Can you tell I've been in a creative place recently? I've been playing with a bunch of new ideas and designs. I think it's because I've been so stuck at work. I need the creative to come out somewhere.

I made a few size fish templates probably over a year ago and they didn't didn't work in practice because the fin was too long. All of a sudden I had the idea to perform surgery on the tail. I think it makes for a really cute little fish plate.




Here you can see the surgery I did on the tail. My brain is buzzing around other animals I might be able to do this with.

Made some garlic plates. I was at a show last year where the woman across from was also pottery, but very different. Her pottery was mostly hanging plates, iPad stands, and other large items not really for food. She did have a basket of garlic plates that were selling like crazy. I had mental note to make a few to see whether or not they would be popular for me.

I made 4 test plates and tried out different Diamond Core carving tools on them.


My favorite ended up being the FP6.

I had the cone tops from the candle holders and something told me not to squish them. Initially I was thinking I'd widen the hole and make them tapered candle holders. Then it hit me - tiny ring dishes. I added little flowers on top. Dependning on the shrinkage I might also be able to say tea light candle holders. They're so cute though!

Something got me thinking about displaying and burning candles recently. I was thinking about ideas for design and realized that I have cone cutters from DeLa Designs. I decided to start there, but quickly realized that I needed a wider base. On the first one I cut a couple of time to get to the right width. However, after the first time I knew about how much I needed so I set the tops aside (more on this later!).

The cutter I used on the top was also from DeLa Deisgns. I think it was a sunflower cutter. I let the two separate pieces setup just enough so the flower wouldn't sag and then slip and scored really well. I also added a coil on the outside.

Quick update on fixing images - I am continuing to work through fixing the images on the blog. It's a very manual process, but I have everything from March of 2023 to the present fixed. As I have an hour here and there I'm making the updates. It's tedious so I can only do it for so long before I need a break.

I was making several leaf vases and had an interesting turn of events. When I was taking off one of the leaves there was a slight tear where the clay had just gotten too thin. My first instinct was to smoosh it, but before I could act on that instinct I thought - what if I cut out the leaves?


This is what a normal vase looks like without any leaves cut out. Eventually I glaze the leaves and leave the rest bare clay with a coat of clear.




Initially, my thought was to cut out all the leaves. However, for this particular vase several of them were really close together and I thought I'd have a structural problem. I still might do that (on purpose this time) for a future vase, but for this one I started to strategically cut out leaves.




I made sure to do cuts on all sides so that it would have a more uniform look. I think in the end my mistake is going to end up being a really cool luminary.

During ClayShareCon I was enamored by Alexandria Pottery's handbuilding jig. I bought the travel mug jig with the cutter and an extender. It essentially a 3D printed flexible tool with a "key" that has two positions - one for building and one for getting it out. Alexandria did a video on this and I highly recommend watching her if you're interested. She's much smoother at it than I am having practiced. I started with the simple shorter practice mug. Alex makes 3 holes in the top, but that felt like a lot at once so I'm starting with one. In all likelihood I'll find that she's right and I'm wrong, but my plastic travel mug only has one hole so in my head it doesn't make sense to have 3.


My second one is slightly better than my first.




Using the extender its only 2 inches taller, but it made a world of difference. Cornstarch was helpful with the regular jig. With the extender it was necessary! I lost my third tall one when I forgot the corn starch.




For the first one I made I wasn't really thinking about where to put a handle so I ended up creating an indent and a little nub to help hold it up. I think it will be ok, but it's also all an experiment.




For the second one I went with a handle. I had to rethink the handle to make it proportionally big enough for this cup.

I'm continuing to play around with my new GR Potter Wallie forms. This is made with the 10 x 10 caserole form. The handles were made with a Diamond Core tools XL extruder. These are both ClayShareCon purchases. I bought less than last year, but still a lot of things to work through.

This dish was surprisingly simple to make. I rolled out a slab that was just slightly thicker than 1/4 inch. I put the form down, made relief cuts on the corners, and then flipped the whole thing over. I smoothed down the sides with a red rib, slip and scored the corners, and secured them. I extruded the handles and laid them on top so they would start drying together. After about 2 hours (I was doing other things) I flipped it over and took the form out. It was still pretty wet, but if I had left it on longer it could have cracked. I stamped my crabs and did minimal smoothing of the rim and attached the handles. The sides weren't dry enough to support it so I put underglaze bottles under them.

This picture was taken the next day when it had dried just enough to pull out the underglaze bottles and do some more clean up on the rim. Now for slooooow drying.

Just made a new batch of mushroom jewelry boxes. It's all simple skills that when they come together produce something new.


It starts with a slab and a circle the same way you would for a mug.




The sides have to come together and the bottom put on.




Looks like a mug. Now is when I'd start bellying it out if it was a mug. Since it's not I shape it, but don't add volume.




I neglected to take a picture of the larger circle that will be the top, but it needs a flange. I shape the flange on the flower pot to make it circular.




The top starts in something that is rounded to give it shape and then I add in the flange with a coil on the inside.




It gets shaped to being as circular as possible.




Then it gets flipped over and the worm gets added to the top.




8 pots on the shelf to be covered in plastic and dry for a couple of days. I want the pot to setup enough to carve the bottom and use the hole cutter.




I use a fluting diamong core tool to make the ridges on the bottom.




I use my fingers to flatten out the edge and make it a little wavy. Not required, but I like the look. I also give the worm little eyes just because.




Now we painstakingly do holes all the way around. The biggest challenge is to not go too close to the edge or too close to the previous hole.




Tada!! This is mostly done. Just some final clean up left.

It's been forever since I carved. Did a few this weekend and hit them at the exact right texture.

This first one is an is an idea I had for a giant sunflower.


Some smaller sunflowers




Amazing job right? Ok I didn't carve this, this is lace. I'm having a lace moment

I neglected to post these earlier in the week. I've been spending a lot of time tediously migrating photos off of Google so it feels like I'm spending a lot of time blogging, but in fact I'm not. I have to edit each post by hand. It's not that hard to do the posts with only 1-2 pictures, but all the posts with the kiln results take about 20 minutes each. I'm only in November of 2023, but I will keep trucking along. In the mean time I made a batch of calla lily candle holders this week. These are one of my favorite things to make and something which I get a ton of people who come into my booth at shows to look at them. I love calla lilies and saw something that inspired me to go make these. While I made a template for these, each one is intentionally unique as I shape it into its own flower.

I had this idea in my head for a menoray made of calla lillies. I rolled out all the clay, including cutting out the base. Then I went to attatch things and realized - the base was way too small. So now I have a candle holder for skinny candles that is NOT a menorah. I'm going with it because I think it's still really cool looking, but I will need to make this again with a longer base as an actual menorah.

I get asked all the time if my gnomes are ring holders. I thought I would try to make a few with that purpose. They are mostly the same as my normal gnomes except the hats are much straighter. I don't know why I added the bird other than I thought it looked really cute. I made one as just a ring holder without a gnome body. I like the simplicity of that one too.