This is the first of 3 Thanksgiving kilns results. Even though the last one is firing post Thanksgiving, since I spent my Thanksgiving weekend glazing these are all Thanksgiving kilns. Here is to hoping that the next two are as good as this one.
Love my leafy gnome. He took a long time to do both in the making and the glazing, but I think it was worth it. The question is do I keep him for me?
I made a ton of ornaments with my new De La Designs stamp and cutters. I love the gingerbread people, house, and reindeer so very much. I have more coming in the next couple of kilns.
Also loving the snowman and cookies for santa plates.
The one exception to all the awesome is that my pointettia bowl cracked. It's still pretty, but going to be extra fragile with that crack. I think I made the clay too thin and the cut too deep as a v. It was fine in the bisque, but the stress must have been too much.

Mayco UG black wiped black Hat: Coyote Parakeet x2 Body: Opulence Emerald x3 Leaves: Mayco Hot Tamale, Sunkissed, Jack o Lantern, Java Bean Nose: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3	Opulence Emerald x3
KY Mudworks Hydra x2, Triton x2 Mayco Light Flux on rim	Laguna 60 Mayco UG black wiped black Mayco Norse Blue x3 Light Flux on Rim Mayco Hot Tamale x3
Hat: Mayco Northern Woods x3 Body: Amaco Snapdragon x3 Nose: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3	Hat: Amaco Snapdragon x3 Body: Mayco Northern Woods x3 Nose: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3
Hat: Laguna Power Turquoise x3 Eyes: Mayco Tuxedo x3 Nose: Mayco Orange a Peel x3	Star: Mayco Sunkissed x3 Leaves: Mayco Underglaze Leaf Green 2167 clear Note: I didn't take into account the clear pooling on the tops of leaves, but it actually made for a cool effect. This is the last thing I had to glaze from the Michael Harbridge workshop and is the same standard clay
Clayscapes Cream swipe, Coastal Blue	Mayco Underglaze Fire Engine Red, Snapdragon x2 Mayco Underglaze Leaf Green, 2167 clear Tops Amaco Ancient Copper x3
Clayscapes Cream swipe, Garden Green	These two are inverses of each other Amaco Snapdragon x3 Mayco Northern Woods x3 Noses: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3
Hat and mouth: Mayco designer liner red, white Eyes: Laguna Power Turquoise Eyebrows, moustache:Mayco designer line white Beard: Mayco designer liner white and then a coat of Mayco Cotton Tail 2167 Clear over top	Top Left: Mignight Ceramics Malibu Barbara Top Right: Laguna 60 Mignight Ceramics Malibu Barbara Bottom Left: Midnight Ceramics Bogeyman Bottom Right: Midnight Ceramics Wine About It
Laguna 60 Mayco UG black wiped black Mayco designer liners white, blue, red, light green 2167 clear	Laguna 60 Mayco UG black wiped black Mayco designer liners white, red, brown 2167 clear
Laguna 60 Mayco UG black wiped black Mayco designer liners white, blue, red, green 2167 clear	Left: Laguna 60 Mayco UG black wiped black Mayco designer liners white, blue, red, black 2167 clear Right: Midnight Ceramics Malibu Barbara
Mayco UG black wiped black Mayco designer liners white, blue, red, black, light green, green, yellow 2167 clear	Mayco UG black wiped black Mayco designer liners red, light green, orange 2167 clear
Speckled b-mix Mayco designer liners red, white, light green Nose: Mayco Cutie Pie Coral Mayco Northern Woods x2 2167 Clear	Speckled b-mix Mayco UG black wiped black Mayco designer liners white, blue, red, green, yellow, black 2167 clear
Laguna 60 Mayco UG black wiped black Mayco designer liner red and white 2167 clear	Speckeld b-mix Amaco Poppy x3
Laguna 60 Mayco UG black wiped black Mayco Cotton Tail, Hot Tamale 2167 clear	Colors for Earth Jade, Violet Blue 2167 Clear
Laguna 60 Mayco UG black wiped black Mayco Hot Tamale x3 2167 Clear	Laguna 60 Midnight Ceramics Bogeyman x2
Laguna 60 Coyote Oatmeal x3	Laguna 60 KY Mudworks Hydra x3 Mayco Light Flux x2
Mayco Underglaze Fire Engine Red, Snapdragon x2 In the middle Mayco Sunkissed, Orange A Peel in the middle 2167 clear all over	So pretty, but crack :(

So originally my plan was to take all of last week off of work and do a ton of pottery stuff. I was going to make some things, I was finally going to use my raku kiln, and I was going to glaze to get ready for the Howard County Holiday Mart. Work had other things in mind for me. I ended up getting to take off half a day on Wednesday, but then I ended up working Sunday evening to get ready for a workshop. C'est la vie.

