner.

This week in the Studio Nov. 7th-12th

Currently I have two ongoing pottery classes that I teach in my studio. On Monday evening, I have six students: a mother and her two sons, around 8 and 10 years old. The other students in this class consist of a grandmother and her six year old twin grandkids. We met for the first time for a five week course. This is a really fun group, just the right size and ages. I'm good friends with the mother whom I met at the Winter Gift Markett a few years ago. We were crammed in so close that we had to sit nearly touching each other. I was selling my pottery and she was selling fiber arts and handiwork. We talked and talked and became instant friends. She's been a great support to my art ever since.

 For class I demonstrated the coil technique. One of the six-year-olds made a coil cup that I found delightfully creative. The other nice vase is from another class. To make these I stress the importance of scoring (scratching the clay), using just a small amount of water to moisten the pieces when attaching and also to knit the inside just to make sure the coils stay together. I had them roll coils about the diameter of a pencil. The base for both of these is bounded out from a golf-ball size piece of clay and cut with a canning jar lid.

On Tuesday I did a bisque-fire. The firing consisted of a lot of kids pottery and some things I'm working on. Here's a couple of mugs from that firing. Next I'll dip these in glaze and the design will show through and be shiny once they are glaze fired.

On Wednesday mornings I'm teaching a home-school group consisting of a family of six, plus another girl. This is another great group of kids ranging from six to twenty years old. I taught how to make pinch pots and turn them into animals. I love doing animals creatures with kids, because no matter what I teach, the kids will show me up. These two pieces were made by sisters, about 10 and 12 yrs. old.

Thursday afternoon I had a group of students come to glaze pottery they'd made a month before. This is a large--somewhat chaotic group for my small studio space, especially since the glaze buckets don't have a lot of room around them. But hey, it worked and I'll get their mugs fired and they'll have something fun. I have students roll slabs of clay using a rolling pin, decorate with stamps, and wrap around juice cans. If you do this, make sure there is paper around the cans or the clay sticks. Take the can out before it starts to dry or the mugs with crack. The base is made from golf-ball size pieces pounded down like a pancake and cut with a canning lid ring. I also have cardstock templates cut ahead that they can use as a pattern for the size. Once these mugs are glaze-fired they will be beautiful. Now the colors are dull, but not for long.

During the week I was able to work on some of my own things for Christmas sales. I made vases, bowls, frogs, honey pots, and french butter dishes. Here's some of what I made.

Hike of the Week: My cousin Megan and I hiked to the Wind Caves. This is a moderate 3.4 mile hike in Logan Canyon. Very popular. I prefer it in the fall and early summer as it can be pretty hot otherwise. Megan and I found the cool weather perfect and needed our jackets about half the time.

Besides the Winter Gift Market, I'll be focusing on work for the Paradise Holiday Art Sale on December 10th at the Paradise Town Hall from 10-4:30. More on this soon.