However, since I got Friendsgiving out of the way the Saturday before Thanksgiving that left me with enough time to glaze and get ready for the show. I had a ton of holiday stuff that ended up filling 2 kilns with a bit spilling over into a third. The second is cooling now (pictures to come later this week) and my plan is to unload and fire the third tonight. The third kiln will have some other things I had on my shelves waiting to be fired that aren't holiday (elephant ears!), but there was enough that didn't fit in that I wanted to fire again even if it's not packed as tightly as normal.

As this is the first year I've been selling this is the first time I've done a holiday show. I don't quite know what to expect. How much are people looking for holiday specific things or just gifts for others. Packing for it later this week will be interesting.

A while back I ended up with a Tunisian crochet hook. It's been in my bag of hooks for probably a year. A few weeks ago I decided - that's it I'm going to learn how to do this thing. I had some leftover light purple yarn that looked about the right weight for my 6mm Tunisian crochet hook. It's leftover first from a sweater I made myself and then from a matching sweater I made River.

I remembered that Heart Hook Home had done a bunch of Tunisian crochet and I started with the Simple Crochet tutorial. The key to Tunisian crochet is that on one row you pick up all the stitches onto you're hook and then in the reverse row you get them all off your hook until you're back to one. I did maybe 12 inches of the simple tunisian crochet and I found that it was curling like made. As I did some research I found that this is actually perfectly normal for this stitch. This is actually one of the things that I didn't like about some knitting stitches. I frogged everything.

I then then found the Heavenly Hyggee Hat Pattern and learned the knit and the purl stitches. A few things that I realized. First - OMG does the knit and purl look like it's actually knitting and not crochet. It makes sense given how you do it, but I was expecting it to be quite so similar. Second, when I was doing the simple stitch I kept dropping stitches, but by doing a pattern of 2 knit and 2 purl for the hat, I never dropped stitches. Third, as fast as I am at crochet from lots of practice, I am slow at this. A crochet hat would probably take me 1-2 hours. This took me way way more than that. Fourth, a big part of the problem was that I would be doing this while on zoom calls. Then I would loose track of whether I was in the forward row or the back row. Lots o' frogging!


I do not know exactly what yarn this is, but it is a worsted weight yarn. For the hat I cast on 62 stitches and made it about 80 rows. Then I stitched up the side and closed the top. Later once I had finished the scarf I added 6 rows around the bottom with the multi-colored yarn and then added the pom at the top.




For the scarf I cast on 26 stiches and I used all the light purple yarn I had left which gave me 158 rows. It was not long enough for a scarf so I searched out a yarn that ws the same weight and matched the color. I am not certain what this yarn is, but I'm fairly certain it's 4th of July from Briar Rose Fibers. It is possible the light purple is the same, but I can't be sure.

I changed colors on the side and went until I thought it would be the right length which was 94 rows. Then I flipped it over picked up my 24 stitches and continued on. The join is barely noticeable. If it isn't obvious I did 94 rows on this side too. I think it could do wiht a big of blocking, but overall I'm really please with how the set turned out.




This being a holiday week this will likely be my last post until next Monday. We'll see, maybe a kiln sneak peak over the weekend depending on how the timing works out. Happy Thanksgiving!

A few weeks ago someone turned me onto Shein. This was both great and expensive. I immediately bought $40 worth of placemats. The one that made this bowl was described as a placemat, but I have no idea how you'd use it as one in real life. It's really 3D, a bowl or plate would not lay flat on it.

However, it makes amazing pottery texture I draped this over my wok mold and added a foot. I'm really excited to see the finished product.

Everything I make with cardinals and birches flies off the shelf. I decided to try to make some larger items and see if those sell as I've noticed I don't sell nearly as many large platters as I do small plates. I really like how this platter turned out. The rim template is a cutter from De La Designs.

A few years ago I planted a Thai basil plant in my front yard, or maybe it was in a pot. The origin was 1 plant, but now every year it grows on it's own. Multiple Thai basil plants grow to small bushes.

We've been having this summer like fall so it's grown even bigger this year. This weekend was the last of the warm weather (it's November) so I went and snipped all the basil to make pesto.

So.

Much.

Basil.




I made pesto for about 3 hours. Pesto is pretty simple to make...basil, nuts (pine, walnut, pecan), olive oil, parmesan. The time consuming part is taking all the leaves off the basil stems. Once you have a pile of basil put it into the food processor. I wait until I have about 3-4 cups worth. Turn the processor on and then through the little tunnel add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Then add in your nuts and cheese. Scrape down the sides and add more oil if needed.

I freeze the pesto in my canning jars.

Next year I'm going to start making holiday stuff in July. I'm frantically making a bunch now for my final show of the year. This adorable set is made with stamps from De La Designs and Gifts. These are in Laguna 60, but I'm also making a few more in B-Mix. I ordered more Laguna 60, but it hasn't been shipped yet so I'm down to my last 50 pounds.

I'm getting ready for my last show of the year coming up on December 3rd making wintery items. The show is the Howard County Holiday Mart. Tickets are available online for $5, but if you use the code HOLIDAY50 you get $1 so tickets are only $4. While this is my first year at the show, this is the 50th year for the Holiday Mart and I'm really excited for it. Hope to see you there!


Both of these bowls were made with winter themed placemats. The one above is a poinsettia and the one below a snowflake. Both were made with a slab, the texture rolled in and then I used a needle tool to cut around the placemat to create the edging. The slabs were then draped over a mold. For the poinsettia I used a large one I made myself from the inside of a wok. The snowflake was one of Michael Harbridge's puzzling molds. Both got rather large foot rims so that they'd look elegant off the table.

I feel like the poinsettia has to be red, but what color for the snowflake?

Several pieces of mine will be at the Harford Artists Association Gallery in Bel Air, MD in their Wonders of Winter gallery exhibit through January 8th. The opening reception is November 12th from 1-4. I feel so fancy having my work in a gallery even if it is just a quaint little one near home.

When I dropped everything off the gallery was in a state of flux as all the walls were bare and they were bringing in all the work for the new exhibit. I can't wait to see everything displayed. If you're local it's definitely worth dropping by to see during the opening or just during their normal hours. They are located just behind the Bel Air Armory.

Last week on Clayshare Live with Michael Harbridge he showed how to make giant ornaments. I had to make some right away. I made 3 sizes and I love how they came out.


I actually have 3 more in process that I want to make slightly different so they'll look like they're on their side.

For a while my glazing setup has been a little workbench in the garage next to my kiln. When we moved the kiln into the garage Craig moved out. He built the workbench, but now he's moved to the basement and expanded. The workbench is maybe 3 feet long or so. Before that I had always glazed at a studio so I didn't really know if it was good or bad.

This year has been the first year that I've been actively selling my work at shows. This means I've had to make schedules for myself that I have to keep. Which means that sometimes it's really really hot outside when I need to glaze.

At one point over the summer it was probably 100 degrees in the garage. Craig came out and was like - what is wrong with you. I looked down and I was soaking wet. I was literally covered in sweat. It was gross, very very gross.

The heat wave hadn't broken and I had another kiln load I needed to glaze so I setup my tables in the space between the kitchen and the family room. I put a chair in between them and I can use one table as a staging area and the other as my primary space.

I don't know that I can go back to the small workbench in the garage. Having more space means that I can do more. I can also line things up in an order vs having to put it on the shelf. It helps me keep track of how many coats I have. Temperature controlled so I'm never too hot or too cold. Also GIANT TV to watch while I glaze.


When we move to NY and I design my future studio having a permanent space setup like this is a must.

I have one more show this year at the Howard County Holiday Mart on December 3rd. I was really focused on stuff for fall and only have a few weeks to gear up for the Holidays/Winter. I started with a set of these cute little snowmen plates.

I also made a few larger bowls that I will share once I've turned them over that I think will be nice. I'm envisioning a few tree bowls/plates as well.

What I can't decided, this being my first year selling, is how much people will want to buy specifically holiday themed stuff vs stuff that can be used year round.

I love my little turkey plate and bowl. I can't wait to use these for Thanksgiving. They were made from a felt placemat that I got as a set on Amazon. The leaf bowl is from the same set of placemats. I actually had made another turkey plate in bmix a few weeks ago, but after it was all glazed I knocked it off the shelf and smash. I think I like the Laguna 60 one better.

I'm loving how my 2 piece egg tray came out as well. I think I like the platter better than the egg insert. What's interesting is that I used the same patttern underglaze transfer on the last one and I really didn't like that one. I think that maybe it's that there is no white space. I used the same colors on the insert as I did on the tray, but the white space makes all the difference in letting the colors pop.

My gnomes made with the pumpkin cutter came out adorable. I definitely need to make some more of those.

I tried out the combo of 1 coat of Amaco Fog and 2 coats of Glacier on a few snowmen ornaments and I really like how it's turned out.

Laguna 60 Feathers are a combination of Mayco Hot Tamale and Jack o Lantern Eyes Mayco Bluebeard and beak combo of Mayco Jack o Lantern and Sunkissed 2167 Clear coat all over	Laguna 60 Feathers are a combination of Mayco Hot Tamale and Jack o Lantern Eyes Mayco Bluebeard and beak combo of Mayco Jack o Lantern and Sunkissed 2167 Clear coat all over
Kentucky Mudworks Brown Bear Amaco Honey Flux x3 Amaco Blue Rutile x2	Speckled BMix On the flower Mayco Hot Tamale, Jack o Lantern, and Sun Kissed On the rim Amaco Snapdragon x3 The random spots are because I didn't wash my brush out well enough from when I used night moth, I really like it though
Colors for Earth Color Strokes Violet Blue, Phlox Pink, Tea Rose, Orchid Bloom, Bright Purple, and Jade 2167 Clear all over	Colors for Earth Color Strokes Phlox Pink, Tea Rose 2167 Clear all over
Laguna 60 Mayco Hot Tamale x3, Norse Blue x3, Light Flux 2167 Clear all over	Laguna 60 Mayco Hot Tamale x3, Norse Blue x3, Light Flux 2167 Clear all over
Colors for Earth Violet Blue and Jade 2167 clear all over	Mayco Norse Blue x3 and Sandstone x3 with light flux where they meet
Speckled BMix Vinyl Resist Deep Sea x3 2167 over the birds	Colors for Earth Color Strokes Violet Blue, Phlox Pink, Tea Rose, and Jade 2167 Clear all over
Laguna 60 Vinyl Resist Coyote Oatmeal x3	Vinyl Resist Deep Sea x3 2167 over the tree
Vinyl Resist Deep Sea x3	Vinyl Resist Deep Sea x3 2167 over the tree
Mayco Northern Woods x3 (hat and inside) Amaco Snapdragon x3 body Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3 nose	Mayco Frosted Lemon x3 Night Moth x2 2167 clear dipped outside
Laguna 60 Left Amaco Deep Sea x3 Seaweed x2 on the rim Right Laguna Power Turquoise x3 Mayco Night Moth x2	Laguna 60 Laguna Power Turquoise x3
Speckled BMix Left: Hat Midnight Ceramics Sexy Mermaid x3, Body Amaco Glacier x3, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3 Right: Hat Mayco Jack o Lantern on the Pumpkin 2167 clear, Body Amaco Deep Sienna Speckle x3, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3	Opulence Emerald x2 I think I want to add some non-fired snow to these, what do you think?
Left: Hat Mayco Norse Blue x3, Body Mayco Frosted Lemon x3, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3 Middle: Hat Spectrum Autumn Purple x2, Body Midnight Ceramics Sexy Mermaid x2, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3 Right: Hat Amaco Glacier x3, Body Spetrum Autumn Purple x2, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3	Far Left: Hat Mayco Frosted Lemon x3, Body Mayco Norse Blue x3, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3 Middle Left: Hat Mayco Sandstone x3, Body KY Mudworks Hydra x3, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3 Right Two : Hat Amaco Deep Sea x3, Body KY Mudworks Hydra x3, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3
Left Two: Hat Mayco Frosted Lemon x3 Mayco Night Moth x2, Body Midnight Ceramics Sexy Mermaid x2, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3 Middle Two: Hat Midnight Ceramics Sexy Mermaid x2, Body Colors For Earth Violet Blue 2167 Clear, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3 Right Two: Hat Laguna Power Turquoise x3 Mayco Night Moth x2, Body Amaco Glacier x3, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3	Left Three: Hat Mayco Northern Woods x3, Body Amaco Snapdragon x3, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3, Hair Mayco Sunkissed x2 Right Two: Hat Amaco Snapdragon x3, Body Mayco Northern Woods x3, Nose Mayco Cutie Pie Coral x3
Unicorn: Spectrum Autumn Purple Fish: Spectrum Sangria Santa: Refire Mayco Designer liners 2167 clear	Left: Mayco Sandstone Right: Spectrum Emerald
Left: Spectrum Sangria Right: Spectrum Autumn Purple	Far Left: Laguna 60 KY Mudworks Hydra x3 Middle Left: Midnight Ceramics Sexy Mermaid x3 Middle Right: Spectrum Nori green Far Right: Amaco Fog, Amaco Glacier x2